Who Should Wear the C For the Estevan Bruins?

In my three years with the Estevan Bruins, I’ve been pretty lucky to have dealt with three great Captains in Kyle Garagan, Colton McPherson and Troy Hunter. In less than a month we’ll find out who will be the first Bruins captain in the Spectra Place era.

Over the past couple of weeks I left a poll up to see who you would like to see as the captain for the upcoming season and the winner was “Other”, which could mean a combination of guys like Dylan Smith, Ryan Ostertag, Michael Hengen, Chris Daniels and Matt Dochylo. All of them I think are capable of wearing a letter, but I think at the end of the day it will either be Dominic Perrault, Josh Jelinski or Eric Baldwin who wears the C. Here are some reasons why those three players have a shot of being the captain.

Dominic Perrault.

Bruin fans saw the emergence of Dominic Perrault in the late stages of the 2010-11 season when Ty Ariss, Joel Kot and Lucas Stubel were out of the Bruins lineup with injuries. In the Survivor Series with Melville, Perrault came up huge in Game 5 as he scored two goals, including the overtime winner to send the Bruins into the second round of the post season. This season Perrault will be the number one d-man from Day 1, he’ll be counted on as the quarterback on the powerplay along with being the top shutdown d-man. Perrault has told me that he is looking forward to working with the young guys and is hopeful he can provide them with the leadership the Bruins will need this season.

Josh Jelinski

There is no doubt that Jelinski is the hardest working player on the Bruins roster, and quite honestly he might be the hardest working player in the entire SJHL. Jelinski became one of the Bruins top forwards late in the season as he skated on the top line with Mark Cross and Troy Hunter, and Jelinski showed his ability to deliver in the clutch as he scored in Game 1 of the overtime series with Melville. Jelinski will be the vocal leader of the Bruins, even last season as a rookie; Jelinski was one of the most vocal players on the Bruins roster.

Eric Baldwin:

Baldwin was the Bruins most improved player last season, after starting out as the Bruins 7/8 d-man, he ended in the top 4 and there’s no doubt Baldwin will enter the season as the Bruins #2 d-man. There were times last season when Baldwin would sit out long stretches, and even though Baldwin didn’t see much game action, he worked hard at practice and when his opportunity came with the injuries in January, Baldwin played so well that the Bruins coaches had no choice but to leave him in the lineup in the playoffs. Baldwin is probably the most well spoken Bruin player, and he is a great player to have represent your hockey team.

Conclusion:

I still find myself having a hard time picking a captain even though I’ve been thinking about this topic over the past few months. If I pick one player to be the favourite, I’ll say Perrault since he’s the only 20 year old player in the mix in my mind. Although with the Bruins core being the 1992 players, I think it would also be a great idea for the Captain to be a 92 player like Baldwin or Jelinski. No matter what, it will be a tough decision for Bruins Head Coach, Keith Cassidy in training camp.

I started a new poll question, who do you think will be the Bruins MVP this season.