Toews in elite company as young captain

Blackhawks coach Denis Savard tipped his hand at the recent rookie camp about Jonathan Toews becoming the team's next captain.

"I have my mind made up," Savard said, all but confirming Toews would be the next team captain. "I don't care how young you are."

By formally naming the 20-year-old Toews captain on Friday, the Hawks did what most successful teams have done as a building block to them winning: They have taken their best all-around player at a young age and put the team under his leadership, hopefully for the next decade and beyond.

The Detroit Red Wings did it with Steve Yzerman. The Pittsburgh Penguins did it years ago with Mario Lemieux and now Sidney Crosby. The Edmonton Oilers did it with Wayne Gretzky. And the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche did it with Joe Sakic.

"There's just an aura about this kid," general manager Dale Tallon said. "Guys follow his lead in our locker room."

That was apparent at prospects camp in 2008 when every rookie on hand gravitated to Toews.

Last season Savard and Tallon saw that special leadership again, this time with his older teammates. It was following an especially lethargic 3-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Dec. 16 at the United Center that Toews stood up and said too many of the players didn't hate to lose enough.

That moment told Savard everything he needed to know about his young leader. Savard endorsed the comments and perhaps made up his mind right then that Toews could handle the captaincy at his age.

The Hawks played without a captain last season, waiting for Toews to grow into the job and looking for telling moments just like the one after the Florida loss.

"I think we were all expecting this more or less," said teammate Patrick Sharp. "Jonathan's our captain. We've said that from day one. He's going to be a guy to take this team where we want to go."

Toews is intense, almost to a fault. Former Hawks captain Martin Lapointe, who endorsed Toews for the job before he was traded to Ottawa last February, often would remind Toews not to keep things such as losing faceoffs or having a bad shift with him.

"I've still got some things to work on and I will," said Toews, the third youngest captain in NHL history behind Crosby and Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier. "This is unbelievable and, obviously, a huge honor. There's been talk about this for a long time, but this is hard to believe. There's a lot responsibility and something I'm going to take very seriously."

Tightening up: Denis Savard said the 235 goals the Hawks allowed last season were too many. Only three teams in the Western Conference allowed more.

"This is such a tough conference that we have to, as a group, cut down our goals against 30 to 40 from last year," Savard said. "That will be our message in training camp. Team defense is going to be important and it won't take anything away from the way we play offense. We have to eliminate the turnovers."

Looks deceiving: Injured defenseman James Wisniewski said he can start skating again in 10 weeks but that won't play until early December because of the torn ACL he suffered two weeks ago.

"It will look like I'm ready to play, but I have to make sure I'm 100 percent," said Wisniewski, who will miss at least the first 20 games of the season.