The St. Louis Blues traded captain Brayden Schenn to the New York Islanders on Friday in exchange for a 2026 first-round pick (the Colorado Avalanche\u2019s), a third-rounder, veteran winger Jonathan Drouin and goalie prospect Marcus Gidlof.<\/p>\n
Schenn, 34, whose contract goes through 2028 with a $6.5 million cap hit, has 12 goals and 28 points in 61 games this season.<\/p>\n
The Blues attempted to trade Schenn at the deadline last season, but he held a full no-trade clause and wanted to stay. This season, his clause shifted to a modified 15-team no-trade list. The Islanders weren\u2019t on the list of teams he\u2019d approved, per league sources, so he had to waive the no-trade clause for the deal to go through.<\/p>\n
With the Blues hovering near the bottom of the NHL standings and showing their intention<\/a> to take a step back with the trade attempts of Robert Thomas<\/a> and Colton Parayko<\/a>, Schenn realized that the time to move was now.<\/p>\n Having spent nine of his 17 NHL seasons with St. Louis, including being a member of the Stanley Cup-winning team in 2019, Schenn was a respected leader. He was named captain of the club in 2023 after former captain Ryan O\u2019Reilly was dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n Schenn has been a top-six center for much of his career but can also play either wing. While the Blues have struggled the past couple of seasons and Schenn\u2019s offensive production has fallen off, he\u2019s a physical forward who brings playoff experience to a Cup contender.<\/p>\n Drouin is in the first year of a two-year, $4 million average-annual-value deal. He was coming off a pair of strong seasons in Colorado (93 points in 122 games) but had only seven points in his final 38 games with the Islanders.<\/p>\n Drouin had a productive start to the season with 14 points in the first 17 games, so a change of scenery could help him get back to a better level. If it does, St. Louis could potentially flip him over the summer or next deadline for further futures.<\/p>\n Gidlof was set to rank seventh in The Athletic\u2019s Scott Wheeler\u2019s Islanders prospect rankings.<\/p>\n What it means for the Blues<\/p>\n The Blues will be ushering in a new core, as one of the few remaining holdovers from the 2019 Stanley Cup team moves on. While there have been plenty of questions about the Blues\u2019 leadership the past few seasons, Schenn has never been questioned in that regard by anyone in the organization.<\/p>\n There was some hesitation to trade him last season because the club knew it could benefit from the impact he has on younger players. His presence will still be missed, but it is time for players such as Jake Neighbours, 23, to have a bigger voice in the room.<\/p>\n On the ice, Schenn was a versatile forward who could play center and wing, but the Blues have plenty of prospects who can help replace his production.<\/p>\n And they\u2019ll soon have even more with another two 2026 first-round picks acquired Friday, even if the one in this deal will be at the end of the first.<\/p>\n Gidlof helps the prospect pool, as well. The Athletic\u2019s prospect expert Corey Pronman said he\u2019s a fan of Gidlof and called him a legit goalie prospect. \u201cHe\u2019s huge and moves well for his size and has decent hockey sense,\u201d Pronman said. \u201cHe has a chance to be a tandem goalie in the NHL.\u201d<\/p>\n Wheeler added that he\u2019s a \u201ctowering 6-foot-7 goalie who has been one of the youngest players in the SHL the last two seasons. A little slow up and down, but fills the bottom of the net. Good young goalie.\u201d \u2014 Rutherford<\/p>\n What it means for the Islanders<\/p>\n Schenn\u2019s scoring numbers are down with a Blues team that has struggled this season, but he had 50 points last season and has plenty of playoff experience, including the Cup win in 2019. The Islanders presumably hope his level of play will tick up now that he\u2019s on a team contending for a playoff spot. He should bolster the team\u2019s middle-six forward group and be an upgrade on Drouin.<\/p>\n It\u2019s proved costly to acquire centers at this year\u2019s trade deadline, and general manager Mathieu Darche paid a high price, especially given Schenn\u2019s age. Darche had previously said he would be willing to move a first-round pick this deadline if the right deal presented itself. New York has an extra first thanks to the Brock Nelson trade to the Avalanche at last year\u2019s deadline. That\u2019s the pick they moved, which figures to be right at the end of the first round. \u2014 Baugh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The St. Louis Blues traded captain Brayden Schenn to the New York Islanders on Friday in exchange for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99,1610],"class_list":["post-509426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-st-louis-blues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}