When one player clearly alters the present and future of a franchise, it is often in a positive way. In typical St. Louis Blues fashion, one player changed their history in both positive and negative ways.
Anyone who was a St. Louis Blues fan in the 1990’s knows what a great, yet testing time it was. In a rare turn of events, a smaller market team had one of the best players in the league when the team acquired Brett Hull in 1987.
Unfortunately, for a myriad of reasons, the team never found the right combination of players to surround him with to win a Stanley Cup during his tenure. There were plenty of options though.
The first pairing was with Adam Oates. That duo combined for 639 points in two years, but never got past the division finals, which is essentially the equivalent to today’s second round.
Due to outside influences, that marriage was short lived. It seemed so were all the others.
Craig Janney was only with the team for parts of four seasons and Wayne Gretzky was only here for the end of one season and a brief playoff run. However, it was one man that changed the team.
Hull is definitely the player that had the most impact on the city of St. Louis. If not for him and his exploits, we likely would not even have the Enterprise Center or perhaps even the team itself.
That said, nobody might have impacted the franchise’s makeup more than one Brendan Shanahan. The acquisition and eventual loss of Shanahan altered the team in ways that would change their future for decades, as well as that of other teams in the NHL.
Loss 1
It’s usually best to start stories at the beginning, unless you think as my brain does when it’s kind of at the start, but you realize you left something out about 25% of the way in and have to circle back. Anyway, that’s where we start here with Mr. Shanahan.
Shanahan was drafted by the New Jersey Devils in 1987 and played almost a full season right away. He almost doubled his points from year one to year two by scoring 50 points as well as 22 goals.
Shanahan kept improving with the Devils and seemed primed to become one of the better scorers in the league. Devils fans would never get to find out.
The Blues signed Shanahan to an offer sheet in 1991. That set off an unforeseen chain of events.
At the time, compensation for an offer sheet was determined by an arbitrator. There were examples of it costing teams an NHL player, but it was usually someone on the fringes of the team that was acceptable to lose.
The Blues had to pay the ultimate price. The arbitrator felt there was enough evidence of potential tampering, i.e. negotiating with Shanahan before free agency began, that he awarded the Devils Scott Stevens.
While the Blues gained one of the up and coming offensive stars of the game, they lost one of the best defenders of all time. That was the first way Shanahan cost the Blues.
His inclusion in the team would provide some of the most entertaining hockey the Blues have provided, in terms of star power, but wins were harder to come by. Even with Shanahan, Hull and Oates on the same team, it was not enough.
Meanwhile, despite some early trepidation to staying there, Stevens ended up becoming a Hall of Fame player in New Jersey. He won three Stanley Cups with the Devils too while the Blues kept grasping at straws.
Defending was never a huge let down for the Blues, but you wonder how things might have been different if they had Stevens his entire career.
Loss 2
Once the sting of Stevens’ departure wore off, we at least got some good years out of Shanahan. After an impressive first season of 33 goals and 69 points, Shanahan would combine to score 237 more over the next three seasons. It might have been even more if not for the lockout shortened season of 1994-95.
Unfortunately, despite Shanahan’s on ice prowess, he cost the Blues in other ways. Shanahan took part in an affair, sleeping with the wife of then teammate Janney.
There were other potential reasons, such as Mike Keenan being Mike Keenan. However, it would not be without possibility to say that Janney was traded to San Jose to rid the Blues of that particular locker room dynamic.
Janney blossomed into a top center playing with Hull and Shanahan. He scored more than 100 points in his first full season with the team and 190 points in two full years.
However, it was the Shanahan situation that muddied the waters. Again, there has never been clear evidence linking the two, but it is easy to jump to conclusions since the Blues received Jeff Norton and future considerations for a player that would have been on their top line.
Thus, Shanahan set the Blues back again, just when it seemed like they were looking for a final piece instead of just building.
Loss 3
The impact of Shanahan seemingly kept growing after that. Through no fault of his own, other than Keenan likely being tired of dealing with him, the Blues traded Shanahan to Hartford for Chris Pronger.
While Pronger was highly thought of by the Whalers’ franchise, everyone in St. Louis was scratching their heads or preparing the pitchforks to storm the Kiel Center. We did not know it was somewhat a reverse of the Stevens situation and we were getting a future Hall of Fame player in return, but it set the Blues back again in the short term.
What might it have been like to have Shanahan, Hull and Gretzky on the same team? On the flip side, keeping Shanahan might have altered the future of a rival.
Shanahan only stayed with the Whalers for one season. Prior to the 1996-97 season, Shanahan was traded to the Detroit Red Wings.
He proceeded to be a thorn in St. Louis’ side for the next nine seasons. In that time, he won three Stanley Cups and the Red Wings constantly kept the Blues at bay, no matter how good St. Louis seemed to be.
If you wanted to get really creative, you could even argue that Shanahan’s involvement kept altering the team later on. Shanahan’s trade brought Pronger to the team.
Pronger’s trade away from the Blues signaled the end of an era as the team went into full tank and rebuild mode while Shanahan was still productive for other teams. They botched their number one overall draft pick by passing on Jonathan Toews and they would not fully rebound for almost a decade following Pronger’s departure.
St. Louis would eventually win the ultimate prize in 2019, but it does make you wonder how many opportunities were squandered due to all the circumstances surrounding one player. There were other factors along the way, but it is interesting to consider how one player could change the course of one franchise for almost three decades.