On January 5, 2010, about a week after the Capitals traded captain Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina to Columbus for Jason Chimera, the team named Alex Ovechkin as the new team captain, a position he’s had ever since.
There was no big announcement. Instead, Ovi simply came out for warmups in a home game against the Montreal Canadiens with the ‘C’ on his jersey.
Prior to that, and after the Clark trade, the Caps played a few games without a designated captain, but had three players wear an A: Ovi, Mike Knuble, and Brendan Morrison.