Brayden Schenn (Photo courtesy of Madison Peyser/New York Islanders)
New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy knows exactly what Brayden Schenn is going through.
“It’s hard, I played 10 years in Montreal,” the Hall-of-Fame netminder said. “The first game [with the Colorado Avalanche], it was not my best one. We lost against Edmonton.”
Schenn, 34, had played parts of nine seasons with the St. Louis Blues, which included a Stanley Cup championship in 2019, before he was dealt to the Islanders shortly before the NHL’s trade deadline on Friday afternoon.
One day later, he was suiting up for his new team, playing 17-and-a-half minutes and centering the second line alongside Cal Ritchie and Ondrej Palat in New York’s 2-1 overtime victory over the San Jose Sharks.
“He was great,” Roy said. “It’s not easy doing what he did and coming in, new team, and playing as well as he did. Especially playing against a tough line like the [Macklin] Celebrini line… He played a really good game. He had a really solid start. I think he clicked really well with Palat and Ritchie, I was very happy with his game.
“For him to be in St. Louis for 10 years, coming in tonight, I know he’s played for different teams before, and this isn’t his first trade… but I thought he played really well in that circumstance.”
For Schenn, there will understandably be some growing pains in getting acclimated to a new system on the fly with just 18 games remaining in the regular season, but the change of scenery is a welcome one. St. Louis attempted to be a significant seller at the trade deadline, as it sits near the bottom of the Central Division, just one point ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks for last place. While they could not find deals for Jordan Kyrou or Robert Thomas, they were able to send Schenn to a surprising contender.
With the Islanders’ win on Saturday night in San Jose, they leapfrogged the Pittsburgh Penguins for second place in the Metropolitan Division.
“Do I think I had my A-game? No. But I tried to buy into the team’s system and do whatever they asked me to do,” Schenn said (h/t Islanders official website). “I feel like I have more offensively to give, but at the same time, I feel happy to be a part of a win. It’s a special group where you could tell there’s a belief in here and a group of guys who are really pushing for the playoffs.”
The former Cup winner was Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche’s largest gift to his team this trade deadline. The first-year boss repeatedly expressed a desire to “reward” his team for being ahead of schedule and in the thick of the playoff hunt. Schenn bolsters the team’s middle six down the middle, allowing the rookie Ritchie to flex to the wing. It makes New York’s lineup far more dependable than it was with Jonathan Drouin, who was traded to St. Louis, or Anthony Duclair, who has been rooted to the bench in recent weeks.
“We always say that we want to be hard to play against. We have to have some snarl. Brayden fits that,” Darche said. “You should see some of the texts we got from former players and players that had been with him — the type of player he is. He’s a playoff guy; he plays hard. If something happens, he’s not afraid to defend a teammate. He’s scored 20 goals multiple times in his career, so we just feel that he’s going to help us down the middle and give us a lot of flexibility… We have a lot more options. He’s a competitor.
“That’s what you want this time of year, when you play after the deadline and in the playoffs, it’s fighting for every inch on the ice, being able to take a hit and dish out hits. We want to be physical. Brayden does that, and I think he fits exactly what we need right now.”
That satisfaction of needs appears to be overwhelmingly mutual, as Schenn waived his no-trade clause to come to the Islanders for this stretch run and for the final two years of his contract.
“This is what hockey’s all about,” Schenn said. “It’s about playing for one another, it’s about buying into each other, buying into a system, and striving for the same goal, and that’s to make the playoffs. Once you make the playoffs, anyone really has a chance. You have to keep pushing day by day here and have a belief in the locker room that we’re gonna rely on one another, and guys are going to do their job and go game by game here for two points.”
For more on Brayden Schenn and the Islanders, visit AMNY.com