CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS

Twelve different captains have led the Griffins during the organization’s first 20 years.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

This season will be Jeff Hoggan’s fourth as the captain of the Grand Rapids Griffins, the longest tenure in the 20-year history of the organization, but he shares many of the characteristics that have distinguished the 11 men who came before him.

“Hoggie is an outstanding captain, mostly because of his character,” said new Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill, who counted on the leadership of the veteran forward for all three of his seasons behind the bench in Grand Rapids.

“Hoggie is an unbelievable example of someone who has great work ethic, who has great attention to detail, who is always selfless, and I think he really helped accelerate the growth of our hockey team every year. When you have a leader like Hoggie, you have no choice but to follow.”

To be a leader, one must have others who are willing to follow, and there is no greater responsibility in hockey than being the team captain and convincing guys with different personalities, different backgrounds and different skills to sacrifice themselves for the good of the unit.

Hoggan, of course, led the Griffins to their only Calder Cup championship in 2013, but he was following the same philosophy and moral code that has driven every team captain, starting with Don McSween, who served as the club’s first captain during the inaugural season in 1996-97.

McSween, who first became a captain as a sophomore at Michigan State University, was a 32-year-old veteran defenseman when he came to Grand Rapids after seeing spotty action in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

To his teammates, McSween was a well-respected leader who put others ahead of himself.

“He was exactly what you want in a captain,” said Travis Richards, a member of that first Griffins team and a player who would later become a captain himself. “We all had the utmost respect for him. He was quiet, but he played hard. He was a true professional.

“He was outstanding,” said Danton Cole, who joined the Griffins midway through the first season but had played with McSween at MSU. “He was a real genuine guy who set a good example by caring about everybody on the team more than he did himself.”

A selfless attitude is often a hallmark of a strong captain. “When you’re captain, it’s about putting your teammates above yourself,” McSween said. “It’s almost biblical: he who will be first will be last. If you want to be recognized as a team leader, you have to be willing to serve others.”

Although he didn’t fully grasp the import of his appointment back then, McSween now treasures his moment in the organization’s history. “When I look back at my time with the Griffins, I’m really pleased and honored that I was chosen to be the first captain,” he said.

Twenty years ago, the Griffins were not affiliated with any NHL club, so the team pulled talent from many different organizations, which made the job of being team captain just a little more challenging.

“There were no incumbent players as is usually the case,” McSween said. “We were all coming from different places so we had to jell quickly in order for us to play as a team. We had our rough spots, but by the end of the year, we came together pretty well.”

As the second-oldest player on a veteran-laden team, McSween was responsible for establishing the tone for the rest.

“When you wear the ‘C,’ it’s a badge of honor and a nice recognition of your position on the team, but it also bears a lot of responsibility,” McSween said. “You can’t really fly under the radar because wearing the ‘C’ makes you a marked man.”

McSween did his best to lead by example.

“Eighty games is a long season,” he said. “It might be a Tuesday night in San Antonio, it’s game 56, and you’re kind of beat up and it’s the second game in two nights, or third in four nights, and even though you’re a little weary, you can’t take the night off. You have to make sure that you’re pushing hard, you’re leading by example.

“If you’re not leading by example, your words become pretty hollow, and it doesn’t do you any good to be piping up on the bench or speaking out in the locker room. Nobody is going to listen to the words of someone who isn’t putting it all out on the line.”

Cole, who served as the Griffins’ captain during the 1998-99 season following Kerry Huffman, said the role requires a player to make sacrifices for the betterment of the team, a responsibility that hopefully will be shared by the rest of the players.

“As captain you have to be cognizant of what you’re doing at all times,” Cole said. “If you are going to ask other guys to work hard, sacrifice or assume a role on the team that they’re not comfortable with, you certainly have to be willing to do those things yourself.”

Many of the men who have served as Griffins captains have been on the more reserved side, but Cole was a little more fiery than the others, according to teammate Richards.

“Danton was more boisterous, but he backed it up,” Richards said. “He played hard and he expected you to do the same, and if you didn’t he let you know. You can challenge other guys if you’re doing it yourself, and he always did.”

Cole won a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils two seasons before joining the Griffins, an accomplishment that would certainly have earned players’ respect if Cole hadn’t also been one of the team’s hardest workers. That attribute came naturally to Cole, who had more drive and determination than most.

