Should Kyle Okposo Be The Next Isles Captain?
There was a heavy debate over the summer on who should be the next Islanders captain after Bill Guerin decided to remain a Pittsburgh Penguin after capturing the Stanley Cup with his former division rivals. There were three likely options in which the Isles could have went as far as presenting someone the honor of becoming the Captain; Doug Weight was to remain in an Islanders uniform and provided lots of veteran leadership; Mark Streit, the team’s lone all-star of 2009, was signed on for four more years; and Kyle Okposo showed lots of potential for the second half of the season.
With Doug Weight only signed on for one more year, it seemed logical to give him the captaincy since he could continue to help the younger players grow and emerge as professional NHL’ers before passing along the torch. Unfortunately for Doug, he missed almost all of the first half of the season due to injury and is playing for the rest of the year with a beaten up shoulder that very possibly needs surgical attention. The fact that he’s playing through it is a sign that he knows this may be his last year in the league and wants to go out knowing he left everything he had to offer on the ice and not on a medical table. It’s also a sign that the Isles coaching staff gave the ‘C’ to a deserving individual who puts his team before himself.
The 2009-2010 season is more than halfway over, and it’s almost certain that Doug Weight will not be in an Islanders uniform next year. The plan was to implement youth all along, and with players such as Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey and
John Tavares emerging as leaders on this team, Doug Weight’s services will no longer be needed. So who will be the next Isles captain?
Mark Streit (Dan4th/Flickr)
The Islanders can give it to Mark Streit as they could have done at the start of this year. Starting next season he will have three years remaining on his five year deal, making him a likely mainstay as the Captain until the end of his contract. He is a spoken leader in the locker room and carries himself like any professional athlete should these days. One night after he scored his second goal in two games, (Phoenix and Detorit), I asked him how it felt to be back on track offensively. Although he said it felt great to score goals, he quickly transitioned the question to the big picture ahead:
“It’s important for the young guys, the forwards. If they score a couple goals and play with more confidence it’s just like night and day. They hang on to the puck, they try to make plays, they feel more comfortable, they make the right decisions at the right moment…all the guys they feel just more comfortable and having the confidence makes a huge difference.”
Like Doug Weight, Streit puts the team before himself. He knows that he’s there not only to help this team win, but to help the organization move forward by developing from within and restoring a contending hockey team back on Long Island. His play on the ice reflects that as well. He never takes a night off, and although he hasn’t been the all-star defenseman he was last season, he still has played well. With that being said, he has been looking more and more like his old self down the stretch over the past few games.
Kyle Okposo (Beauty Playin 'Eh/Flickr)
But then there’s Kyle Okposo. He is only 21 years of age and has really come along this season as a player who can make something out of nothing on the ice. Every shift he skates his tail off, creates scoring chances for himself and his line-mates and even makes a difference defensively when he is without the puck. He can work the play down low along the boards or in front of the net and is used at the point on the power play. He kills penalties and even stops a few pucks from time to time. Anyone who caught the Isles/Devils game this past Saturday knows what I’m talking about. One of the Devils forwards threw a pass in front that slid through DiPietro’s legs and wound up right in front of the empty net. KO dove across and made a kick save of his own. The frozen moment on NHL.com caught the play but shows the picture with DP sprawling back across his crease. If you look at #21, he’s stopping the shot.
Okposo is one of those players that can be used in every single type of situation and plays his heart out with every shift he takes. Next year will be in the last year of his entry-level contract and you can assume that General Manager Garth Snow is going to lock him up for a very long time.
The question the coaching staff and management will face is if handing the captaincy to someone who is just starting to develop into a leader is too much for a player of his age to handle. That alone may make the team feel more comfortable with Streit as the Captain, and there is nothing wrong with that. Whether it be next year or in the years that follow, I am pretty sure we will see the ‘C’ slapped on Kyle’s jersey one day.
It might seem ridiculous to be talking about something that won’t be addressed until this summer, but I am sure that the coaching staff and management have thought about this scenario. For now, they are without a doubt thinking about the possibility of making the playoffs for the first time in three years. However, although a youth movement is about developing a team into a winning contender, it starts with the development of your youngest players, whether you develop a grinder into a fourth-line penalty killer or a 7th overall pick into your future captain.
So what do you think? Who will be the next Islanders captain?
