Flames reveal four assistant captains for this season

The Calgary Flames have finalized their leadership group for the 2023-24 season.

While it was already known that Mikael Backlund will dawn the ‘C’ for the upcoming season, who head coach Ryan Huska was going to choose as his assistants remained up in the air. We now have the answer, as the Flames announced on Saturday afternoon that they will go with four assistants in Chris Tanev, Rasmus Andersson, Elias Lindholm and Jonathan Huberdeau.

None of these names come as big surprises, although many expected to see MacKenzie Weegar’s name on the list.

Both Tanev and Lindholm served as assistants last season, and felt like obvious candidates to be selected once again. As for Andersson, it will mark his first time wearing a letter during his time with the Flames. The 26-year-old was a strong candidate to be named captain had Backlund not signed an extension recently.

While Huberdeau wasn’t as much of a lock as the other three mentioned, many still believed he would receive a letter. It is a good call to give him the honour by Huska and the rest of his coaching staff, as it should help raise the 30-year-old’s confidence heading into the 2023-24 campaign. After a 2022-23 season in which he managed just 55 points, a boost of confidence is much needed.

This will mark the first time since the 2015-16 season that the Flames have gone with four assistants. That year, they had T.J. Brodie, Dennis Wideman, Sean Monahan and Kris Russell as assistants, while Mark Giordano served as team captain. It goes to show how quickly the years go by, as Wideman and Russell are no longer in the league, while Brodie and Monahan have moved on to different organizations.

While this new leadership group will still have plenty of responsibility, it won’t come with as much stress as a season ago now that Darryl Sutter is out of the question. With Huska now in charge, the morale seems to be much higher, which will make life easier on the five leaders of this team along with everyone else in the room.

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