For Jakub Vrana, forward sees new lease on life on, off ice with Blues after recent experience with Red Wings

ST. LOUIS -- With Jakub Vrana set to face the Detroit Red Wings for the the first time Tuesday since being dealt to the Blues on March 3, there will certainly be some amped up moments.

As he's embarking on a new chapter with the Blues, it's the recent chapter in his life both personally and professionally the forward is more than happy to turn.

To call the 27-year-old's tenure in the Motor City tumultuous is putting it mildly, and it started even before Vrana entered at the start of this season the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, which provides support for players and/or families with mental health and substance abuse among the main offerings and provides counseling.

The 13th pick in the 2014 NHL Draft couldn't have kick-started his NHL career any better than winning a Stanley Cup his first full season with the Washington Capitals in 2018 as a 21-year-old (he played 21 games in 2016-17), something he has in common with the Blues' Robert Thomas, who won it with the Blues the following year in 2019.

Vrana learned from some terrific players in Washington, including Alex Ovechkin.

"Overall, for growth as a player, I was really lucky to be on a team like that, my first couple years in the league," Vrana said. "My linemates I played with, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie, those two guys I played with. Evgeny Kuznetzov, Tom Wilson, I played with a lot of good players on the team and they helped me to grow. Overall, as you can ask some of the guys in this locker room, 'How was it to win the Cup?' I think the most important thing is that we were really holding together as a group. We kind of put the pieces together, but most important thing was we had fun together. We wanted to play together, we had fun together, we wanted to go to battle together. We just believed that could happen and we held onto it. We knew we had the pieces and it was a great first couple years in the league.

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"That was my rookie year. Robert Thomas experienced the same thing. When you win the first year in the league, man, it's incredible. You get the feel of the most amazing thing like right away hockey-wise. Obviously it hurts more the year after when it didn't happen again and the year after when it didn't happen. You want it more and more and it doesn't happen again, it's really frustrating, but at the same time, you know you have experience both ways. You have experience of losing in the first round of the playoffs and you have the experience of winning it all. You have the taste of both sides. The guys here, they know too, some of them were on the team in 2019. It's an amazing feeling."

Thomas knows the feeling of winning it all too well.

"The biggest takeaway is how lucky you are and how fortunate you are to get it out of the way early, but at the same time, once you win it once, you love that taste," Thomas said. "We've said that the last couple years that we want that taste back in our mouths and that's what we're playing for. That experience he brings is huge and it's something that's built into our team."

Vrana finished with 27 points (13 goals, 13 assists) in 73 regular-season games and eight points (three goals, five assists) in 23 Stanley Cup playoff games helping the Capitals reach the pinnacle and was hoping for a long and advanced career in Washington.

"I know some players have to wait a couple years, or multiple years, some guys don't even win, but just the road to the Cup, just that one year for everybody, going through the first round, second round, third, final, you see the teams coming at you," Vrana said. "The games are decided by inches. There's little inches. There's not a difference between those teams in the playoffs. There's little inches that change the games. You don't realize until you go through it how difficult it is. Going through that the first year was a really good start to the career for sure."

But then came the unexpected. Vrana was traded to the Red Wings along with Richard Panik and a first-round pick in 2021 and a second-round pick in 2022 for Anthony Mantha. The Capitals were going for it again, and Vrana became expendable despite four-plus solid seasons in Washington, including 24- and 25-goal seasons in back-to-back years.

"That was really tough," Vrana said. "I didn't expect it at all. I thought my position on the team with the Capitals, how I've been there since Day 1 since the draft, I thought I would get more opportunity and spend more time there, but unfortunately, that's not what the management wanted. They obviously traded me to Detroit and in Detroit, it was totally different just going from one team to another. The group of people, they're unbelievable guys down there for sure, but just a younger group of a guys, a totally different situation. You're on a team that hasn't been in the playoffs for five years or how long. It's a new challenge. You take it as a new challenge, you're really excited to help the team get to the playoffs and all that with the pieces there, but I came from a veteran group of guys that had the experience to a team that was younger. They just don't know what to expect from the league. So it was a little different."

Vrana actually finished as a point-per-game player with the Red Wings in 11 games (eight goals, three assists) to finish the 2020-21 season. It was so good that Detroit signed the speedy winger to a three-year, $15.75 million contract ($5.25 million average annual value) on Aug. 10, 2021, and he had 19 points (13 goals, six assists) in the ensuing season in 26 games despite missing 56 games with a shoulder injury, but this season is when it all came crashing down.

Vrana played two games before being scratched for personal reasons, more specifically came information that he was taking a leave of absence and heading into the player assistance program. He didn't want to get into the specifics of why he was there, but he returned to action on Feb. 21 after spending six weeks there before being reinstated in mid-December.

It was obvious already that the bridges had been burned in Detroit, which didn't put Vrana immediately back in the lineup. He was eventually placed on waivers on Jan. 3 and assigned him to Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League after going unclaimed before being recalled on Feb. 14, played three games (no points).

