All-Time Great Stanley Cup Captains

The Montreal Canadiens are the Yankees of hockey. The Habs have won 24 Stanley Cups in their history -- and captain Jean Beliveau is responsible for five of them. He's the only player in NHL history to win five cups as his team's captain. (As a player, Beliveau won a total of 10 cups. As an excutive, he won seven more.) The Hall of Famer was also the winner of the first Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded in 1965 to the MVP of the playoffs. Beliveau ranks 10th all time in playoff goals with 79 and is tied for 14th all time in playoff points with 176.

As captain of the Islanders, defenseman Dennis Potvin led his team to won four consecutive Stanley Cups. In those four playoff runs, he never won a Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP but he racked up 37 goals and 85 points.

Potvin was one of the great offensive defensmen in NHL history. He was the first defenseman to score 1,000 career points, finishing his career in 1988 with 366 goals, 850 assists and 1,216 points.

Wayne Gretzky isn't called "The Great One" for nothing. As the captain of the Edmonton Oilers, Gretzky led the team to four Stanley Cups. He also won two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP (in 1985 and 1988) and rewrote the history book. Gretzky holds every major NHL record, in the regular season and in the playoffs. In the postseason, he scored 382 points (122 goals, 260 assists), 87 more than the next player on the list.

Maurice "Rocket" Richard (right) was another legendary captain of the Montreal Canadiens. He played 18 seasons for the Habs and led them to four consecutive Stanley Cups (and winning another four as a player). He was also the premiere goal scorer of his generation: Richard's 82 playoff goals is good for eighth on the all-time list, and he has an award named after him presented to the player who scored the most goals during the regular season.

When Steve Yzerman retired from the Detroit Red Wings after the 2006 season, he had served as the team's captain for 19 seasons -- the longest tenure in NHL history. In that time, he led the Wings to three Stanley Cups. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1998. He'd win another Cup in 2008, this time as a Red Wings executive. Yzerman ranks 10th all-time with 185 playoff points.

Scott Stevens began his career in Washington, playing eight seasons for the Capitals. But it wasn't until the aggressive defenseman went to New Jersey that he could call himself a champion. Stevens captained the Devils to three Stanley Cups (and earned the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2000), leading a hard-hitting and suffocating defense that defined an era of hockey.

Expectations were high in Pittsburgh when the perpetual basement-dwellers Penguins drafted Mario Lemieux first overall in 1984. It would take a few years, but Le Magnifique lived up to his reputation. He led the Pens to back-to-back Stanley Cups, collecting two Conn Smyth Trophies in the process. His 1.607 points per game in the playoffs is good for second all time. Lemieux added another Cup to his resume in 2009, this time as the owner of the Penguins.

Legendary center Mark Messier once said, "I haven't celebrated coming in second too many times." That's because he didn't have time to be second. As a teammate of Wayne Gretzky in Edmonton, Messier collected four Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe Trophy. After Gretzky left for LA, Messier became the captain of the Oilers and in 1990 led the team to its fifth Cup. Messier eventually left for the New York Rangers, and in 1994 captained the Blue Shirts to their first Cup in 54 years. Messier ranks second all time in playoff points with 295, nearly 100 points behind Gretzky.

When the Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado to become the Avalanche for the 1995-96 season, the team had all the pieces in place to make a Stanley Cup run -- including captain Joe Sakic. And once the team settled in Denver, he didn't waste any time taking the Avs to the top of the mountain. Sakic led Colorado to its first Stanley Cup in 1996, scoring a career-high 18 goals (including six game winners) and 34 points and earning the Conn Smythe Trophy. He would bring a second Cup to Colorado in 2001. Sakic ranks eighth all-time with 188 playoff points.

As captain of the Flyers, Bobby Clarke (left) led Philadelphia to its only two Stanley Cups. He played his entire career in Philadelphia, retiring after the 184 season. He was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987, has been an a general manager for the Flyers and is currently the team's Senior Vice President.