Victor Hedman led Lightning with consistency as captain-in-waiting
The veteran defenseman takes over the captaincy from Steven Stamkos. “not forgetting about the past but looking forward.”
Defenseman Victor Hedman waves after being introduced as the Lightning’s new captain during the team’s “Lightning Launch” event Friday at Amalie Arena. [ MARK LOMOGLIO | Mark LoMoglio, Tampa Bay Lightning
TAMPA — Until July 1, Victor Hedman never even considered that he’d become the Lightning’s captain. He would have been content to remain as Robin to Steven Stamkos’ Batman for years to come, until the two future Hall of Famers hung up their skates.
Together, they served as the pillars of championship hockey in Tampa Bay, and fans were proud to call the duo their own because they watched them grow from teenagers to star players. The two set the building blocks for the winning culture that allowed the Lightning to win back-to-back championships.
Now, Stamkos is in Nashville and Hedman stands alone in Tampa Bay, the Lightning’s captain after more than a decade of Stamkos wearing the “C” on his jersey. Hedman no longer will have his best friend next to him on the charter plane, at team dinners or in a position to hand him the Stanley Cup.
“What we’ve gone through, it’s not going to be easy to get accommodated to that, but at the same time we’ve just got to look forward,” Hedman said this week. “Our friendship is not going to change. We’re not going to be around each other for nine months out of the year, but we still have each other and talk a lot on the phone.
“We’re always going to have that bond with what we did accomplish as teammates. Nothing with that is going to change. But it’s a different start, a new start for us, and for him as well. We’ve just got to do what is best for us, and that is looking forward. Not forgetting about the past but looking forward.”
What the two accomplished together speaks for itself, Hedman said.
“Our legacy together speaks for itself, and the things that we’ve accomplished, and it It means the world to us to have gone through that,” he said. “We got to the top of the mountain twice. And we probably felt like we could have done it maybe one more time. We created history here, and you know it’s going to live on forever.”
The Lightning are now Hedman’s team, and because of that they remain poised to be one of the best in the NHL. But in the defenseman’s eyes, his captaincy is as an opportunity to carry on Stamkos’ legacy.
“‘Stammer’ is going to go down as one of the best captains in the entire hockey world,” forward Brandon Hagel said. “But ‘Heddy’ learned from him, and there’s no better guy to learn from, and that’s why this whole group and coaching staff have such belief. Because he’s learned from one of the best, and also he’s taught one of the best. It goes both ways.”
Said Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois, “Victor is an all-time great NHL player. If anything, he’s underrated. …He’s a very accomplished player; he’s one of the best players of his generation and one of the best defensemen in the history of this game. You count on your fingers the level of player he is.
“But that’s not what makes him the right guy to be the captain of this team. What makes him the right person to be the captain of this team is how special a person he is. Victor is humble, he is thoughtful, he’s extremely competitive, he’s proud, he’s driven, he’s ambitious and he cares deeply about the success of his franchise, he cares about his teammates and he cares about the Tampa Bay community.”
