Claude “Captain” Giroux

BREAKING: Flyers GM Paul Holmgren has named Claude Giroux 19th Captain of the Philadelphia Flyers.

After it was widely speculated that Giroux would be named captain during a practice at Wells Fargo Center Thursday night the Flyers went ahead and made the announcement Tuesday.

Giroux, whose name was famously forgotten by then GM Bob Clarke on draft day 2006, will take the reigns from Chris Pronger to become the Flyers lead man with a letter.

Entering his 5th NHL season Giroux has become one of the premier players in the league, after a breakout year in 2010-2011, Giroux last season posted a career best 28 goals and 93 points. In the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs the Flyers new captain registered 14 points in a first round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In a statement released by the team Holmgren stated that “Claude is the undisputed leader of this team” and boy was that ever the case in opening 32 seconds of game 6 of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals last April. Giroux told coach Peter Laviolette that he wanted the first shift, he got it, then proceeded to lay out Sidney Crosby and then score a goal that wound up propelling the Flyers into the conference semi-finals.

Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell, and Danny Briere could rotate wearing the “A’s” Laviolette said “with Kimmo Timonen as associate captain and Scott Hartnell and Danny Briere as assistant captains, we’re confident we have the right people in place to lead this team.”

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