Carolina Hurricanes: Top 3 Captain Candidates If Justin Williams Retires

Justin Williams has still not made a decision as to whether he will retire or return to Carolina for one last season. The Carolina Hurricanes’ captaincy is up in the air for the time being, but there are quite a few players waiting in the wings that could fill his shoes.

Justin Williams has been arguably one of the greatest captains to lead the Hurricanes in recent memory. Williams, in my opinion, is right up there with Rod Brind’amour, Eric Staal, and Ron Francis in terms of leadership ability, and his ability to elevate and inspire his teammates.

Since returning to the Hurricanes during the 2017-18 season, Williams has been an integral part of the Hurricanes’ complete turnaround after an entire decade of mediocrity. It was only fitting that he was named Captain during the 2018-19 season, after the departure of Bill Peters and his terrible ‘co-captains’ idea that saw Justin Faulk and Jordan Staal alternating captaincy for home and away games.

The Hurricanes have been blessed this past season with leadership galore, even from players that don’t have an extra letter on their jersey. Jaccob Slavin notably filled in for Jordan Staal as an alternate captain during Staal’s recovery period after sustaining a concussion roughly midway through this past season.

Until Williams makes a decision to either retire or return to the Hurricanes, the Captaincy remains a big question mark looming over the Hurricanes for the 2019-20 season. Luckily, the Hurricanes have more than a few leaders on the roster that could be excellent candidates for the captaincy in the event that Justin Williams does indeed decide to hang up the skates for good.