- Editor’s note: Sheng Peng will be a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.
PRAGUE – It doesn’t surprise me that Nick Bonino was named alternate captain of the San Jose Sharks.
It might have just been a coincidence, but I guessed it after a Captain’s Skate in mid-September. Captain Logan Couture barked out a drill for the Sharks to practice. Naturally, Couture led off, followed by alternate captains Tomas Hertl, Erik Karlsson, then Mario Ferraro. After Ferraro, taking what would’ve been ex-alternate captain Brent Burns’s turn?
With our All Access Daily newsletter, stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams!
SIGN UP HERE It was Bonino. I don’t know if David Quinn already knew then that his new alternate captain would be his former BU player. I asked Quinn on the first day of training camp if he had selected an “A” yet, and he said it was still an open competition.
But Bonino made too much sense: He’s already considered a locker room leader, he’s the only current San Jose Sharks player (besides Nico Sturm) to have won a Stanley Cup, and he’s a Quinn ally, which might matter in the long run if the rumors that the bench boss’s New York Rangers veterans turned him off by the end of his tenure are true.
