William Ronald Durnan was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played seven seasons with the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League. 
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Who was the last goalie captain?
NHL Rule 14D states that “[n]o playing Coach or playing Manager or goalkeeper shall be permitted to act as Captain or Alternate Captain.”
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The Canucks have thought of a solution though. Willie Mitchell will handle all of the captain’s duties on ice—things like those little chats with the referee. Those little chats are exactly why Rule 14D was created.
Before Luongo, there were only five other goalies to captain a team. More on that in a moment.
Back in the 1920s, the NHL wanted to make games more time efficient. Therefore, the NHL decreed that each team must designate a single player to talk to referees. The only problem was that if the captain wasn’t on the ice, his team couldn’t talk to the referee. Obviously, that didn’t make a lot of coaches happy.
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