Ilya Kovalchuk is under contract for 13 more years, Travis Zajac just landed an eight-year deal, and Patrik Elias is entering his 16th season with the Devils, but none of them was named team captain yesterday.
Instead, it was defenseman Bryce Salvador, who was named the 10th captain in Devils history, and the first defenseman to earn the “C” since Scott Niedermayer in 2004.
“It’s a tremendous honor. For them to select me as the next captain is just an honor and sometimes its tough to put words to,” Salvador said after practice yesterday.
Salvador, 36, joined the Devils in 2008 in a trade with St. Louis. He played in eight games for the Devils that season before becoming a regular blue-liner for the team, missing only nine games in two seasons. He sat out the entire 2010-2011 season with a cochlear (inner ear) concussion suffered during the preseason.
An 11-year veteran, Salvador played in all 82 games last season, registering no goals and nine assists and was a plus-18. In the playoffs he found his scoring touch, with four goals and 14 points in 24 games. That netted him a new three-year $9.5 million contract with the Devils this offseason. He said he has never been a captain before at any level in his hockey career.
“We had a meeting today just kind of announced … I was going to be wearing the ‘C’,” Salvador said. “The last couple of days I kind of got a little bit of the sense that it was going in that direction. But I think the group of guys in here is just such a special group of guys and I think that there’s so many important pieces, so many leaders in their own way, so I really felt it could’ve been a lot of guys.”
His teammates said the coaches and management made the right decision having Salvador take over for Zach Parise, now with the Wild after signing a free-agent deal.
“I was excited to hear that today, that a guy like [Salvador] would get it. At the end of the day, I believe they picked a guy that’s a true leader and a heck of an individual,” David Clarkson said.
Kovalchuk, who along with Elias, were both again selected as alternate captains, said it was the right choice. Coach Pete DeBoer had said earlier this week Kovalchuk himself was a candidate for the vacant captaincy.
“[Salvador], he is a great leader. He is well-deserved of that ‘C’ and I’m pretty sure he will be a great captain,” Kovalchuk said. “I think it’s a great choice. There’s a lot of leadership in this group and it’s tough to put the letters on every jersey so I think even the guys who don’t have a letter have to do their job and that’s what we were doing all year long last year.”
DeBoer had many players to choose from, but thought Salvador deserved it the most.
“Salvador is a consummate pro who leads by example and has developed into a great leader and a great player in this league, so it was a good choice by us, I think,” DeBoer said upon making the announcement.