LEWISTON – The parade of players from the Lewiston Maineiacs’ locker room after Thursday’s practice all wore bewildered looks on their faces.

“Who is named captain?” one player asked.

“I don’t know” was a popular answer and even assistant coach Ed Harding, who was running practice, was baffled.

“I don’t know. I know we’ve had a problem with the league where we aren’t allowed to have four A’s, but I don’t believe that we’ve named anyone officially as of yet. We were waiting for the trade deadline to pass, which it has. Clem has not talked to me about that, and he hasn’t talked to any of the players that I know of.”

Rumors flying around the city, and particularly on the team’s Internet chat site, swore that defenseman Jonathan Paiement was now wearing a C’ on his jersey as of Tuesday’s game against the Quebec Remparts. Paiement played a solid game and did not take a minor penalty for the first time in recent memory, but wearing a C’ he was not.

“Nothing has been talked about this yet,” said Paiement. “I don’t know anything about this. From everything I know, it is not true. We can’t have four A’s, the league says no, so something will have to be done, I guess, but I don’t know.”

Another of the team’s assistant captains, Alexandre Picard, alluded that there may be more reality to the rumor than anyone else was letting on.

“Paiement, he played for this team for four years and he is a buddy of mine, too. At the beginning of the year, I voted for him then, too. Off and on the ice, he deserves it. I think it’s a great decision. He does not have the letter on there yet. I think it is going to be next game, but I don’t know for sure.

“There have been rumors and things on the Internet, but the coach said that to me, that will happen.”

Trade talkin’

Picard and Paiement were both at the center of many trade rumors during the three-week trading period, and Paiement even reportedly cleared his belongings from his billet home before heading home for the holiday break, only to return last week.

“That didn’t affect a thing,” Harding said of the rumors. “Those were issues with an individual person, and I know what you are talking about. I am sure you’ll see that happen again, too. It might happen again next year, in fact. You go into a trading period and expect that you’ll be traded so you try to prepare for it.

“Were people asking about players? Sure. We probably had 10 different teams call us about six different players, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to trade them. We listened, of course. You’d be crazy if you didn’t listen, but we like our team. (Team owner Mark Just) pays a lot of money for us to coach and for the scouts to scout. If you have trust in your staff and their ability to evaluate talent, you shouldn’t have to make moves every year. Maybe a little move here and there like the one we made, just to try and place yourself in a better position.”

Picard confirmed Harding’s belief, saying that rumors are just that, and that they are part of the game.

“In Quebec City, every day in the newspaper they would talk about that, and where I was going to be traded,” said Picard. “To make sure before Christmas, on the first day of the trades, I asked Clem if I was going to be traded after Christmas and he looked at me and said Pic, you are going to stay here and finish your junior career with Lewiston.’ I think that’s great, I would like to finish major junior career here.”