“When you’re a player put into a leadership position, you don’t really need to change,” Cole said. “You just need to stay true to yourself.”

That philosophy was certainly embraced by Richards, whose low-key personality served the team well when he was team captain for three seasons (2001-04) following Ed Patterson.

“To me, it’s what you do on the ice that matters,” he said. “I don’t really care if you talk in the locker room or if you’re the funny guy; to me it’s how you handle yourself in the game. If you’re the guy working hardest in practice, everyone has to follow. Because how can they not? You set the tone for everything.”

Richards played 10 seasons with the team before the organization retired his number in 2006.

Griffins head coach Todd Nelson, who played with Richards during four different seasons (1996-98, 1999-2000, 2001-02), thinks his one-time defensive partner made an excellent captain because of qualities that went beyond the way he played.

“I think the reason that Richie had such a long tenure here was not only was he a steady, consistent hockey player, but he also was a leader and a glue-guy in the room. He had great character and a lot of players looked up to him. There’s a reason that only one jersey is hanging in the rafters.”

Richards suggests that he may have worn the ‘C’ but it was really NHL veteran Derek King who ran the team for two of his three seasons as captain. King, who came to the Griffins after 830 games with the New York Islanders, Hartford Whalers, Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues, scoffed at the notion.

“That’s just Travis being Travis, wanting to stay under the radar and not taking all the credit,” King said. “If people respected me, they respected him just as much. I know I respected him and I definitely looked at him as a leader. Everybody followed his footsteps in the way he worked. He was definitely a big part of the franchise.”

If there was one player that Richards looked up to as a great leader, it was the player known as The Captain, Steve Yzerman, the longtime Red Wings favorite.

“The captain I admired and watched was Steve Yzerman,” Richards said. “I think he was kind of a quiet guy, but he would block a shot with his face and then he would go score a goal. He backchecked harder than anyone and he just did all the right things.”

Cole played with Scott Stevens, the rock-solid defenseman who built his reputation in New Jersey after playing in Washington and St. Louis. Like Yzerman, Stevens was another quieter captain who led by example. “But he also knew the right time to step up his presence in the room and say something,” Cole said.

Of course, both Yzerman and Stevens were Hall of Fame players. Most captains are not. Many times they are overachievers – like the Griffins’ Matt Ellis, who served as team captain during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.

Ellis worked his way up from the ECHL and overcame the odds to become captain. When he first joined the Griffins, some scouts said he lacked the talent to ever play in the NHL. Ellis eventually played more than 350 games with the Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres.

Cole, who coached Ellis during his first two seasons in Grand Rapids, said he wasn’t surprised when Ellis was named captain a couple of years later.

“Matt had all the qualities,” Cole said. “In terms of his work ethic and approach to the game, Matt was a pro from the first day. You don’t always see it in a young player, but he embodied a lot of what you would want in a young man. He wasn’t going to be discouraged, he was going to keep working, and he kept getting better and better. You look for guys with that determination because it is contagious.”

It’s that drive that distinguishes the best captains, and the Griffins have had no better captain than Hoggan.

“The thing that makes Hoggie really special is his competitiveness,” Blashill said. “We saw that every year in the playoffs. Every time we needed to raise our competitive level, whether it was being down two games to none against Toronto last year or going to Syracuse for Game 1 of the finals in 2013, Hoggie’s competitiveness is so high, the rest of the team just follows.”

Hoggan said he has taken cues from some of the captains that he has encountered during his career, now in its 15th season.

“I’ve been fortunate to watch captains like Shane Doan, Dallas Drake and Zdeno Chara, as well as other guys who guided me when I was younger,” he said. “I was able to watch them in terms of the things that contribute to a working dressing room. I think making everyone feel a part of the team is key. I’ve learned that you’ve got to respect that every guy is different, but you try to connect them to the unit as much as you can.”

For Hoggan, being a good captain doesn’t happen overnight. “Becoming a captain is one thing, but becoming an even better captain is a growth process,” he said.

And it never stops. Now, at age 37, Hoggan is making sure that he does all the right things more than ever.

“As the old guy, all eyes are on you,” he said. “Even management looks at your birth certificate, so there’s a little bit of having to prove your worth and that you can still do it. You want the younger guys to notice that you’re not just the old guy, that you’re still capable of competing just as hard as anyone. That’s what I take pride in doing.”

