Veteran NHL defenseman Luke Schenn was unable to play in Game 5 of his Nashville Predators’ first-round playoff tilt against Vancouver, but there’s no doubt he gives it his all. And in this cover story from The Hockey News’ Nov. 24, 2008, edition (Vol. 62, Issue 10), this writer spotlighted Schenn as he acclimated to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ roster.
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After Schenn was picked fifth overall by the Leafs, fans and media expected much of him. In that first season – the season in which The Hockey News interviewed him – Schenn had a modest two goals and 14 points in 70 games.
He may not have turned into the next Tim Horton – an elite, physical competitor who would make Toronto a defensive leviathan – but Schenn evolved into a solid second- or third-pair defenseman and a back-to-back Stanley Cup winner with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
While he eventually got used to the mass gatherings of media and the interest of fans, Schenn admitted he was taken aback by the spotlight.
“I wouldn’t say it’s completely sunk in yet,” Schenn said of being a Leaf. “When I first came in here it was a bit of an eye-opener. I mean, you don’t see 30 media people in the room after a pre-game skate in too many places. I knew people around here loved the Leafs, but they live and die by them. But it’s pretty cool – and it’s all part of the territory of being a Toronto Maple Leaf.”
The now-34-year-old Schenn has played 996 regular-season games, and he’ll reach that 1,000-game plateau early next season with the Predators. Schenn gave it his all for all the teams he’s played on, and he’s got much to be proud of in his pro hockey career.
“His composure, his poise, is unbelievable, especially at his age,” said then-Leafs defenseman Jeff Finger. “When he gets the puck in the corner and turns his back to protect the puck, there’s a lot of defensemen, including myself, that would probably just throw it up the boards. And when he got into a fight with (Senators tough guy Chris) Neil earlier this season to stand up for (teammate) Matt Stajan, you can’t say enough good things about him.”
THE CLASS OF 2008
Vol. 62, No. 10, Nov. 24, 2008
By Adam Proteau
In 1985, the Toronto Maple Leafs made a Saskatchewan-born teenager their first pick in the NHL entry draft – and things worked out quite well for both the team and a low-key, high-impact young gentleman named Wendel Clark.
Twenty-three years later, history appears to be repeating. The only difference is, this time around, Leafs Nation has fallen head over heels not for a quiet-but-quake-making forward, but rather, a polite-but-punishing defensive defenseman named Luke Schenn.
OK, there are a couple other differences between the two: Clark hails from the tiny farming community of Kelvington, Schenn from the comparative metropolis of Saskatoon. Clark stood a shade or three under 6-feet; Schenn is 6-foot-2 and still growing.
Other than that, though, it’s almost uncanny how similar Schenn’s current situation is to the one Clark faced when he made the jump directly from major junior to the NHL.
In the same way Clark represented hope in the 1980s for a Leafs franchise that was virtually hope-orexic, Schenn symbolizes the upside of the organization’s future today. Of equal importance is that Schenn serves as another example of the steady stream of teenage talents (including Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane and Steven Stamkos) who have set up shop in the NHL straight out of the amateur scene, leaving the future of the league in very good – if barely broken-in – hands.
“One of the reasons I’m so excited for the years that are ahead of the National Hockey League is because of kids like Luke,” said NBC/TSN analyst and former NHL coach Pierre McGuire, one of Schenn’s most vocal and fervent supporters. “Part of that obviously is because of the skill development you see in them at such a young age, but also because these young guys respect the game and its history so much.”
McGuire saw Schenn’s curiosity first-hand when he sat down in Toronto with the 19-year-old (and Schenn’s younger brother Brayden, a star center for the Western League’s Brandon Wheat Kings and a sure-fire high draft pick in 2009) for dinner in early November.
“Luke was asking me about hockey history and I was just blown away,” McGuire said. “He wanted to know about Chicago and what it was like in the old Stadium. He wanted to know about different players, about (McGuire’s former) team in Pittsburgh. You can see he’s so interested in the evolution of the game. That’s the kind of person you build hockey teams around.”
Toronto’s management group agreed with McGuire when the organization traded up in the 2008 draft to select Schenn fifth overall. At the same time, they weren’t expecting him to make the NHL squad in his initial attempt. And after Schenn’s first game action in a Leafs uniform, it seemed as if he would head back to his WHL team in Kelowna for further seasoning.
“He didn’t look comfortable in our rookie tournament,” said Leafs coach Ron Wilson. “It looked like he was trying too hard…but we saw that, in his first real (NHL) exhibition game, the more competitive it was out there and the more structure we gave him, the more Luke fit right in.”
Media and fan interest in Schenn quickly reached a fever pitch in Toronto, but Schenn had to convince the Leafs coach he was ready for the NHL.
“There’s no doubt we had high hopes for him, but we were serious and sincere when we said he had to be among our top four D-men to stay with the team,” Wilson said. “If he slides – I mean, he might not, but at some point this year, I expect that he might – and he was our fifth or sixth defenseman, he slides right out of the lineup. But if he’s the third or fourth defenseman and he slips, he slips to fifth or sixth.
“The most important thing for us was, although we knew he was physically ready, you’re only going to know over time whether he’s emotionally capable of handling it. But we haven’t protected him at all here, because you can’t protect him from the media and that presence. So he’s going to have cameras in his face and that doesn’t faze him.”
