Alexander Steen leaves quite a legacy as his moves on from his playing career in the STL.
As one of the key veteran leaders on the Blues’ Stanley Cup-winning team, he will forever hold an honored place in franchise history. Steen will stand tall among those intrepid players who finally made The Dream come true for a long-suffering fan base.
Steener, as the boys called him, was a classic heart-and-soul Blue. He could play all three forward spots and he could fit on all four lines.
He pushed himself to the limit game after game, month after month, year after year.
He sacrificed his body on the penalty kill, throwing himself in front of thousands of shots during his career. He suffered injury after injury while playing a robust 200-foot game.
He kept trying to play on until, finally, he couldn't. At age 36 and after 1,018 regular season NHL games, his back failed him. A degenerative condition forced him off the ice for good.
“On the ice, Steen was a player that management and the coaching staff, and — more importantly — teammates knew what they were going to get on a nightly basis,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong. “He didn’t play an easy game, but he played a winning game.”
Steen arrived with defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a one-sided trade for winger Lee Stempniak. While Stempniak continued on to enjoy a long NHL career as a supporting cast scorer, he did not pan out for the Maple Leafs.
Meanwhile Steen became a mainstay on some excellent Blues teams. He played 765 games here, a notable number for a franchise that suffered insane roster upheaval over the years. He ranks fifth on the all-time scoring list with 496 points.
Earlier in his Blues career, Steen was a Top 6 forward. He scored 33 goals in 2013-14 and he scored 20 or more goals in three other seasons.
In the latter stages of his career here, he embraced a checking role on the third and fourth lines.
During the team’s Cup run, he helped elevate the team’s fourth line into a second shutdown line that allowed coach Craig Berube to sustain pressure on opposing scorers.
Steen was always one of the players Berube or Armstrong would check in with to gauge the state of their team. He set a great example with his commitment to hockey’s dirty work and he could lead with his voice as well.
Above all else, he was a trusted teammate.
“He does a lot of things behind the scenes that I didn’t know about, that other people didn’t know about, as far as mentoring young players, holding them accountable and giving them a shoulder to cry on, for lack of a better term,” Armstrong observed.
That leadership will be sorely missed. The Blues gained some salary cap space to manage their roster this season, but they lost one of their guiding forces on the ice.
Maybe the Blues can find a way to keep him involved.
“If he wants to stay in the game, he has all the pedigree to coach or manage or do whatever he wants," Armstrong said.
