A few months before the undisputed Worst Trade In Hockey History (a trade so bad it literally was a significant contributing factor in killing a team) the Whalers made the decision to strip Ron Francis of the captaincy (as if he was the problem and not Ed Johnston being an incompetent moron and Rick Ley being an awful coach) and the next night the Whalers got crushed in a game where they put up a grand total of 8 shots.
Yeah, stripping Dahlin of the C would be a catastrophically stupid idea.