Predators’ Luke Schenn plays in 1,000th career NHL regular-season game
When the puck dropped Thursday night between the Nashville Predators and Edmonton Oilers, defenseman Luke Schenn became the 398th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career regular-season games.
The man of the hour ✨ pic.twitter.com/q3x6yJR3rb
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) October 17, 2024
Schenn told NHL.com independent correspondent Robby Stanley before the game that it hasn’t been an easy road.
“I’ve kind of experienced the highs, as far as winning in the League, and the lows of lows and being in the minors halfway through my career,” Schenn said. “To be resilient and get to this number, it’s not so much the game but I guess just more so proud of the journey. I wouldn’t have drawn it up or predicted the way it’s gone.”
Schenn was taken No. 5 overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. Making the team as an 18 year old, Schenn was deemed the cornerstone franchise defenseman the Leafs desperately needed.
After four seasons with the club, Toronto traded Schenn to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for James van Riemsdyk. The move would be the first in a number of short stops with a number of clubs, including the Los Angeles Kings, Arizona Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks and Vancouver Canucks.
He joined the Tampa Bay Lightning ahead of the 2019-20 season, where he would win back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Predators’ forward Steven Stamkos, who played with Schenn in Tampa, told Stanley that Schenn is a guy who “brings people together.”
“He loves being a part of a group of guys that share a common goal in trying to be the best. He brings that out in himself and other people,” Stamkos said. “It’s contagious watching the work that he puts in every single day, whether it’s in the gym or on the ice or off the ice being the family man that he is.”
He would briefly re-join the Canucks before being traded back to the Maple Leafs at the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline. From there, he would sign a three-year, $8.25 million contract with the Predators, where he’s now in his second season.
Now in his 17th NHL season, the 34-year-old Schenn has 43 goals and 155 assists for 198 points and 807 penalty minutes.