Schenn named Blues captain, replaces O’Reilly
Forward had 65 points in 2022-23, entering 7th season with St. Louis
Schenn was named captain of the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old forward replaces Ryan O’Reilly, who was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 17.
“This is a pretty special day,” Schenn said during a press conference Tuesday. “Standing up here being the captain of the St. Louis Blues, is something I’ll remember forever.”
Schenn is the 24th captain in Blues history and joins a list that includes Red Berenson, Bob and Barclay Plager, Bernie Federko, Brett Hull, Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis, Alex Pietrangelo and Wayne Gretzky.
“The St. Louis Blues are a pretty historic franchise with many great leaders,” Schenn said. “If you look at the list of guys being captain of the St. Louis Blues before with the Plager brothers to Bernie Federko, the kind of era I grew up watching with Gretzky, Hull, Pronger, MacInnis. To be in history with the St. Louis Blues of being a captain with those guys is pretty special and a tremendous honor and I’m excited for that opportunity and challenge.
“Most recently with ‘Petro’ and Ryan O’ Reilly. I learned a ton from those guys. Those guys were were great leaders, different leaders. Just from my experiences, I’m just going to try and lean on that and on my 13 years of playing and move this team in the right direction. I see the team and the whole organization to hold ourselves to a high standard. We have a vision for this team. We feel we have goals that we are going to shoot for this year. Everyone’s hungry and ready to go this year and there’s a good energy in our locker room right now. I know camp hasn’t started, but there’s a good excitement and we’re looking forward to this upcoming season.”
Schenn, an alternate captain the previous three seasons, is entering his seventh season with the Blues after he was acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers on June 23, 2017. He had 65 points (21 goals, 44 assists) in 82 regular-season games last season and has 341 points (131 goals, 210 assists) in 425 games for St. Louis, including an NHL-best 70 points (28 goals, 42 assists) in 82 games in 2017-18, his first season with the team.
Schenn had 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 26 postseason games to help the Blues win the Stanley
Cup in 2019.