Twelve different captains have led the Griffins during the organization’s first 20 years.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

This season will be Jeff Hoggan’s fourth as the captain of the Grand Rapids Griffins, the longest tenure in the 20-year history of the organization, but he shares many of the characteristics that have distinguished the 11 men who came before him.

“Hoggie is an outstanding captain, mostly because of his character,” said new Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill, who counted on the leadership of the veteran forward for all three of his seasons behind the bench in Grand Rapids.

“Hoggie is an unbelievable example of someone who has great work ethic, who has great attention to detail, who is always selfless, and I think he really helped accelerate the growth of our hockey team every year. When you have a leader like Hoggie, you have no choice but to follow.”

To be a leader, one must have others who are willing to follow, and there is no greater responsibility in hockey than being the team captain and convincing guys with different personalities, different backgrounds and different skills to sacrifice themselves for the good of the unit.

Hoggan, of course, led the Griffins to their only Calder Cup championship in 2013, but he was following the same philosophy and moral code that has driven every team captain, starting with Don McSween, who served as the club’s first captain during the inaugural season in 1996-97.

McSween, who first became a captain as a sophomore at Michigan State University, was a 32-year-old veteran defenseman when he came to Grand Rapids after seeing spotty action in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

To his teammates, McSween was a well-respected leader who put others ahead of himself.

“He was exactly what you want in a captain,” said Travis Richards, a member of that first Griffins team and a player who would later become a captain himself. “We all had the utmost respect for him. He was quiet, but he played hard. He was a true professional.

“He was outstanding,” said Danton Cole, who joined the Griffins midway through the first season but had played with McSween at MSU. “He was a real genuine guy who set a good example by caring about everybody on the team more than he did himself.”

A selfless attitude is often a hallmark of a strong captain. “When you’re captain, it’s about putting your teammates above yourself,” McSween said. “It’s almost biblical: he who will be first will be last. If you want to be recognized as a team leader, you have to be willing to serve others.”

Although he didn’t fully grasp the import of his appointment back then, McSween now treasures his moment in the organization’s history. “When I look back at my time with the Griffins, I’m really pleased and honored that I was chosen to be the first captain,” he said.

Twenty years ago, the Griffins were not affiliated with any NHL club, so the team pulled talent from many different organizations, which made the job of being team captain just a little more challenging.

“There were no incumbent players as is usually the case,” McSween said. “We were all coming from different places so we had to jell quickly in order for us to play as a team. We had our rough spots, but by the end of the year, we came together pretty well.”

As the second-oldest player on a veteran-laden team, McSween was responsible for establishing the tone for the rest.

“When you wear the ‘C,’ it’s a badge of honor and a nice recognition of your position on the team, but it also bears a lot of responsibility,” McSween said. “You can’t really fly under the radar because wearing the ‘C’ makes you a marked man.”

McSween did his best to lead by example.

“Eighty games is a long season,” he said. “It might be a Tuesday night in San Antonio, it’s game 56, and you’re kind of beat up and it’s the second game in two nights, or third in four nights, and even though you’re a little weary, you can’t take the night off. You have to make sure that you’re pushing hard, you’re leading by example.

“If you’re not leading by example, your words become pretty hollow, and it doesn’t do you any good to be piping up on the bench or speaking out in the locker room. Nobody is going to listen to the words of someone who isn’t putting it all out on the line.”

Cole, who served as the Griffins’ captain during the 1998-99 season following Kerry Huffman, said the role requires a player to make sacrifices for the betterment of the team, a responsibility that hopefully will be shared by the rest of the players.

“As captain you have to be cognizant of what you’re doing at all times,” Cole said. “If you are going to ask other guys to work hard, sacrifice or assume a role on the team that they’re not comfortable with, you certainly have to be willing to do those things yourself.”

Many of the men who have served as Griffins captains have been on the more reserved side, but Cole was a little more fiery than the others, according to teammate Richards.

“Danton was more boisterous, but he backed it up,” Richards said. “He played hard and he expected you to do the same, and if you didn’t he let you know. You can challenge other guys if you’re doing it yourself, and he always did.”

Cole won a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils two seasons before joining the Griffins, an accomplishment that would certainly have earned players’ respect if Cole hadn’t also been one of the team’s hardest workers. That attribute came naturally to Cole, who had more drive and determination than most.

