Winnipeg Jets name Adam Lowry captain

“When I found out, I was pretty excited, almost a little speechless. It’s something growing up you kind of can dream about and something that seems almost unattainable,” said Lowry in a statement from the Jets. “Getting to be a captain of a Canadian NHL team is pretty special and something I’m really looking forward to.”

Lowry, 30, fills the vacancy left for the past season after the Jets stripped previous captain Blake Wheeler of the role going into the 2022-23 season. Wheeler had been the captain for six seasons before that, first being given the role in the 2016-17 season. Lowry had been given the alternate captain role in for the first time in the 2022-23 season in place of Wheeler.

“It went well last year. Mark, Adam and Josh did a great job in the room which is what we wanted. We all know Adam is the first guy on the ice to stick up for his teammates,” said Jets head coach Rick Bowness in the statement. “He’s a true professional, he has total respect from every player on the team, every player around the league and certainly from the coaching staff as well. We just feel at this point it’s the right time to name Adam as our captain.”

Lowry becomes the third captain in franchise history since the team has relocated to Winnipeg, with Andrew Ladd carrying it over from the team’s Atlanta Thrashers’ days until he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2016 and Blake Wheeler getting the honour until he was stripped of the captaincy in 2022. Lowry becomes the 10th captain in the overall history of the franchise, with the Thrashers having eight different captains before Ladd in their 12-year history.

“As an organization we’ve had the pleasure of watching Adam develop from the day that he was the second player that we drafted back in 2011,” said Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff in the statement. “As a teammate, Adam has become one of the most respected players by his peers by how he plays the game on the ice and for all that he brings to the team off of it.”

Lowry is coming off his most productive season in his NHL career, as he had 13 goals, 23 assists, and 36 points in 82 games in the 2022-23 season. That bests his previous career-high of 29 points, which he achieved in 2016-17, although his career-high of 15 goals from that season still stands. He also had four goals, one assist, and five points in five playoff games last season as the Jets went on to lose to the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round in five games.