The rumor mill is at it again as word is spreading across the Internet that Roberto Luongo will not be captain of the Vancouver Canucks this upcoming season, but instead will have the captaincy stripped and handed to forward Henrik Sedin. The shift is not yet official, but it seems that the wheels are in motion and the only thing remaining to be done is the Canucks holding a press conference to announce Sedin as Vancouver’s top guy.

Sedin has been an assistant captain with the Canucks since September 2009, just a couple of months after he and brother Daniel were given identical five-year, $30.5 million contracts. He thanked his ownership by having a career year, setting personal bests with 29 goals, 83 assists and 112 points, the latter two having lead the league, winning both the Hart Memorial and Art Ross Trophies in the process. As a player, he lead by example and has earned the right to wear the “C” on his jersey.

The Roberto Luongo captaincy experiment was meant to please a top-notch goaltender and coerce him into sticking around as Vancouver built around him. The problem was that the position of captain has a lot of responsibilities that Luongo could not fulfill. Luongo could not speak with officials when he was on the other side of the ice; when he had a bad game, he certainly could not motivate his teammates; and when he was given a night off, his responsibilities fell entirely on the alternates.

The value of the captain has diminished as hockey has become more accessible over the decades. The referees no longer have visible personalities to fans, and the fact that everything is caught on tape adds a different spin on talking with officials about bad calls. Franchises have also begun to give the role to star players as a way to appease egos in lieu of veterans who truly know how the NHL works. That said, if the Canucks do in fact give the honor to Henrik Sedin, it will certainly be well-deserved and the absolutely right move for the franchise.