With center Henrik Zetterberg looking increasingly unable to play this season, the Detroit Red Wings could be looking at naming just their fourth captain in 32 seasons. Free Press sports writer Ryan Ford takes a look at some possibilities:

No captain
Four NHL teams played last season without an official captain: The Arizona Coyotes, Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs and Vegas Golden Knights. Those teams had multiple alternate captains, who relayed discussions between referees and the bench. This could be a season in which the Wings go strictly with alternate captains such as Justin Abdelkader, Niklas Kronwall and Dylan Larkin. Then again, the Wings have had a captain every season since their inaugural season in 1926-27. So they might go the route of …

Co-captains
The Wings last had co-captains during the 1980-81 season, when Errol Thompson and Reed Larson shared the duties before Thompson was traded to Pittsburgh midseason. Larson was a solo captain after that and for all of the 1981-82 season before handing the reins over to Danny Gare. The Wings could go this route, especially with respected veterans such as Abdelkader, Mike Green and Frans Nielsen on the roster. Of course, similar to how the Wings transitioned smoothly from Steve Yzerman to Nicklas Lidstrom to Henrik Zetterberg, Jeff Blashill could just hand the job to one of those vets right away, such as...

continued