Brayden Schenn will benefit moving forward having gone through first season as Blues captain

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Brayden Schenn couldn't have been happier at the time.

It's not every day someone is bestowed the honor wearing the captain's 'C' as the ultimate leader on Sept. 20, 2023, something that doesn't come lightly, especially in the NHL.

Now that he has a year under his belt, there were plenty of learning curves, ups and downs, pressure to perform, pressure to right the ship when things didn't go well.

And most importantly, the 32-year-old learned, "a lot," Schenn said.

There's more responsibility than just wearing a 'C.' And Schenn felt the burden of it, especially early in the season. He first went through the longest stretch of his career without scoring a goal, going 16 games (Dec. 2, 2023-Jan. 9, 2024), then if things wouldn't get worse, they would. Schenn would endure an 18-game goalless drought (Jan. 30-March 16).

"I felt early on ... it's funny, you try and get everything to go right ... you want everything to go right and you want everything to go your way and sometimes it doesn't," Schenn said. "I think early on, you worry about everything else that's going on around you and sometimes you kind of forget about worrying about yourself and 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."

But in the end, even going 34 games without scoring in two stretches, Schenn would finish with his eighth 20-goal season this year, finishing with 46 points (20 goals, 26 assists) while playing all 82 games for the second straight season, third time since joining the Blues seven seasons ago and fifth time in his career.

"I thought the second half of the year, you kind of just relaxed a little bit and played hockey," Schenn said. "I think just through the first (year) being a captain, you definitely learn a lot, you learn to lean on the people around you, teammates around you, people from in the hockey world too. I think I've learned a lot and it's going to help me heading into next year and years to come."

Schenn had quite the cast of teammates to lean on, as he mentioned, including Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk, and Robert Thomas among those that wore letters. But even having such a quality group to lean on, when the Blues were not having the success they wanted early in the season, the top leader feels he's failing everyone.

"I'd be lying to you if I didn't go home some days when you're not winning and not playing the way you want, to say that I'm not thinking about it, yeah, 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 kind of trying to create here," Schenn said. "That comes from learning and that comes with talking to guys and leaning on guys around you. We feel like we are going to get this right in here.

"It's funny. We're not sitting here and we're saying that we're happy with the position we're in because we're out of the playoffs, but we feel like we're a lot closer than what maybe people think. We have good pieces in here. We have two stud goalies that some teams don't even have one, right? Right there alone, that gives you a chance to win every single night and that's why we feel like we can make some steps moving into next season."

The Blues improved from 82 points past season to 92 this season with a stronger finish. And when management and coaches told Schenn not to take so much responsibility upon himself, things began to click.

"I thought he did a really good job," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "I think the one thing when I looked back on him and I talked to him is that, 'Breathe, enjoy the process and don't put too much of this on yourself.' 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 that you can be on the ice and 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, and that just comes from maturation.

"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, and then you throw in a coaching change mid-season, it's not like I made this easy on him. It wasn't like, 'Let's name 'Schenner' captain and see how hard I can make it on him.' But I'm not surprised that it ended up where there was a lot of turmoil that he had to deal with. I thought he did a really good job and I think quite honestly with the support of Robert Thomas and [Colton] Parayko and [Justin] Faulk, that eased that for him and I think they've all grown and they're all going to get better at it, and next year's going to be way easier for them than this year was. That's growth."

Schenn came into the season as captain of a Craig Berube-coached team, then had to transition to Drew Bannister, who took over for Berube when he was fired Dec. 12.

"I think being a captain at any level for the first time is tough, and I've been through that," Bannister said. "I think what 'Schenner' went through this year was not only being a first-year captain, but with the change in the coaching, that can be extremely hard on him. The one thing I will say about 'Schenner' and how proud I was of him, certainly in the last eight weeks, was how he played for our team in different situations, whether it was at winger or at center. 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. And I think he's gone through a lot of the ups and downs now, and he's matured because of it, and he's a better person and he's a better captain. I think he's going to be a big, big part of the team's success next year."

Schenn, whose point output was his lowest in a non-COVID season since he had 41 with the Philadelphia Flyers in his third full season in 2013-14, knows now the responsibility as captain doesn't have to be a one-man show and that he is able to lead on a a solid support group.

But one thing that will never change, and that's Schenn will lead by example, on and off the ice and that being captain wasn't everything he thought it would be. There's plenty more to it.

And as far as Blues history lore goes, he's following in the footsteps of Ryan O'Reilly, Alex Pietrangelo, David Backes, Al MacInnis, Chris Pronger, Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull, Bernie Federko, Brian Sutter and others.

"It's a good question. I don't know if "different" is the right word," Schenn said. "I think just a lot early on. I think partially too is I got named captain a couple days before the season started, and with me not knowing it. ... You want everything to go right early and obviously it didn't. We were in a bad spot, we fired our coach and obviously you put pressure and expectations on yourself that you're a reason the coach got let go early and there's different emotions and stuff like that.

"Like I said, I learned a lot over the course of this year and I felt like being a leader is not always easy sometimes and you have to learn and keep on growing. It's funny when you think you know a lot or everything and 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'm lucky to have guys in the organization and people inside this locker room that you can lean on and they definitely make you better as well."