ST. LOUIS — In 14 NHL seasons, Robert Bortuzzo has taken just one official faceoff in his career. It was in February 2015, Bortuzzo was a defenseman with the Pittsburgh Penguins and he won the draw against the Vancouver Canucks’ Nick Bonino.
So in October, even though it was a preseason game and a ceremonial puck drop, Bortuzzo didn’t expect to be standing at center ice representing his new team, the Utah Hockey Club, before the game.
“I kind of got pushed in that direction,” Bortuzzo told The Athletic last week.
The reason Bortuzzo was urged to take the faceoff was because the exhibition game in Des Moines, Iowa, was against the St. Louis Blues — the organization for which he’s played 10 of his 14 seasons in the league and won a Stanley Cup in 2019.
“I gave ‘Bobbo’ the eyebrows, like ‘You’re coming out,’” said Blues captain Brayden Schenn, who was teammates with Bortuzzo for 6 1/2 seasons in St. Louis. “So he had a big smile and came out.”
As it turned out, because it was Utah’s first-ever game of any kind as a franchise that relocated from Arizona last summer, they actually had three ceremonial faceoffs with three pucks. And with it being a neutral-site game, Schenn said he didn’t know who was the home team, which is the team that typically “wins” the faceoff and collects the puck.
“So we split the first two, and then when I went down to pick up the third one, Bobbo stick-lifted me and he grabbed it,” Schenn said, laughing. “It was probably his first ever ceremonial puck-drop, so he made it memorable for sure.”
“Yeah, opening faceoff against Schenner … I didn’t have that on my bingo card,” Bortuzzo said. “I was trying to send one of the younger guys, but I thought it’d be a pretty good laugh. I took two of three, but Schenner did burn me wide in the game, so I guess we’ll call it even. We got a good kick out of it.”
On Thursday night, fans will have their first chance to see Bortuzzo since the Blues traded him to the New York Islanders last December for a seventh-round draft pick in 2024. He became a free agent, and in late August signed a one-year $775,000 contract with Utah, which visits Enterprise Center at 7 p.m.
There have been several emotional returns to St. Louis by former coaches and players in recent years. Craig Berube received a rousing ovation just last week when he came back with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and there’s been David Perron, Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko, too.
A bottom-pair defenseman who is a penalty-killing and shot-blocking specialist, Bortuzzo may not have the household name recognition around the NHL they do. But in this town, he’s on a short list of players with the likes of Oskar Sundqvist who have been respected and appreciated for their willingness to give everything just to be a small part of something.
“It’s obviously an honor to be on a list like that and I felt that walking around town,” Bortuzzo said. “To me, the result was important. But how you played, and the product you put on the ice, was just as important for the city. It’s a blue-collar town filled with good people who embrace their sports teams. They’re not greedy in what they were asking for — just hard work and sacrifice.”
Bortuzzo, who was acquired from Pittsburgh in 2015 for fellow defenseman Ian Cole, knew his brand of hockey would fit in St. Louis. But he couldn’t have realized then how much he’d be relied on by the team’s captains and general manager Doug Armstrong.
“He came to the rink, and I don’t think he had too many bad days as a St. Louis Blue,” Schenn said. “Whether he was in the lineup or out of the lineup, his mentality was always positive, and that’s why he’s such a good teammate and such a good leader. Whether it was me, (Alexander) Steen, O’Reilly or (Alex) Pietrangelo, guys had respect for him and bounced ideas off him because he had such a good pulse on the hockey culture.”
It’s not often a depth defenseman signs multiple multi-year contract extensions, but the Blues signed Bortuzzo to four. As Schenn said about the leaders’ respect for Bortuzzo in the locker room, Armstrong has said he was a go-to guy when the GM was trying to get a vibe check of the team.
“That’s obviously high praise from a guy who’s been around this game for a long time and has always taken great pride in having strong locker rooms,” Bortuzzo said. “I don’t know if he had that in mind when he brought me in, but it was something I always took pride in, being a part of that culture that gets along and believes in what we’re doing. For him to have words like that means a lot.”
| Term | AAV | |
|---|---|---|
|
2015
|
2 years
|
$1.05 million
|
|
2017
|
2 years
|
$1.15 million
|
|
2019
|
3 years
|
$1.38 million
|
|
2022
|
2 years
|
$950,000
|
If not for Bortuzzo’s lengthy tenure with the Blues, he wouldn’t have been around for the Stanley Cup, which came in his fifth season with the franchise. He felt fortunate to remain part of the team when others weren’t so lucky.