It might not faze Schenn, but the whirlwind of attention and packs of paparazzi haven’t exactly become second nature to him, either.
“I wouldn’t say it’s completely sunk in yet,” Schenn said. “When I first came in here it was a bit of an eye-opener. I mean, you don’t see 30 media people in the room after a pre-game skate in too many places. I knew people around here loved the Leafs, but they live and die by them.
“But it’s pretty cool – and it’s all part of the territory of being a Toronto Maple Leaf.”
With the season less than two months old, Schenn still was in the process of marking his territory as a player and a teammate. Fortunately, his calm disposition was helping him adjust in all areas.
“I’m impressed watching how he interacts in the dressing room,” said Wilson of Schenn. “You know rookies are going to get hazed – and not in the way I might have been hazed when I was a player, where you got physically threatened – but you still take a lot of abuse. People say things and they’ll make fun of you and with Luke, it’s all water off a duck’s back.
“I saw the same thing with (young Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard) Vlasic when I was in San Jose. Both guys have the ability to laugh that stuff off and not internalize anything.”
Added another Leafs newcomer, defenseman Jeff Finger: “It’s kind of crazy to imagine what he’s going through as a 19-year-old right now, a star in a town like Toronto. I can’t imagine that kind of change in your life at that age. But Luke doesn’t have a big head, where he easily could in that situation. It’d be hard not to, to be honest.”
It could be even more difficult if Schenn continues to be mentioned as a candidate for the Calder Trophy. It’s far from a surety – St. Louis’ Barret Jackman was the last defensive defenseman to be named best rookie, in 2003, and is the only stay-at-home blueliner to win it since NHL expansion in 1967 – but the fact he could be Toronto’s first home-grown major individual award winner since Brit Selby won the Calder in 1968 has excited observers.
“He’ll merit serious consideration,” said McGuire of Schenn. “He’s playing in a prime-time market with major TV numbers. He’ll get huge exposure on Saturday nights, he’s playing tons of minutes and he’s getting tons of rave reviews.”
Some cynics who believe the Leafs should’ve played it safe with Schenn’s confidence and returned him to Kelowna argue that, on a team not expected to contend for the playoffs, an unfortunately inflated plus/minus rating could hurt the defenseman’s self-esteem and chances at the Calder.
Wilson and McGuire don’t have a lot of time for that line of thinking.
“I think smart people know what’s going on in Toronto,” McGuire said. “They’re at the beginning of a major rebuild and Schenn is a big part of it. If people are being fair about it, they understand his plus-minus this year isn’t as much about him as it is about the team he’s on.”
Added Wilson: “I think a number they should pay attention to is time on ice and minutes played in key situations. Remember, Luke is a defensive defenseman; he’s someone whose job it is to play against the other team’s best lines and best players.
“But he’s a quick learner, he’s very coachable and you can see his parents have instilled core values in him that are more important than anything he does on the ice.
“That’s part of the reason that, if he can play in the NHL, it makes sense for him to stay in Toronto. If you send him back to junior, he’s going to play too much, he might play 35 or 40 minutes a night, and he’s going to play in a slower gear.
“He’d be on a bus every night – which builds character – but this kid doesn’t need to have his character developed any more. He needs his body developed and to eat the right foods and we can keep track of him here. He can get a lot of extra attention from the coaching staff.”
Wilson doesn’t expect Schenn – or any of the other elite teenagers playing in the NHL this season – to hit a “rookie wall.” At least, not during their initial campaign.
“More than likely, a player who’s played junior hockey is not going to hit a big wall his first year,” Wilson said. “The college kids, they’ll hit that wall at 40, 45 games. But I’ve noticed a lot of junior players hit that wall in the summertime after their rookie year, when they’re headed into their sophomore season. They don’t work as hard as they should and there’s a hangover there, I believe.
“It happened a little bit last year with Marc Vlasic, I don’t know if it was so much that his play dropped off – it just plateaued. And some of that I believe happens because of what goes through a player’s mind. They go home for the summer and all their buddies tell them they’re a hero and they just back off a little bit because they’ve achieved their dream. But from what I’ve seen with Luke, if we can convince him to spend more of his summer in Toronto, he won’t have that kind of issue.”
The Leafs don’t seem to have any real issue with Schenn thus far.
“Some of the high (draft) picks over the years, like the Patrick Kanes or the Steven Stamkoses, they’re already at an elite level on offense,” said Joe Nieuwendyk, special assistant to GM Cliff Fletcher in Toronto. “Not too many kids come out of junior having the type of skills on defense Luke has already. He really understands his position.”
Added Finger: “His composure, his poise, is unbelievable, especially at his age. When he gets the puck in the corner and turns his back to protect the puck, there’s a lot of defensemen, including myself, that would probably just throw it up the boards. And when he got into a fight with (Senators tough guy Chris) Neil earlier this season to stand up for (teammate) Matt Stajan, you can’t say enough good things about him.”
Like his fellow Saskatchewanite Clark, Schenn doesn’t have a lot to say at this stage of his career; he spends most of his free time in a Toronto hotel playing NHL 09 on Xbox.
For now, he’s still awakening to one dream realized – and countless others being born.
“This has all happened so fast,” Schenn said.
“It was only a few months ago that I got drafted, and then it was off to the summer rookie camp in Kitchener, and it was great to just practice with the NHL team. Then I got the chance for more and now I’m just trying and making the most of any opportunity the team gives to me.”
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