Pastrnak takes the ‘C’ for Boston
The Boston Bruins named David Pastrnak the 28th captain in franchise history on Sunday, September 27, 2026, filling a vacancy that has stood since Brad Marchand was traded to the Florida Panthers at the 2025 trade deadline. The club announced the move with a video on social media and confirmed it in its own press release.
Pastrnak, 30, steps into a lineage few franchises can match. According to the Bruins’ release, 16 Hockey Hall of Fame inductees have served as Boston’s captain, including nine whose numbers the team has retired. Zdeno Chara wore the ‘C’ for 14 seasons between 2006-07 and 2019-20, Patrice Bergeron held it before him, and Marchand carried it until he was dealt to Florida.
The succession behind Bucyk and Bourque
The captaincy in Boston has long tracked the franchise’s record books. Johnny Bucyk, a Hall of Fame captain, still holds the franchise mark with 545 goals, and Ray Bourque sits first in points at 1,506. Pastrnak now ranks fifth in Bruins history in goals, ninth in assists and sixth in points, and he is the first Bruins skater with eight 30-goal seasons.
Those totals come from 833 regular-season games: 420 goals, 513 assists and 933 points, all as of the announcement date. Pastrnak has also scored 94 points in 96 career playoff games and was part of Boston’s 2019 Stanley Cup Final run.
The longest-tenured Bruin
The Bruins selected Pastrnak 25th overall in the 2014 NHL draft, and he made his debut in 2014-15, which reportedly makes him the team’s longest-tenured player as he enters his 13th season in Boston. He has been an alternate captain since the 2021-22 season and scored 100 points in each of the last four campaigns, including 29 goals and 71 assists in 2025-26.
The appointment reportedly came down to a winger already tied to the club through an eight-year, $90-million contract that runs through 2030-31. Before the news broke, defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who was reportedly also in the running, said Pastrnak would be extremely deserving of the ‘C’ and that there would be no friction over the choice.