WITH the Carolina Hurricanes officially naming Jordan Staal their team full-time captain for the upcoming 2019-20 National Hockey League campaign on Sunday, he becomes the latest in a long line of players from northwestern Ontario to don the C at the highest level.
The 31-year-old forward, previously served as Carolina’s co-captain during the 2017-18 season and was as an assistant during each of his other six years.
Seven games shy of 900 in his NHL career, Staal has 510 points to his credit, including 217 goals.
Of note, his brother Eric was Carolina’s captain for a team-record seven seasons from 2009 through 2016.
This also matched the longest run in franchise history equaling the seven years Ron Francis had the ‘C’ when the organization was located in Hartford.
Over the years, multiple NHLers from Thunder Bay and the region earned the honour of being captain of their NHL club.
They included Hockey Hall of Fame Honoured Member Alex Delvecchio who sported his C above the Winged Wheel of the Detroit Red Wings for a decade from 1962-63 through 1972-73.
Delvecchio was also the Red Wings co-captain 1973-74 sharing the recognition partially with Kenora’s Gary Bergman.
Another hall of famer in Chris Pronger is just one of a few NHL players to act as captain with three different teams.
He did this with the St. Louis Blues (1997-98 through 2001-02); Anaheim (2007-08) and Philadelphia (2011-12).
Two-time Stanley Cup champion Lee Fogolin Jr. led the Edmonton Oilers for three years prior to passing the torch to the legendary Wayne Gretzky.
There was also Lakehead native Larry Cahan, who captained the Los Angeles Kings in both 1969-70 and 1970-71.
Greg Johnson held the distinction with the Nashville Predators for a trio of campaigns.
The Kenora connection featured Don Raleigh, who sported the C with the New York Rangers in 1953-54 and 1954-55, and Mike Richards who did likewise for the Philadelphia Flyers from 2008 through 2011.
Ron Schock from the Schreiber/Terrace Bay area was the Pittsburgh Penguins captain for four years, starting in 1973-74.
Rounding out the list of locals to be a team captain in the NHL were Gaye Stewart with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1948-49; Steve Rucchin while a member of the Mighty Duck of Anaheim in 2003-04 and Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame inductee Bill Houlder, who was co-captain with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1999-2000.
STAYING IN SLOVAKIA: After skating in the Slovakian professional league last season, Thunder Bay’s Graeme McCormack is back for another year there, but with another club.
The 28-year-old defenceman inked a deal last week with Dukla Trencin after spending 2018-19 with HK Nitra.
This is his fourth year competing in Europe that featured previous stops in Norway and France following his NCAA career at Bemidji State in northern Minnesota.
McCormack was held pointless in his debut with his new side, but was a plus-1.
Another local player in Slovakia is Kale Kerbashian, who opted to re-sign with HK Nitra for season.
In his first five outings in the 13-team Tipsport Liga the 29-year-old forward boasts three goals and two assists to his credit after producing 34 points in 41 match-ups previously.
He then tied for eighth in playoff scoring last season with 10 points, two ahead of McCormack’s eight, which was third among all league blueliners.
He collected a total of 43 points from the back end with Nitra, which paced all league defencemen, helping his squad advance all the way to the league final.
Each side sits in the middle of the pack early in regular season play.
The duo is among 26 Canadians currently competing in that Slovakian loop in 2019-20.