With the endorsement of his teammates, Max Pacioretty became the 29th captain of the Montreal Canadiens on Friday and only the third American-born player to wear the “C” for the Bleu, Blanc et Rouge.

A key contributor to the Habs on both sides of the puck, Pacioretty has emerged as one of the game’s best two-way forwards and his bona fides are obvious, but the choice to name the 26-year-old native of New Canaan, Connecticut captain wasn’t necessarily a slam dunk with a number of players having their respective candidacies considered.

Carey Price, the NHL’s reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner, is the game’s best backstop and the most influential player on the team. The fact that Price is a goalie and can’t be a league-recognized captain wouldn’t be a deterrent as the Vancouver Canucks named Roberto Luongo team captain in 2008. Coincidentally, the rule preventing a goaltender acting as captain was instituted because of the Habs and then captain Bill Durnan. The rest of the league complained that the Canadiens were receiving what amounted to extra timeouts because play would stop whenever captain Durnan left his crease to speak to officials. Following the 1948 season, Rule 14D (“The Durnan Rule”) was created and the captaincy was transferred over to Emile Bouchard.

The 2013 Norris Trophy winner PK Subban is arguably the face of the franchise and has proven eminently capable of handling the media crush that comes with being the captain of the Canadiens as the club’s de facto spokesman. The gregarious Subban is also active in the community, making a $10 million donation this week to the Montreal Children’s Hospital - the largest-ever donation of its kind by a Canadian athlete.

Subban was ready for the gig and has even been taking lessons to improve his French.

"I think that I'd embrace it," Subban said prior to training camp last fall of a potential captaincy. "Added responsibility to me makes a player better, and I think I've accomplished a lot in a short time in this league and I've earned the respect of my peers and my opponents to command the respect that a captain deserves.

“I really believe that I've earned a lot of respect in this league, both on and off the ice."

Subban would have been in many ways a departure from a vast majority of recent Canadiens to wear the “C.” He’s a polarizing figure, wearing his heart on his sleeve and never shying away from speaking his mind. Contrast this with the unassuming nature of the likes of Saku Koivu, Pierre Turgeon and Guy Carbonneau. When you consider the outcry from some quarters when Mike Keane declared that he didn’t need to speak French upon becoming captain in 1995 ("Everybody here speaks English," he said at the time. "I don't see any problem”) or the Bouchard-Taylor Commission weighing in on Koivu’s limited command of the language in 2007, the digression might have been too jarring.

Andrei Markov is all steely resolve and the most tenured player on the team, heading into his 15th season as a Canadien. Well liked, but notoriously private, he leads by example rather than instruction. But with his history of injury, along with his age (he’ll be 37 in December), the captaincy might have been seen as more of a patronage appointment than anything else.

Feisty forward Brendan Gallagher has an advocate in the legendary Guy Lafleur, who praised the diminutive Gallagher’s this past spring.

"I like the way he plays," he said of Gallagher in May. "He shows up every night and gives 100 per cent. I think he's a great influence on his teammates."

But Gallagher’s proclivity to take ill-timed penalties and reputation as an embellisher suggest that the 23-year-old Edmonton native might not yet be ready for the role.

So what of Pacioretty, then?

First, it’s important to remember that his appointment was a team-mandated one. It wasn’t a decision made by general manager Marc Bergevin or bench boss Michel Therrien. Pacioretty was named captain through a player vote, just as Jean Beliveau and Yvon Cornouyer were before him. If a majority of his mates believe him to be the right choice, it’s difficult to argue against that.

And he’s well-tenured. This will be his eighth season in Montreal. That’s much different than previous captain Brian Gionta, who was given the title after just one season with the team. Pacioretty is firmly ensconced with the club and its culture.

He’s a key contributor. While there’s still some debate as to whether or not a team’s captain needs to be an impact player (Steven Stamkos is the linchpin of the Tampa Bay Lightning, but the same can’t really be said for veteran Willie Mitchell of the Florida Panthers), Pacioretty’s on-ice role as a leader is not in doubt. He’s a three-time 30-goal scorer and has led the team in scoring for the past four seasons.

Pacioretty won the 2012 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to the game after bouncing back from the crushing hit delivered to him by Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara in the spring of 2011.

And Pacioretty understands the importance of rapport with referees.

“I’ve established really good relationships with a lot of them,” Pacioretty told Dave Stubbs of The Montreal Gazette last season. “Obviously, there’s times when I’m heated and I don’t like a call that’s been made, but I never say or do anything out of line. And I always make sure I apologize and always try to be calm and cool when I’m talking with them…I’m trying to learn the names of all the refs and linesmen because they appreciate you going out of your way to talk to them and treat them well. It’s been part of the process. I’m still not perfect at it, like everything else, but I’m getting better at it.”

There is, of course, the issue of Pacioretty being both an American and an English-speaking player. The fact that Gionta and Chris Chelios have come before him makes the former less problematic, while those that will still grouse about the latter probably won’t be satisfied with the appointment, even though Pacioretty began his news conference speaking extensively in French. There’s likely nothing that Pacioretty can do to silence those detractors (Price, Subban, Markov and Gallagher would have been in the same boat, as well).

Regardless of anything else, the Montreal Canadiens have spoken and Max Pacioretty is their choice.

It’s now up to Pacioretty to make good on the role entrusted to him by his peers and carry on the mantle that 18 Hall of Famers have before him. Whether or not he was the right call will become evident in time, but if history is any indicator, Pacioretty is certainly up to the challenge of leading his team to a Stanley Cup.