Blues captain was ready to welcome 2022 first-round pick if he chose to make jump, supported whatever decision 19-year-old made
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Brayden Schenn wasn't there to be persuasive for Jimmy Snuggerud, but he was more than happy to be a sounding board if needed.
That's more or less the conversation between the St. Louis Blues captain and the franchise's first-round pick (23rd overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft that took place within the past few days before Snuggerud announced on Wednesday that he would return to the University of Minnesota for his junior season.
The Blues were more than ready to welcome the forward and sign him to an entry-level contract if he chose to leave school after being eliminated in the Sioux Falls Regional championship game, 6-3, against Boston University, but for the time being, Snuggerud, 19, wants another crack at a National Championship after falling short his freshman season.
"I talked to him on the phone before the last game," Schenn said. "I drove to the rink. He's represented by the same agents with [Ben] Hankinson and [Chris] McAlpine. The phone call wasn't a pitch or anything. It was just more so talk to him and welcome him to the Blues if he wants to come. There's not much I can say. I'm not trying to persuade a kid or anything like that. That's not my job. He'll probably go back to college, dominate another year and be more ready.
"Whatever he feels is good for his development. I haven't really watched him play, I don't know where he's at. That's really for Doug [Armstrong] and the management team to pick and choose what they think is best. I'm a junior (hockey) guy, so I don't have the college experience or playing college hockey, feeling if you're ready or not. For me personally, you want to try and make it to the NHL as fast as possible and that's kind of the way I approached it as a young guy, but it's different now. The college game's different. It's still good hockey. Whether he feels like he's ready or not, it's another year from now and I'm sure he'll just be more ready."
Snuggerud had 21 goals and 13 assists in 39 games but only three goals the final 15 games. Was the this decision weighing on his mind? Probably and likely affected his play.
"It's just a high stress situation where a young kid and doesn't know what to do," Schenn said. "Obviously he wants to play in the NHL, no doubt about that. At the same time, I'm sure he's enjoying what he's doing with his buddies there, being a star of Minnesota. There's obviously a lot of back and forth. At the end of the day, if he feels that's his best decision, that's no problem with that at all."
A decision Blues interim coach Drew Bannister also understood.
"He's still, correct me if I'm wrong, he's 19 years old," Bannister said. "I think it comes down to the player and doing what he thinks is best for him and certainly education is ... I came from junior hockey. We pushed education on our players. Anything can happen to these players. One day they're playing hockey and the next, they can have an injury that they're not able to play. Being able to get your education from a good school like that and be able to play hockey, I can certainly understand the decision that he made, but at the end of the day, it's not my department."
