NEWSLETTER
“I’ve always wanted to be a captain. I’ve learned from some great leaders — Shea Weber, Nick Foligno, Jonathan Toews — I mean, I played with some of the greatest captains that we’ve seen. It would be pretty special.”
Those were the words of Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones to NHL.com’s Tracey Myers back on Sept. 12 during the league’s North American Player Media Tour. They came as the Blackhawks were getting ready to open training camp without a designated captain for the first time in nearly two decades.
Jonathan Toews, the longest tenured and most successful captain in the history of the franchise, was no longer in the room. And the perceived void left behind was one that Jones was more than happy to raise his hand to fill.
When he arrived in Chicago, Jones found out the organization had decided to not name a replacement for Toews this season.
“We came off such a successful tenure with Jonathan that, a little bit of it is just out of respect for Jonathan, to not fill that spot right away,” general manager Kyle Davidson said one week after Jones volunteered to wear the C.
Instead, the Blackhawks would have a collection of veteran assistant captains, including Jones and Connor Murphy — now the longest tenured Blackhawk. Newcomers Nick Foligno and Corey Perry would also wear a letter.
Prior to this season, Jones had appeared in 150 regular-season games for the Blackhawks over two seasons. He played a lot of minutes and represented the Blackhawks in the 2023 NHL All-Star Game. And Jones is, still, the only player on the Blackhawks’ roster who is currently signed beyond the 2025-26 season; he is now playing in the second season of the eight-year, $76 million deal he received from Stan Bowman after he was acquired from Columbus.
He plays big minutes and makes big money. One would hope that leadership would come with that, especially from someone who was more than happy to talk about the possibility of being a captain some day.
And yet I was struck last night when the media entered the Blackhawks’ dressing room at the United Center — roughly 20 minutes later than usual because the boys needed to have another conversation with themselves about effort — that the players who remained in the room to speak with the media were Murphy (briefly), Foligno, and Ryan Donato (who scored one of Chicago’s two goals in the loss).
Foligno, who has been a Chicago Blackhawk since June, held court with the media and spoke passionately — again — about the veterans in the room trying to re-establish what it means to be a Chicago Blackhawk. Trying to re-establish that Chicago is a hard place to play as a road team. Trying to establish an identity for this team moving forward. And that they were failing to do that.
Foligno, who has been a Chicago Blackhawk since June, was talking about where they were failing to create the right culture of compete and effort and accountability in the room. It isn’t about the coaches saying it any more, it’s about the players owning it and doing it. And Foligno was speaking as much to his teammates through the cameras and microphones as he was to the media.
Foligno, who has been a Chicago Blackhawk since June, dismissed the crutch that there are young players on the roster who were going to struggle to find consistency as they learned on the job. He pointed out that there were plenty of veterans in the room who aren’t pulling their weight at the same time. And we’re now a quarter of the way into the 2023-24 season, so the excuses are running thin.
Foligno, who has won the Mark Messier Leadership Award and been a captain in other stops during his terrific NHL career, was right there in front of the cameras ready to take all of the heat. The way Toews used to. Because that’s what captains do.
Sunday night was the sixth time in 19 regular-season games that Foligno has been one of the guys answering the bell postgame. The only player on the roster who has been available to the media more than him thus far has been Connor Bedard, who has spoken on seven occasions.
Seth Jones was nowhere to be found.
Which, frankly, is expected at this point. Jones has spoken after oly three regular-season games thus far: the loss in Colorado at the end of the season-opening road trip, the loss in Arizona and the loss to the New Jersey Devils three weeks ago. It’s been three weeks since Jones spoke after a game.
You know who else has spoken after a game at least three times this season? Petr Mrazek. Philipp Kurashev. Corey Perry. And Ryan Donato.
If you purport to be a leader on this roster, when the lights turn on and the microphones are extended after games you’re there in the middle of it. Like Foligno was on Sunday night. Like Toews was, even when his body wasn’t allowing him to do what he wanted so badly to do. There’s a reason they’re two of “the greatest captains that we’ve seen.”
So my question is: where is Seth Jones when the lights turn on and the cameras are there? Why is one of the guys who has been here for four months trying to define the Chicago Blackhawks more than the guy who wanted to be the captain in the middle of September?
