Captain, Revisit

Wow, did I ever miss the boat in my original musing on the contenders for the captaincy in Houston this season. Andrew Ferraro brought to light this article on d-man Brandon Rogers, who just signed a 3 year deal with the Wild, today and the comments from (my favorite) Aeros assistant coach Troy Ward definitely give me the sense that Brandon is likely a good bet for one of those spots.

"He had a calming influence on our team," said Troy Ward, the Aeros' assistant coach and assistant general manager. "He improved offensively with his numbers and he defended very well. He played a lot of minutes for us. He gave us good offense and defense and brought a lot of leadership to the team."

"What separates him from other hockey players is he has a humanistic side. He has a work ethic and passion and people skills and that radiates positive things for everybody. He's humanistic at a high level and unfortunately you don't see that in a lot of players."

Sounds like captain stuff right there, doncha think? Honestly, I didn't pay a lot of attention to Brandon during the season, but when I went back after the season and looked at his stats, I realized he was doing a lot more back there than I was giving him credit for. He's like the Nick Schultz of the Aeros, I guess. Just quietly doing his job extremely well and being a leader. Word. Good job locking that one up, Wardo!