Brayden Schenn was named Blues captain two days before the team started training camp.
And in the following three months, the Blues were inconsistent from game to game, period to period. They fired their coach. They traded the longest-tenured player on the roster. One of the team’s franchise players was booed at home. And there still were 50-plus games to go.
So it wasn’t quite the easiest start to Schenn’s time with the captaincy.
“A proud player and a Stanley Cup champion that’s asked to be the captain of a team that’s going through a transition, it’s difficult,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. “Then you throw in a coaching change midseason. It’s not like I made this easy on him. I didn’t say, ‘Let’s name Schenner captain and see how hard I can make it on him.’ I’m not surprised that it ended up where there was a lot of turmoil that he had to deal with.”
Of course, Schenn also had his own game to worry about.
He finished the season with 20 goals and 26 assists, his lowest offensive output across an 82-game schedule since 2013-14, when he had 41 points as a 22-year-old with Philadelphia. It was a 19-point drop from last season, which trailed only Kevin Hayes (down 25 points) and Justin Faulk (down 20 points but missed 22 games to injury) on the Blues.
“You want everything to go right, and you want everything to go your way,” Schenn said. “Sometimes, it doesn’t. Early on, you worry about everything else that’s going on around you. Sometimes you forget about worrying about yourself. I’m not saying that selfishly; I’m saying that you have to be able to perform and not let certain things affect you early on, which maybe I did.”
Before this season, Schenn wore a letter at different levels of hockey. He was an alternate and then a captain with the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL. On the international stage, he wore an A for Canada at the World Juniors and again later at the World Championship. Across the past three seasons in St. Louis, Schenn was part of the leadership group under Ryan O’Reilly.
Schenn is 32 years old and might hit 1,000 games played next season. But still, he said, “When you think you know a lot or everything, you kind of realize you don’t know a whole lot. You just keep on learning, and that’s the best part about it.
“I’d be lying to you if I didn’t go home some days and, when you’re not winning and not playing the way you want, and saying that I’m not thinking about it. You’re always trying to find ways to get yourself to play better, the team to play better, guys to buy in to what we’re trying to create here. That comes with learning, and that comes with talking to guys and leaning on guys around you.”
Part of the reason the Blues chose Schenn as captain was because of his relationships with his teammates, but even caring too much might have become an issue for him this season, Armstrong said.
“I think the one thing when I look back on, and when I talked to him, is that (he should) breathe, enjoy the process and don’t put too much of this” on himself, Armstrong said. “He cares so much about the team and so much about every individual that it’s hard to do all that and still be the best you can be on the ice. I thought he did a great job at it.
“I think next year, he’s going to be able to pick his battles a little bit more — pick his battles with the manager, pick his battles with the coach, pick his battles with his teammates a little better. That just comes from maturation.”
When Schenn did get going offensively, it was in bunches. Likewise, his droughts were lengthy.
He went through a 16-game goalless stretch in December and January, which also included a 12-game pointless streak nested within that. But he busted out of it with 11 points in 10 games, which included key momentum-swinging goals (such as a shorthanded one in Calgary) and overtime plays (goal in Vancouver, assist in Seattle).
Then he went directly into an 18-game goal drought, one away from tying his career-worst skid. And when he snapped out of it? Fifteen points in the team’s final 16 games, including a two-goal performance in a pivotal game vs. Edmonton.
“One thing I will say about Schenner and how proud I was of him (is) certainly in the last eight weeks and how he played for our team in different situations, whether it was at wing or at center,” Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. “I think it shows you the growth of him as a person, as a captain, as a player. I thought he played some of our best hockey in the last eight weeks here where it was really meaningful games. I think that says a lot about the person and the character and the growth of him as a captain.”
Schenn will be back next season as part of a forward group that figures to be mostly the same — Kasperi Kapanen and Sammy Blais were the only two unrestricted free agents — hoping to return to the postseason after back-to-back years of missing the playoffs.
“We feel like we are going to get this right here,” Schenn said. “It’s funny, we’re not sitting here and saying that we’re happy in the position we’re in because we’re out of the playoffs. We feel like we’re a lot closer than what maybe people think.”
Doug Armstrong, St. Louis Blues president of hockey operations and general manager, speaks to members of the press about how he hopes the team will score next season at Centene Community Ice Center on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Video by Vanessa Abbitt, vabbitt@post-dispatch.com
