New York Islanders to Officially Name John Tavares Team Captain

The New York Islanders have scheduled a press conference for Monday, Sept. 9 to officially announce that John Tavares will be the named the 14th team captain in franchise history. Per a team press release, the event will be held at 10:45 a.m. at Carlyle On The Green – The Lenox Room at Bethpage State Park Golf Course in Farmingdale, NY.

As the face of the Isles franchise, the symbol of the team’s youth movement, and the prize piece in GM Garth Snow’s rebuild, Tavares has long been the most logical choice to succeed former Islanders D-man Mark Streit as the next team captain. As initially reported by Newsday’s Arthur Staple on Tuesday, the organization will publicly make the move next week.

Head coach Jack Capuano and other Islanders players will be on hand to join Snow and Tavares when the announcement is made prior to the Islanders Children’s Foundation Golf Outing on Monday.

Tavares will don the captain’s C for the 2013-14 season – and for what Isles fans hope will be many more seasons after that – making him the latest in a long line of the franchise’s on-ice leaders, including Islanders greats Ed Westfall, Denis Potvin, Patrick Flatley and Michael Peca, among others.

The Isles captaincy has basically been a temporary honor since 1996, but with the Monday’s announcement the team should effectively end that trend. Tavares is under contract through the 2017-18 season and is Long Island’s favorite son (by way of Canada), meaning he’s likely to remain captain for a very long time.

Tavares finished third in the voting for the NHL’s Hart Trophy after the 2013-13 regular season, in which he played all 48 games and recorded 47 points (28G, 19A). In his four-year Islanders career, he has 112 goals and 137 assists.

As always, thanks for reading us at EyesOnIsles. Keep it right here for all of your NHL coverage and up-to-the-minute Islanders news. Follow me on the Twitter (@MichaelWillhoft) so we can talk about whether John Tavares will ever have to buy a drink in the New York metro area again.