MARYLAND HEIGHTS. Mo. -- The smile on Alexander Steen's face Monday was like he never left the St. Louis Blues locker room.
The 39-year-old is in a better place than he was nearly three years ago, when he was basically forced to retire from the game after 15 seasons.
Steen has been on the ice this week for prospect camp, which concludes on Tuesday, after being hired as a European player development consultant recently.
"It's great, really good to be back, yeah," Steen said Monday. at Centene Community Ice Center.
It's a far cry from when Steen announced his retirement from the NHL after 15 seasons and 1,018 regular-season games due to multiple levels of degenerative herniated discs of his lumbar spine.
Steen, who has been working with the team during prospect camp July 1-4, was in considerable amount of pain that forced him from the game he loved; he didn't require surgery and now feels better.
"It's calmed down a lot," Steen said. "Now I'm able to be more active. It was a while there when I wasn't very active. Last year started a little bit more, so now I'm more active, but still got to be a little conscious. I don't want to go back to where I was."
It was only a matter of time before Steen, who played with the Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs and had 545 points (245 goals, 377 assists) in 15 seasons, winning a Stanley Cup with the Blues in 2019 would get himself back on the ice; whether it be in a coaching role, or the one he's involved with now.
"Working with the kids and being back in this organization and the city, contributing in some way, helping the development of the guys and helping them work on detail stuff, maybe talk a little bit with them about what to expect here in St. Louis as a city," Steen said. "It's like with the big club with the guys in that room, kind of sort of the identity that's in that group.
"Things have kind of calmed down family-wise and you let yourself kind of unwind after a long time playing and everything that comes with that. Just took some time but stayed up to date and kept tabs a lot. Obviously you miss it from the first day. I missed St. Louis a lot too. I haven't been in and out as much as I had hoped here after I retired but lately have been coming back a little bit more. Happy about that."
He wasn't happy to hang up the blades when he did, and admittedly so, got himself physically in order to tackle this new challenge.
"I wouldn't say easy. It's taken a long time to unwind, to like calm down a little bit," Steen said. "That's been a little bit of an adjustment. But now, the pace of life is a little bit slower and things like that. It's been good. It's been great, spending a lot of time with the family. But I'm really excited about this. It's fun, you've got great kids and you're back and working with the guys here and this organization. I'm pumped."
Steen has spent the past two years living in Sweden as the sports manager of IF Sundsvall Hockey, which plays in HockeyEttan, before taking the job with the Blues. It's kept him busy, involved in the game and helping grow the game in one of his native lands. Steen was born in Winnipeg to Swedish parents.
"Mostly like helping with strategic things," he said. "The European clubs are obviously built differently of you're under-9's all the way up to junior teams under-18, under-20 and then your men's team. It's been a lot about trying to help that club strategically, talking with the city about helping get more ice times, to help them build a gym and just so that they're creating better tools for the players that are there and then growing the girls game as well. There's a lot of girls that started playing hockey in the last few years, like it's really growing over there. Trying to support them with that and then obviously my dad [Thomas is] with the juniors a little bit more and I've been with the men's team a little bit more helping them."
It's no coincidence that the Blues selected their three first-round picks at last week's NHL Draft in Nashville using all three players that played in Sweden last season, including Slovakian Dalibor Dvorsky with the 10th pick, and Swedish-born Otto Stenberg at No. 25 and Theo Lindstein at No. 29.
"Well, it was good for me. I've got some work to do. It was fun," Steen said. "Because I'm over there, I see them more. I know them a a little bit, the way they play as opposed to Western Hockey League players that I haven't seen. When they get called, I kind of have a visual of what they look like, so that was fun.
"... Our guys know. They have a good eye on these kids. It's more on if they just have questions about character or other things like that, if there's anything else they can support their opinions with, but great character kids. They've got a lot of passion. This week's been great, it's been a lot of fun. They're excited."
They are excited.
"He was a really good player and it's really fun to have him here," Stenberg said of Steen. "A Swede too and he's easy to talk to to keep the contact with us during the season. It's really good and I think it's going to be a really good help for me for sure."
It still gives Steen a chance to work with prospects abroad, since he will be spending most of his time in Europe.
"I think just help supporting the kids, and especially now, we drafted a few Swedes there in the first round," Steen said. "Even 'Dali's playing over in Sweden too.
"I'll be talking to those guys. This week's been great. I'll have a personal connection with the guys, getting to know them on a personal level. Obviously very talented hockey players."
Steen, who was acquired from the Maple Leafs along with defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo in November of 2008 for Lee Stempniak, ranks fourth in Blues history in games played (765), 10th in goals (195), sixth in assists (301) and sixth in points (496). Only two Blues (Brett Hull and Alex Pietrangelo) have played more playoff games with the franchise than Steen, who appeared in 91 postseason games.
His crowning achievement came in 2019 when he helped the Blues to their first-ever Stanley Cup, a moment that's still talked about.
"It's special. My dad said something one time about what he sees in the run and it's true," Steen said. "There's so many memories, the connection we had with the city and on a personal level, how much so many people have helped me out throughout ... this is home for us. Even though we haven't been physically living here in the last couple years, it's still like home for us. We come back here and it's just like we never left. We were here in April and May for a long time. All the fans, the passion that's in the town. You see what's going on with St. Louis the soccer team [St. Louis City SC] too. All that stuff kind of comes out when you see the logo now. It's got a big meaning for sure.
"... Especially hockey people, we talk about it a little bit. I'm curious of other teams that have had success, what they talked about, what they were going through, what they talked about, what they felt. I'm just trying to learn more from those experiences. But I was really proud of our team here, all the years I was here. We played really hard. Guys gave us what they had on a nightly basis. There's a lot of those memories we still go through."