"Unfortunately, things happen during my career and Detroit did not accept it really well I guess as you can tell," Vrana said. "When I left the program, I didn't get any chance really much. The decision was to send me down through waivers right away without even a game, go to the AHL. That was shocking to me. I had this type of career, but I did it. I accepted it like it is. I'm just a player. I can't make decisions like that, so I just accept it, go and work hard. I tried to do my best down there. Finally I got called up, got scratched first four games and then I already kind of knew like this is it, it wasn't working. I think hockey-wise it could work, to be honest. I think hockey-wise it was there. I just think for some reason, I don't really know what's behind it. I had to take care of some (personal) stuff outside the locker room, outside the hockey rink. I came back and felt like a new person. It was totally different. Guys are nice, and the organization are really good people. It's just that it was a little frustrating to me. I expected a little bit more trust and a little bit more (of a) chance to kind of put the pieces together again. That didn't work."

Then came the new lease on life, on and off the ice.

The Blues took a flyer on a player they feel is in the prime years of his career, a player that they feel could fit into the fabric of how they want to build with a mid-20s core group and acquired Vrana at the trade deadline this year for unsigned draftee forward Dylan McLaughlin and a seventh-round pick in 2025. The Red Wings were so anxious to turn the page on Vrana, they retained 50 percent of his salary this year and next year and took virtually next to nothing in return.

It's a chance that could make general manager Doug Armstrong look like a genius if it pans out.

"I'm excited about the player," Armstrong said. "Obviously he's a first-round pick, he's won a Stanley Cup, got traded to Detroit and had some off-ice issues that he's not running from and we're not running from. He spent time in the players' assistant program and is out now and is looking for a fresh start to his career and we're looking forward to giving him that. He's a talented player, a good skater that can score goals. 

"I'm a big believer in second chances or second opportunities. We're here to help these guys get along and at 26 and 27 and 25 years old, what a great opportunity to get things in order and resurrect and push your career along and hopefully we can be the vehicle to allow these guys to do that. We did our research and you understand the risk, but there's probably a lot of those players that have that risk that we don't even know about them yet. And not just players, but people in general. Who knows what happens behind closed doors in anyone's life. I'm excited to work with these guys and help them get back to the status that they want on the ice, that's the main thing and make sure they're healthy off the ice. All of our players, we want them to have successful lives and be successful hockey players."

The Blues, who are retooling their roster, were more than willing to take the risk at a modest $2.625 million per season on a player with 30-goal potential.

"I got that call that I got traded over here and not just get traded to find another opportunity, but over here, it's amazing," said Vrana, who scored Sunday and has four goals in four games, five goals and an assist in seven games with the Blues. "I'm happy to be here. It reminds me of that veteran group (in Washington), a little bit more experienced group here that we have within the team. Even last year, this team made the playoffs, this team knows how to win games. Something just didn't click this year, I wasn't here, I can't tell you what. But from now on and into the future, I'm really excited to be here."

And excited to prove himself all over again after an eye-opening experience.

"I see a guy that's really looking to please for sure," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "That's a good thing. Now, he's just got to take the next step for me, and it's just pushing himself to get back to the player he was.

"The thing with Vrana is he hasn't played a lot for a year. We've got to remember that with the injury and the other stuff, he hasn't played a lot of hockey, so it's going to take time. You can see what he can bring though with his speed, he's got really good hands. There's a lot of potential there, but it's going to take some time."

And now that he has a new lease on life, Vrana hopes to build his resume up with the Blues, take in this experience and get back to fighting for championships rather than fighting whatever demons grabbed him in the recent past, and he just feels coming out on the other end of it will be beneficial in being who he wants to be again, as a player and as a person.

"For sure, I think so," Vrana said. "I think every little thing like that, everything that comes to your life somehow, you either learn from it or it takes you down. It puts you down on your knees and keeps you there. I learned from it, I had some challenges in my life, I'm not going to lie. We all do. But I stand up and I look face-to-face to them. I still think I did the right thing (in seeking help). Some people didn't like that and they didn't accept it. It's their decision and everything negative and bad is sometimes for good. Now I'm here and it's a new opportunity. I cannot be happier than to join this club.

"I'm basically living in the present right now. I'm here right now and I want to do good things. I want to work on the details and stuff like that that can help the team and see how the future is. Sometimes it's a business, it's all this stuff around. I believe in this opportunity and I believe I can be part of this team. Those decisions go by me. I'm just here to play hockey and see how the rest goes."

And as far as Vrana goes, the rest would be fitting to have a long, extended stay in St. Louis, because St. Louis took a chance on a player that was in a sense, needing a change of scenery.

Vrana had the underside of his nose and upper lip sliced open by an errant teammate's skate blade during a drill ... and didn't miss a game. That's a heck of a step in proving your worth and value to a team right off the hop.

"One-hundred percent. I see that somebody needed me," said Vrana, who's skating on a line with Thomas and Jordan Kyrou giving it quite the dynamic of speed and skill. "(In Detroit), I know I wasn't available for the team for six weeks because I had to leave, and I basically came back and I lost my spot on the roster suddenly like right away. This team gave me a chance and there's a huge appreciation from my side obviously. I see a chance that I get to be here and work hard with these guys and help this team to win games and just build for the future. Whatever's in front of us, just face it. What's really important about this is you've got to leave the past in the past. When that happens, it can't haunt you. Whatever it was in the past is in the past. I'm looking forward and I'm looking in the future.

"I for sure would love to be here, but I've got to come here, I've got to deserve it, I've got to earn it and I'm going to play hard and make that decision for other people."