“Whatever I’m doing obviously isn’t working. I’m in the minors for the first time. How do I fix this? There’s some strengths but there’s also some weaknesses.” — Luke Schenn on being sent to the minors for the first time in 2018
Article content
Most people don’t have the benefit of seeing the fork in the road coming at them.
advertisement 2
Article content
For most of us things happen and we make choices. And for some of us they really work out.
In the case of Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luke Schenn, he could see what was coming.
A first-round draft pick in 2008, he made the Toronto Maple Leafs as an 18-year-old. He would not spend a day in the minors for the next 10 years, and came that crucial day where he realized that he might no longer be his reality.
Schenn is the Vancouver chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association’s nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded every year to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. Masterton was the only player in NHL history to die as a direct result of injuries suffered during a game.
advertisement 3
Article content
Last year’s winner was Oskar Lindblom of the Philadelphia Flyers, who summarized his NHL career after fighting off bone cancer.
Schenn has been a calming presence this season on the Vancouver blue-line. He’s spent much of the season alongside Quinn Hughes and hasn’t looked out of place, a strong statement of how hard he’s worked in recent seasons to reinvent his game. He’s still got a hard edge, but his defensive positioning and his first-pass de him make him a player who, at 32, remains essential to this lineup.
On Nov. 18, 2018, Schenn cleared waivers. The Anaheim Ducks had offered him up to the rest of the league and no one was interested in a rugged defenseman who didn’t seem made for how the game had evolved.
Schenn was off to the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League. He was 29 years old, he’d been in the NHL for a decade and didn’t want it to be over.
advertisement 4
Article content
He put his head down and went to work. He had a sympathetic coach in San Diego in Dallas Eakins. That helped.
Schenn knew he still loved the game — “Absolutely love it. You know, eat sleep breathe hockey. And I know it’s not gonna last forever” — but a bigger truth still lingered.
“Whatever I’m doing obviously isn’t working. I’m in the minors for the first time,” he thought. “How do I fix this? There’s some strengths but there’s also some weaknesses.”
The New Year arrived and a call came in from his brother Brayden, who was watched in a scoring slump with the St. Louis Blues. And yes, your memory works here, these are the worst-to-first St. Louis Blues, who would go on to win the Stanley Cup.
Brayden called to say that on the advice of teammate Ryan O’Reilly, he’d been working with skills coach Adam Oates. Oates, considered one of the greatest passers in NHL history, had been head coach of the Washington Capitals for a time but was now working as a private coach for elite players.
advertisement 5
Article content
“Oates, he never goes looking for guys ever,” Schenn said. “But he told my brother after a week of working with him, ‘hey look, I just got to ask, I used to coach against your brother Luke. Do you know why he is in the minors?’”
An hour later, Schenn was on the phone with Oates.
“I want to figure this out,” he told Oates.
Three days later, the Ducks traded Schenn to the Canucks. But his new team from him was hard up against the salary cap, so then-GM Jim Benning told Schenn and his agent that the veteran defenseman would have to stay in the AHL and go to Utica for the time being.
“I just want a chance,” Schenn said.
So he set to work and within a couple days called Canucks senior director of player development Ryan Johnson, who was also GM of the Utica Comets.
advertisement 6
Article content
“I give RJ all the credit because he let someone from outside the team come in. He was like, ‘Yeah, if you want to work on your game, OK, no problem.’”
And so Schenn hired Oates and Oates joined him in Utica. The two would work together one-on-one before the regular Utica practices.
“It was like I was doing doubles.”
And the work changed his game and has brought him back to the NHL.
“The one thing he told me is you used to get away with things when the game was different, being a physical stay-at-home defenseman. But you need to incorporate puck-handling. You can’t just get it and not stick handle it and throw it off the glass because there’s more to the game than that,” Schenn said.
“Which was what I was always taught coming into the league is like, don’t get the puck, just move it. Be physical in the corners, be physical in front of the net.
“You’ve got to evolve.”
More news, fewer ads: Our in-depth journalism is possible thanks to the support of our subscribers. For just $3.50 per week, you can get unlimited, ad-lite access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: Vancouver Sun | The Province.
