Who will be the next Flyers captain? Here are the top contenders.

When longtime Flyers captain Claude Giroux was traded to the Florida Panthers, his signature “C” patch stayed behind in Philadelphia.

That patch is now collecting dust — since March 18, the day after Giroux’s 1,000th game and his last as a Flyer, no one has assumed the captaincy from the man who had held the distinction since 2013. After Giroux’s 3,350 days as Flyers captain, the most in franchise history, equipment staff will sew the “C” onto someone else’s jersey next season.

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But who will it be? New head coach John Tortorella isn’t in a rush to name a captain and is keeping his options open.

“Maybe Claude not being here, and it being a guy that’s been here for so long and the shadow that he casts on just being that guy in Philly, maybe that’ll let other people open up and kind of spread themselves out a little bit and take control of that,” Tortorella told The Inquirer in June. “It’s an opportunity for people with Claude not being here.”

Here’s a look, in alphabetical order, at five contenders to become the 19th captain in team history.

Even though the 2021-22 season marked his first in Philadelphia following his trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets, veteran winger Cam Atkinson quickly emerged as a leader in the Flyers locker room.

While Atkinson, 33, led with his play on the ice (his 50 points ranked second on the team), he also embraced the role of a vocal leader off it. In the midst of the Flyers’ ghastly 25-46-11 season, Atkinson was candid about the team’s shortcomings and consistently took accountability with the media. Atkinson also served as an alternate captain for road games with center Sean Couturier out injured.

“He’s an amazing leader,” center Morgan Frost said on April 7. “I mean, for me, he’s someone that I can definitely look up to. He’s honestly just a really great guy.”

In his campaign for captaincy, Atkinson boasts a long-standing connection to Tortorella. Atkinson played for Tortorella from 2015 to 2021 with the Blue Jackets, where the duo formed a mutual respect. The winger even advocated for the hiring of Tortorella in his 2021-22 exit interview with Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher.

Atkinson already understands Tortorella and Tortorella understands Atkinson, which might make the veteran the perfect liaison between the players and the coach.

“I’m not sure what I enjoy more: developing a hockey player or a person,” Tortorella told The Inquirer in June. “I’m a teacher. I’m a guidance counselor. So you get to hang your hat on things sometimes when you see what that person has become. That’s Cam Atkinson for me.”

After being placed on injured reserve in late December and undergoing season-ending back surgery in February, Couturier disappeared from the Flyers’ lineup. The Flyers couldn’t stay afloat without him both offensively and defensively, calling on less-qualified players to either move up the lineup or over from wing to center. They quickly learned the difficulty of replacing the 2019-20 Selke Trophy winner.

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“He’s a guy that adds so much to our lineup, obviously,” interim coach Mike Yeo said in January. “You talk about faceoffs, on both the power play, penalty kill, his role as far as playing against top players, his ability to hang on to the puck, to play with the puck, to make plays. He’s a guy that we miss right now.”

Although Couturier didn’t play after Dec. 18, he continued to travel to road games and maintained close relationships with his teammates.

“I was trying to be as supportive as I could in any way that I could,” Couturier told the media in April. “I thought it would be good for myself and for the team to just try to be around and support them through the downs. Try to bring any little positive or any little tips I could or help the team get back on the winning track.”

Couturier has ample Flyers leadership experience, serving as an alternate captain since the 2019-20 season. He is also now the longest-tenured Flyer with 11 years of service. When Couturier returns to the lineup, his combination of talent, tenure, and leadership skills arguably makes him the front-runner for the captaincy.

Like Couturier, Kevin Hayes also eyes a healthy return this year after an injury-plagued 2021-22. Hayes, 30, was in and out of the lineup last season after undergoing numerous surgeries, most recently to treat an infection in his groin. He finally started to look like his typical self again over the last two months of the season, tallying seven goals and 22 points over the final 28 games.

Hayes became an alternate captain immediately after joining the Flyers for the 2019-20 season, and has held the distinction since.

“Having a guy like Kevin who’s been here and — you know how he is — he’s a guy who gets along with everyone, includes everyone in everything,” former Flyers defenseman Keith Yandle told The Inquirer in October.

If the Flyers’ roster is a web constructed by links among players, then Hayes is unquestionably at the center. The running joke is that even Fletcher is partial to players who have connections to Hayes, whether they are from his past NHL stops (Yandle, Derick Brassard, and Tony DeAngelo with the New York Rangers) or from Boston College (Atkinson and Patrick Brown).

Hayes is a popular leader in the locker room and Tortorella appears to understand that. Upon his hiring as head coach, Tortorella said that one of his first calls was to the fellow Boston-area native.

“I’m really interested in talking to Kevin [in-person],” Tortorella said at his introductory press conference in June. “Kevin is one I’m anxious to work with because I think there’s more there. I think he’s a huge piece of the puzzle up the middle of the ice for this organization.”

Clearly, Hayes intrigues Tortorella as a player and as a person, and he’s likely on the short list of candidates for the captain’s role.

Scott Laughton, 28, is not a star but rather a solid bottom-six guy. However, despite the team’s overall underperformance in 2021-22, Laughton reached the 30-point threshold for just the second time in his career.

Last season, Laughton was utilized up and down the lineup throughout due to injuries to Couturier and Hayes. As the season wore on and Laughton’s prominence on the ice increased, he solidified himself as a team leader and assumed temporary alternate captain duties.

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“I think your words mean a little more when you’re playing,” Laughton said at his exit interview. “Your words have more accountability when you’re playing. ... As your role increases, I think you can say a little more, demand more, and expect a bit more out of yourself and out of your teammates.”

Additionally, Laughton has placed an emphasis on fostering inclusivity in hockey and received the Flyers’ nomination for the 2021-22 King Clancy Memorial Trophy for his efforts. Laughton is both the Flyers’ Hockey is for Everyone ambassador and a You Can Play ambassador. In an effort to build on Pride Night, Laughton and James van Riemsdyk hosted members of the LGBTQ+ community at 12 Flyers home games last season.

While just about every veteran on the Flyers roster took a step back last season, defenseman Travis Sanheim took a relative step forward. Not only did he lead Flyers defensemen in even-strength scoring (seven goals and 24 assists in 80 games), but he was also steady defensively, finishing the season with a team-best plus-9 rating while averaging 22 minutes, 58 seconds of ice time per night (second to Ivan Provorov).

Regardless of the team’s struggles, Sanheim was one of the Flyers’ most consistent defensemen. As a result, the local media awarded Sanheim the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the team’s most outstanding defenseman. He also earned the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy as the team’s most improved player as selected by his teammates.

“Even though maybe your team’s not that sharp one night, he can go out and do something and get you back in the game or he can go out and do something and even just generate some momentum and raise the level of the rest of the group,” Yeo told The Inquirer in April. “And, for me, that’s leadership.”

Despite being soft-spoken compared to others in the Flyers locker room, Sanheim embraced his newfound role as the Flyers’ NHLPA representative last season, which helped him find his voice with the team.

“I think I feel more comfortable,” Sanheim told The Inquirer in April. “More comfortable in the locker room and speaking to guys and knowing that I’m getting older in this league, and that’s something that I’ve done in the past is have that leadership role. I want to be a leader, whether it’s on or off the ice.”