A coach’s job can revolve around the in-game decisions they make, but months before the season started, head men’s hockey coach Tony Granato had to make a brutally tough choice about who his captain would be.
He could go with the experienced veteran Grant Besse, one of Wisconsin’s top players for the last three years, or the young, budding superstar Luke Kunin. The decision was anything but easy.
Granato ultimately went with Kunin, the sophomore who has a knack for finding twine and who was selected in the first round of the NHL draft by the Minnesota Wild.
“We looked at the big picture. He could not be here, but he decided this is where he wanted to be,” Granato said. “Still being here says a lot about the character that he has. I just think he’s a great leader, period.”
Nonetheless, it wasn’t an easy decision to pass over Besse, another forward who has NHL talent and who has survived through some of the darkest years in Wisconsin hockey history. But during the summer, the players filled out a questionnaire that asked the Badgers about the qualities of their teammates, including who they thought the best leader on the team was.
Granato and his staff took those into account before making the final decision. Despite Besse’s experience and familiarity with the program, Granato felt Kunin was the right man to get a “C” sewn on his sweater.
“It’s a little untraditional because he’s a sophomore; you generally do a senior, if you don’t do a senior, you do a junior,” Granato said. “Grant could easily have been captain. Naming Luke as a sophomore captain says a lot about what we think of him and what he means to our program.”
Kunin, after all, is only the second sophomore captain in Wisconsin hockey’s storied history. The last one to do it? Former coach Mike Eaves, who would captain the team for three years, beginning in 1975.
But for the new coaching staff, and the rest of the players, age was but a number when it came to the captainship.
“You look at a lot of the teams in the NHL and some of their captains are 20 years old and some guys are 35,” junior and alternate captain Cameron Hughes said. “If you’re gonna be a leader, you’re gonna be a leader and Luke is.”
Nonetheless, to say that Besse was initially jumping for joy after being passed over for the job would be a lie.
“There was disappointment there,” Besse said. “But Luke is obviously a leader on this team and I think he’s going to do a great job.”
In his freshman campaign, Kunin led the team in goals with 19, playing a pivotal role in an offense that often struggled mightily. But it was more than just his skill set that led Granato to name Kunin the captain.
“I felt with what Luke brings to our team and what he’s done to get ready for this season and still being here meant a lot to me,” Granato said. “[He’s] really what we’re looking for as far as what kind of players and what kind of people we want in our program.”
Besse wasn’t left out of the leadership group entirely, as he is still an alternate captain. He’s projected to play on a line with the rest of the leadership group, with Kunin as the center and Hughes on the opposite wing. It is a line loaded with talent and a unit that will need to be prolific for the Badgers to compile a successful season in Granato’s first year.
Therefore, Besse can’t harbor any resentment with Kunin for being named captain over him. But despite his initial disappointment, Besse was quick to praise Kunin for his ability to lead by example and push his teammates to play their best.
“No matter who the captain was, either me or him, I think both of us would have done a good job,” Besse said. “He’s one of the better players on the team so guys look up to him and that’s the important thing.”
Kunin, who has been out of practice for the last two days to attend to a personal matter, may not be there to lead his team on the ice for the first game of the season against Northern Michigan in Green Bay. But he will be back eventually and will be responsible for leading a team that is in desperate need of a step in the right direction. It is quite the challenge for an underclassmen, but his coaching staff and teammates believe he can get the job done—even Besse.
It was a difficult decision, but Granato is confident that his coaching staff made the right call.
“I think when it’s all said and done, we’re gonna look back at that guy and say he’s one of the greatest Badgers of all time,” he said.
