Preds make history with Josi as their new captain

Josi only the second NHL player in history to achieve such honor

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Preds make history with Josi as their new captain
Keystone Press

Roman Josi was named the eighth captain of the Nashville Predators today, also making him only the second Swiss-born captain in NHL history. The only other Swiss player to take on the captain duties was Mark Streit when he was with the New York Islanders. There were many suitable candidates for the role in Nashville but coach Peter Laviolette and general manager David Poile had discussions with both Josi and teammate Ryan Ellis before ultimately selecting Josi for the honors.

There have not been many better defenseman in the NHL the past few seasons than Josi, in fact two of the past three seasons he has finished in the top five for votes for the Norris Trophy. He saw his role increase and the faith the Predators had in him after shipping All-Star defenseman Shea Weber to Montreal last offseason. This wasn’t the first time they moved a significant piece around him as promising youngster Seth Jones was traded during the 2015-16 season in a blockbuster trade that landed the Predators forward Ryan Johansen. Despite all these moves, Josi stepped up to the plate and was a key role in bringing Nashville to their first Stanley Cup Finals in franchise history this year.

The captaincy role was vacated after Mike Fisher announced his retirement this offseason. The 27 year-old Josi was happy to take on as his replacement as he will be the leader of this young Predators team. The future looks bright for this team who only hold two defensemen over the age of thirty on their starting roster: Alexei Emelin (31) and Matt Irwin (30). There is no doubt Josi will be able to handle the role after serving as an assistant captain the past two years and he will look to bring the Predators back to the Finals once again this year with vengeance. 

Source: Tom A Willis