We have to realize that before ichigo came to soul society, there was a lack of anything dangerous happening for around 1000 years.. When you take that into consideration, the captains have made leaps and bounds in strength, I would like to assume that the captains were growing when they met ichigo, and still are. To be honest, they probably would not have gotten much stronger if ichigo did not happen to pop into their lives.
That being said, i have my own list
Captain commander
Aizen
Shunsui kyoraku
Kenpachi (current)
Ishin
Urahara
Gin ( we have to realize that this is THE ONLY GUY who ever deceived aizen, and actually dealt a killing blow on him) Although he turned into a fucking butterfly..
Unohana (assuming shes alive)
Ukitake
Yoruichi
Shinji ( leader of visored, former captain, what else must be said)
Byakuya
Tousen
Renji (yeah, hes stronger than most of the weaker captains now.. don't kid yourselves)
Other visored captains. (love etc. etc.)
and everyone else, who are around the same level, but obviously are the weaker captains.
Ichigo, holds an interesting position, because he has the biggest latent potential (herpderp main character) But at the moment hes stupidly weak, no bankai, no use of quincy powers, nigga you just got your ass kicked by one of the people in the zero division, to be honest Renji is probably stronger than Ichigo at the moment. So he will clearly become the strongest, but at the moment he ain't shit. If the vandenreich could steal his bankai he woulda got shitted on. That being said, the vandenreich probably woulda got their asses beat if the captains could use their bankais.
edit: the zero division isn't on that list, but i can assume they are just below captain commander if not above him.
IMO, this list would be better put into tiers
tier1: captain commander, ichigo etc.
Tier2: urahara, unohana, byakuya
tier3:yoruichi, ukitake
Because most captains are very close in strength with a few other captains
ex: Byakuya, Kenpachi
Shunsui, Ukitake, Unohana
Etc. etc.
This post was edited by OsD on May 9 2013 08:33pm