Nick Foligno is in the final year of his contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. He arrived in Chicago via trade and was already established as one of the more respected leaders in the NHL. Foligno won the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2017 when he was the captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets. His role with the increasingly-young Blackhawks was to take some of the pressure off and teach them how to be NHL players.
But the context of Foligno’s role in Chicago is important. For one year, the Chicago Blackhawks left its captaincy vacant out of respect for Jonathan Toews — the longest-tenured captain in the history of the franchise. The Blackhawks placed the “C” on Foligno’s chest on Sept. 18, 2024, as he was beginning a two-year contract.
Foligno admitted at the time that “replacing” Toews was impossible. But the Blackhawks were moving in a new direction, and tasked him with helping establish the new culture in the room as the youth movement took over.
That didn’t quiet speculation about the future of the captaincy of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Earlier this week, Sportsnet posted a nine-minute sit down interview between Toews and Elliotte Friedman in which the former Blackhawks captain talked about a wide range of subjects, including his NHL comeback. One of the topics they discussed was leadership, and the toll it can take on a player.
In Friedman’s written “32 Thoughts” column, he wrote the following about Toews’ comments and his takeaway from that part of their conversation:
I do believe that Toews’ comments about being captain at a young age will matter. Toews was the youngest captain in Blackhawks history and third-youngest ever in the NHL when honoured at 20 years and 79 days.
“I don’t think it’s really fair for a 21- or 22-year-old kid in that situation because you’re trying to find yourself as your hockey career is taking off and it’s not a normal life for anyone, let alone a 20-year old kid,” he said. “You’re not maybe allowing yourself to just grow and mature at your own pace. You’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. Whatever criticism or shortcoming or just any sort of weakness that maybe someone else can expose, I mean, I would really feel that and be very sensitive to it. I would absorb that and kind of take it personally and then try to better myself as opposed to just like…kind of just rub off there or just flatten it a little bit and just be patient. Accept your own flaws, your own weaknesses as you’re growing as a young man. So I think that pressure and…the pressure I put on myself was a lot.”
Toews said it’s only been in the last couple of years that he learned how to do a better job of letting things go.
“I think it’s not carrying the stress around like I used to.”
It’s a reminder, you rarely know what’s really going on in someone’s head. There are teams with young franchise cornerstones (Chicago, San Jose, potentially Anaheim after Radko Gudas). Will Toews’ words affect how they shape their leadership groups?
Marc DesRosiers-Imagn ImagesWhen his name was called first overall on the stage in Nashville in 2023, Connor Bedard was the presumed future captain of the Chicago Blackhawks. He had all of the traits you want in a captain: drive, desire to win, elite skill, willingness to work hard and be coached. Bedard was the captain of his Regina team in the WHL and many believed it was only a matter of time before he emerged as the leader of the Blackhawks.
Now in his third NHL season, Bedard continues to grow on and off the ice. And, as more young players have come into the room, the Blackhawks have seen the quality on the ice improve with the chemistry in the room. Bedard and Frank Nazar have become the faces of the franchise — and they’re friends and roommates on the road.
He’s still very young, even if how he conducts himself with media often feels like someone ten years older. Bedard won’t turn 21 until July.
Foligno has done a great job of taking the burden of leadership on while serving as the captain of the Blackhawks. But, when his contract expires this summer, the assumption will be that the next captain will be named.
As Friedman noted, the words from Toews carry weight across the NHL. But they should have specific significance in Chicago, where the next captain will also carry Toews’ legacy of leading and winning.
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