ST. LOUIS — Jonathan Drouin’s emotions Tuesday were nowhere near as complicated to unpack as Brayden Schenn’s since, after all, he was an Islander for just a handful of months.
Still, the newest St. Louis Blue will miss New York plenty.
“It kind of sucks. Had a good start to the season, obviously, was producing, helping the team. Kind of hit a wall there a little bit,” Drouin said before the Blues’ overtime loss to the Islanders. “But only good things to say from management, [Mathieu Darche], [Patrick Roy], all the players, it was awesome. It’s a great group there.
“There’s a reason why we surprised a lot of people. How guys handled themselves in the room and how tight the group is. I missed those guys. It was a fun little stretch there.”
Drouin was included in the deal that brought Schenn to the Islanders largely to cushion the salary cap impact of taking on Schenn’s $6.5 million salary.
Though Drouin had kept a top six role for the entire year, general manager Mathieu Darche admitted he had lost some confidence due to severe scoring struggles — when traded, Drouin hadn’t scored since mid-November, nearly half the season.
Naturally, he broke the drought in his first game as a Blue. So maybe the change of scenery helped.
“Every time you get traded, even when I came to the Island, you try to help the team any way you can,” Drouin said. “Go talk to the coaches and make sure. A lot of thinking right now on the ice. The details and systems are a little different, but you try to help any way you can. It’s been pretty easy. The guys have been great, the staff’s been great. The transition’s going pretty well.”
Since the Islanders and Blues were staying at the same hotel in San Jose when the trade was consummated, Drouin and Schenn have interacted more than two players traded for each other normally would.
They ran into each other when Schenn was coming out of the Blues’ meal room on deadline day, and Schenn has even taken over Drouin’s lease in New York.
“It’s a very bizarre situation where that doesn’t happen to guys 99 percent of the time,” Schenn said. “We’re just the two guys caught in the middle of it right now. Guys speak extremely highly of him in the locker room here in New York. I know he wasn’t here that long, but just left an impact on his teammates of how he was as a guy.”