“When you’re a player put into a leadership position, you don’t really need to change,” Cole said. “You just need to stay true to yourself.”

That philosophy was certainly embraced by Richards, whose low-key personality served the team well when he was team captain for three seasons (2001-04) following Ed Patterson.

“To me, it’s what you do on the ice that matters,” he said. “I don’t really care if you talk in the locker room or if you’re the funny guy; to me it’s how you handle yourself in the game. If you’re the guy working hardest in practice, everyone has to follow. Because how can they not? You set the tone for everything.”

Richards played 10 seasons with the team before the organization retired his number in 2006.

Griffins head coach Todd Nelson, who played with Richards during four different seasons (1996-98, 1999-2000, 2001-02), thinks his one-time defensive partner made an excellent captain because of qualities that went beyond the way he played.

“I think the reason that Richie had such a long tenure here was not only was he a steady, consistent hockey player, but he also was a leader and a glue-guy in the room. He had great character and a lot of players looked up to him. There’s a reason that only one jersey is hanging in the rafters.”

Richards suggests that he may have worn the ‘C’ but it was really NHL veteran Derek King who ran the team for two of his three seasons as captain. King, who came to the Griffins after 830 games with the New York Islanders, Hartford Whalers, Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues, scoffed at the notion.

“That’s just Travis being Travis, wanting to stay under the radar and not taking all the credit,” King said. “If people respected me, they respected him just as much. I know I respected him and I definitely looked at him as a leader. Everybody followed his footsteps in the way he worked. He was definitely a big part of the franchise.”

If there was one player that Richards looked up to as a great leader, it was the player known as The Captain, Steve Yzerman, the longtime Red Wings favorite.

“The captain I admired and watched was Steve Yzerman,” Richards said. “I think he was kind of a quiet guy, but he would block a shot with his face and then he would go score a goal. He backchecked harder than anyone and he just did all the right things.”

Cole played with Scott Stevens, the rock-solid defenseman who built his reputation in New Jersey after playing in Washington and St. Louis. Like Yzerman, Stevens was another quieter captain who led by example. “But he also knew the right time to step up his presence in the room and say something,” Cole said.

Of course, both Yzerman and Stevens were Hall of Fame players. Most captains are not. Many times they are overachievers – like the Griffins’ Matt Ellis, who served as team captain during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.

Ellis worked his way up from the ECHL and overcame the odds to become captain. When he first joined the Griffins, some scouts said he lacked the talent to ever play in the NHL. Ellis eventually played more than 350 games with the Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres.

Cole, who coached Ellis during his first two seasons in Grand Rapids, said he wasn’t surprised when Ellis was named captain a couple of years later.

“Matt had all the qualities,” Cole said. “In terms of his work ethic and approach to the game, Matt was a pro from the first day. You don’t always see it in a young player, but he embodied a lot of what you would want in a young man. He wasn’t going to be discouraged, he was going to keep working, and he kept getting better and better. You look for guys with that determination because it is contagious.”

It’s that drive that distinguishes the best captains, and the Griffins have had no better captain than Hoggan.

“The thing that makes Hoggie really special is his competitiveness,” Blashill said. “We saw that every year in the playoffs. Every time we needed to raise our competitive level, whether it was being down two games to none against Toronto last year or going to Syracuse for Game 1 of the finals in 2013, Hoggie’s competitiveness is so high, the rest of the team just follows.”

Hoggan said he has taken cues from some of the captains that he has encountered during his career, now in its 15th season.

“I’ve been fortunate to watch captains like Shane Doan, Dallas Drake and Zdeno Chara, as well as other guys who guided me when I was younger,” he said. “I was able to watch them in terms of the things that contribute to a working dressing room. I think making everyone feel a part of the team is key. I’ve learned that you’ve got to respect that every guy is different, but you try to connect them to the unit as much as you can.”

For Hoggan, being a good captain doesn’t happen overnight. “Becoming a captain is one thing, but becoming an even better captain is a growth process,” he said.

And it never stops. Now, at age 37, Hoggan is making sure that he does all the right things more than ever.

“As the old guy, all eyes are on you,” he said. “Even management looks at your birth certificate, so there’s a little bit of having to prove your worth and that you can still do it. You want the younger guys to notice that you’re not just the old guy, that you’re still capable of competing just as hard as anyone. That’s what I take pride in doing.”