Blues Announce David Backes As New Team Captain

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The St. Louis Blues have officially announced that they
have named David Backes as their captain for the upcoming
NHL season. - Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Earlier this week new Blues forward and former Team U.S.A. captain Jamie Langenbrunner had plenty of nice things to say about 27 year old forward David Backes.  It almost sounded as though Langenbrunner was endorsing Backes as who the Blues should name as the new captain for the upcoming season.

On Friday, the Blues must have gotten the clue and announced that David Backes would be the new captain of the St. Louis Blues

Backes will go down as the 20th official captain of the Blues organization and follows in the footsteps of Blues greats like Bernie Federko, Brett Hull, and Chris Pronger.  Backes told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he hopes to live up to the standard those before him set.
"To have those guys around me and to try and follow in their footsteps, hopefully I can do a fraction of the job those guys were able to do. Hopefully, I can be the guy that the team looks to when we're having tough times, when we're having good times. I'm more of a lead-by-example type of guy when we're going out there getting the job done."
While Backes looks to lead by example he has certainly earned the honor with his play on the ice.

Backes was selected to the NHL All-Star game last season and posted a +32 plus/minus rating, tops among all NHL forwards in the entire league.

Backes also led the Blues in goals with 31 and total points with 62 while being a key contributor both on the power play and penalty killing units.

The former silver medal Olympian will have plenty of help during his first season as captain.  The Blues announced that Barret Jackman, Andy McDonald, Alex Steen, and Langenbrunner will all serve as rotating assistant captains throughout the season.

Now that the Blues have their on ice leadership questions answered, they can focus on working towards getting back to the playoffs.

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