Yesterday, the Colorado Avalanche named Gabriel Landeskog their captain. At 19 years, 286 days old he is the youngest captain in NHL history (just 11 days younger than former youngest captain Sidney Crosby).
I’m certainly not old, depending on your perspective (I’m 26), so this isn’t a “you damn kids!” arguement. But at 19 years old, you’re still not even a person. You’re generally an asshat who says and does dumb things. Hell, I am just now getting the hang of not saying or doing something idiotic in front of people. I get being “mature beyond your years” or whatever but you’re still 19. You’re going to want to say something awful or light something on fire or chase tail like any other dumbass teen. I mean, look to the right. Look at that hair. Real leaders don’t have hair like that.
Usually, teams who name young players as captains do so in part because that player is their best. But Landeskog isn’t the Avs best player; Matt Duchene is. He’s older than Landeskog (21) but still probably cares more about impressing some girls in the stands at practice than being a leader or anything like that. Which is kinda what he should do because he’s a kid. Score goals and sleep with girls. There’s time to be old and grizzled later.
Plus, isn’t part of being a leader and captain having the experience to know how to lead your team through the tough times? What the hell does a 19 year old know about going through adversity and tough times? You only see that shit in football when a kid comes from some crazy war-torn country and has to hide under a pile of dead bodies to avoid being killed like he was in the Walking Dead or something. 19 year old athletes probably can’t even spell “adversity” and they sure as shit don’t face any because they’re rich teenagers with young phillies at their beckoning call.
I don’t care how much of a “natural leader” a kid is or how “mature beyond his years” (read: boring) he is, the fact of the matter is that he’s still a stupid kid who has a lot more learning to do before he should be leading anyone anywhere other than his idiot friends into a Denny’s at 3am.
Go with the veteran who has actually been a professional for more than a year or two and knows what stupid things to not do. Or at least to not get recognized doing it.
Grab Your Balls 