Islanders acquire Brayden Schenn from Blues for Drouin, picks
In the last hour before the passage of the NHL trade deadline, the New York Islanders made an impact addition in a major deal with the St. Louis Blues.
According to multiple reports, and first broken by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Blues captain Brayden is heading to Long Island to provide an Islanders team that appears to be headed toward the Stanley Cup Playoffs with another quality option down the middle.
In return, the Islanders are sending the 2026 first-round pick they acquired from Colorado last year, a third-round pick, forward Jonathan Drouin and goalie prospect Marcus Gidlof to St. Louis.
In 61 games played this season, Schenn has 12 goals and 16 assists for 28 points while skating to a minus-23 rating, as the Blues have struggled from the outset.
The 34-year-old veteran, who was the No. 5 overall pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, has 713 career points (290 goals and 423 assists) in 1,083 career regular season games. Schenn was in the midst of his ninth season in St. Louis after having previously spent six seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, who acquired him in a blockbuster trade with the Los Angeles Kings as part of a deal for center Mike Richards.
When the Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019, Schenn tallied 5 goals and dished out 7 assists for 12 points in 26 games while skating an average of 18:43 per game.
Drouin, headed to St. Louis, has 21 points in 55 games played with the Islanders this season. The No. 3 overall pick from the 2013 NHL Draft has one year left on his contract with a salary cap hit of $4 million.
With a record of 35-23-5, New York currently occupies the third-place spot in the Metropolitan Division. The Isles are tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have two games in hand, and nine points behind the division-leading Carolina Hurricanes.
New York missed the playoffs last season for the first time since 2022. After winning the draft lottery last summer and subsequently landing an instant superstar in defenseman Matthew Schaefer, the Islanders have completely turned around their fortunes.
Head coach Patrick Roy now has plenty of options down the middle. Bo Horvat currently anchors the first line with Calum Ritchie, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Casey Cizikas centering the remaining lines, but Mathew Barzal also has plenty of experience as a center.
Marcus Gidlöf is a very interesting pickup for the Blues. In his draft year, many scouts considered him to be one of the top goalie prospects available. He hasn't had a great year with Leksands, but still has 4 shutouts in 9 wins. Huge 6'7 goalie who is positionally strong.