“Stanley Cups don’t just happen,” he said. “There were a lot of years of building, some by guys who didn’t end up on the Stanley Cup team. Steener and I have mentioned how cool it was to do it with a lot of guys that had been there for a long time and a core group of guys that are super close.”
In December 2018, before the Blues turned around their season and won the Cup, Bortuzzo signed a three-year contract extension. He continued to be part of the club’s plans, playing a career-high 73 games in 2021-22.
“Army knew what I brought and he knew that I loved it in St. Louis,” Bortuzzo said. “I think every deal that he and I put together came together in under 24 hours or whatever. If two parties want to make it work, it’s pretty easy.”
But last season, then 34 years old and with the Blues in the midst of a retool, the defenseman wasn’t playing much. The team was turning to younger players such as Matthew Kessel.
So Armstrong and Bortuzzo had a conversation.
“We both kind of realized everything in St. Louis had kind of run its course,” Bortuzzo said. “I’d been there 10 years, and it was obviously a special 10 years, but everything kind of comes to an end.
“He said, ‘Did you want me to try and find you (another team)? I did, so he put the word out, and one day he gave me a call and said, ‘I have a spot for you. Do you want to go?’ I was very thankful for the respect he showed me and (for) letting me have a chance to continue my career.”
That spot was the New York Islanders, who gave the Blues a seventh-round draft pick for Bortuzzo. The deal happened Dec. 8 and the team was on the road in Columbus.
“It happened so quick, I didn’t even get a chance to say bye to a lot of guys,” Bortuzzo said. “But it wasn’t super emotional. I’m sure I’ll reflect on it a little more closely one day, but I think if I had left some things on the table, it would have been tougher. But I feel like we did what we could, laid it on the line and it was time.”
Bortuzzo played in just 23 regular-season games with the Islanders because of a lower-body injury that kept him out for nearly three months. But he enjoyed his time there, in part because he was able to play in five postseason games.
“We didn’t miss the playoffs much in St. Louis, but my last year there, we did,” Bortuzzo said. “So when you get a sniff at playoffs again, it reinvigorates you.”
But the two-year contract Bortuzzo had signed with the Blues in 2022 was set to expire, and after turning 35 last March, his future was uncertain. He had never been a free agent in his entire career.
“The drive was still there,” Bortuzzo said. “I felt like I could bring something to a locker room, whether it was with an older group or a younger group. There’s different ways you can contribute to culture, and I definitely felt like I wanted to continue and try to do that somewhere.”
The phones were quiet for several months, so Bortuzzo reached out to Utah GM Bill Armstrong. Armstrong — no relation to Doug — was a longtime scout and assistant GM with the Blues before taking the GM job with the Arizona Coyotes, who relocated to Utah this year.
“We had the relationship in St. Louis, and I said, ‘I feel like I can still contribute,'” Bortuzzo said. “He said, ‘I’ll think on it,’ and a couple of phone calls later, he wanted me to have a conversation with the head coach (André Tourigny). We had a great conversation, and a deal came together. Luckily I had a relationship with Bill, and it worked out.”
Utah has a record of 5-5-3 as it comes to St. Louis. Bortuzzo has played in six of the 13 games and is averaging 11:11 of ice time per game.
“It’s been pretty special to be a part of something like this,” he said. “The town’s really jumped on board, and what Bill has put together here seems pretty special. It’s a super close crew and this is going to be a pretty special destination for guys around the league pretty quickly.”
Schenn, whom Bortuzzo was keeping updated on his situation this season, says he’ll be good for Utah.
“He’s a guy that when he comes in and plays, you know exactly what you’re going to get from him,” Schenn said. “On top of that, he can help build a culture. It’s funny, he’s a guy that meshes so well with the older guys, but also the young guys love him in the room. The energy around him is contagious.”
Bortuzzo, who wears his familiar No. 41 with Utah, is excited about being back in St. Louis.
“It will be a special feeling walking in there,” he said. “Did I ever think a player like myself would play in one place for 10 years? I could have never imagined that. What we were able to do in 2019 was super exciting. You could tell that town had poured a lot into that hockey team and you could feel it afterwards, the sense of relief and excitement for everyone.
“St. Louis gave me the biggest opportunity to do all those things. I’m very thankful to (chairman Tom Stillman), Army, all of the coaches and teammates. It’s about building special, special relationships that you make over the years. That’s, by far, the thing you’ll remember forever.”
(Top photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
