The question came often, from family and friends, and every time Kevin Shattenkirk answered when he was going to come play for the Rangers, he had a “twinkle in his eye” and a “grin on his face,” according to his mother, Barbara.
The odds were so against it ever happening, he only would answer, “Maybe someday.”
This was the team he grew up rooting for while playing hockey in his hometown of New Rochelle. He got a signed photograph of Brian Leetch one Christmas, the player he “adored,” according to Barbara.
“That was his guy,” she said. “That’s who he looked at.”
Shattenkirk was on the bus with his high school teammates from the Brunswick School in Greenwich, Conn., coming back from an away game on March 4, 2004, when they all learned Leetch had been traded to the Maple Leafs. The bus devolved into “mayhem,” as described by one of their coaches, former Rangers captain Dave Maloney.
“I tried to convince them that it was time for the Rangers to move forward, get draft picks,” Maloney recounted recently. “They found out and I’m telling you, it was like mayhem broke out, especially because they traded Leetch.”
Shattenkirk’s fandom went back to when he was 5 years old — Barbara and her husband, Pat, having just bought a big-screen television in anticipation of the Rangers’ postseason run that couldn’t have worked out better. That became the first Rangers team since 1940 to win the Stanley Cup, and Leetch became the first American-born player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as postseason MVP.
“It was like Mark Messier was in our living room,” Barbara said.
But that is the only time the Rangers have won in the past 77 years, and as Shattenkirk entered free agency this summer, he knew he wanted to change that.
“I know there was maybe some term and money left on the table,” Shattenkirk said after signing on July 1 to a four-year deal worth $6.65 million per. “But when you have the opportunity to fulfill lifelong dream like this, it’s an opportunity that may only come once in your career, and I felt like this was my chance.”
It didn’t take long for those around him to realize Shattenkirk was going to be a special player. Former coach John DiNorcia was matter-of-fact when he remembered Shattenkirk scoring two game-winning goals for his New Jersey Devils Youth Hockey club, one as they went on to win the 2002 International Peewee Quebec Tournament, the equivalent of the Little League World Series, and another at the U.S. National Peewee Tournament.
“I always think that the hockey acumen and the feel for the game is the most difficult thing to incorporate with a player as they go through the process,” DiNorcia said. “He was not only mentally skilled, his aptitude for the game and the way he approached the game was extremely mature. So you’ve got to watch players as they go through, but even at a young age, you thought he’s going to be really good.”
In 1993, when Kevin was just 4, Shattenkirk’s parents moved the family from Harrison to New Rochelle to be closer to the rink where he and his brothers played. Kevin’s older brother Keith was an excellent player in his own right and went on to play at Princeton. The two had many practices at Rye Playland, where the Rangers also practiced at the time. They would bump into players routinely at a local diner where they ate breakfast, and they couldn’t have been nicer to the young fans.
“It’s easy to be a fan when they’re winning and they’re nice guys and all these things,” Barbara said.
When it came to deciding where Kevin would go to high school, Brunswick reached out — they had just built a new rink and wanted to invest in their hockey team. Maloney was doing television and radio work, and his sons went to the school. He helped out with the team, once almost taking the full-time coach’s job. He saw how good Shattenkirk was and once even told his brother Don, at the time was working in the Rangers’ front office under Glen Sather, to come by and take a look.
“A lot of times, in that generation, a lot of those kids were, by and large, arrogant and entitled — but certainly didn’t get that from Kevin,” Maloney said. “But a lot of those kids, too, never really had to compete on a day-in/day-out basis because they were that much better than everyone else. They were.
“Any time they played locally, like in those mid-Fairfield programs, they’d beat up on the local talent. The only time they’d get anything would be in the national championships. Kevin, as a player, my influence on him was to force him to compete every shift.”
There was already a bit of Rangers lore at Brunswick. Hugh Jessiman had gone there before heading off to Dartmouth and having the Blueshirts take him with the 12th-overall pick in the 2003 draft. Jessiman was a bust in the NHL, eventually getting traded to the Predators and finishing out his career playing in Vienna.
Unlike Jessiman, Shattenkirk stayed at Brunswick just two years before going on to the U.S. National Development program in Michigan, where he sharpened his game and got himself recruited to play at Boston University.
“Hugh never really got a [coach] at that level at that age that expected him to be more,” Maloney said. “And Kevin followed the better path to give him a better chance. Hugh would go off to Dartmouth, and nothing against Dartmouth’s program, but BU is a little different setup.”
Jack Parker is a hockey legend, having been the head coach at BU for 40 years before he retired in 2012. Parker recalled recruiting Shattenkirk, and labeled him a “drum major” — as in, he beat the drum for the school and brought not only his reputation but also other recruits to increase the stature of an already terrific program.
“He had a big reputation as being a real talented player, but also a real mature kid,” Parker said. “Real good student, he had just about everything going for him — and obviously a leader. We were real fortunate to get him to come, and he was everything we thought he would be.”
Just before his freshman season in 2007, Shattenkirk was drafted by the Avalanche with the 14th-overall pick. He turned pro after his junior season and played 46 games for Colorado in 2010-11 before they traded him and Chris Stewart to the Blues in exchange for former No. 1-overall pick, defenseman Erik Johnson. It was not an ideal start to his pro career, but it was something Parker had seen Shattenkirk go through before.
“I think he put a lot of pressure on himself when he first arrived at BU, and it took him a while to settle in and say, ‘OK, I’m as good at this level as I was at the last level,’ ” Parker said. “And I think that’s what happened in the pros. I don’t think he was ever overwhelmed, I just think he was pressing too much to prove his mettle. Once he relaxed, he said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m as good as these guys, and I’m as good at the pro level as I was at the college level.’
“It didn’t take him long to acclimated at any of those levels, but once he got acclimated he was fine — he was more than fine, really.”
After five-plus seasons excelling for the Blues, Shattenkirk was coming up on unrestricted free agency this past season, and St. Louis knew they couldn’t match the market value. So they traded him to the Stanley Cup-contending Capitals at the deadline, where he once again needed a little bit of time to acclimate before they were bounced out in the second round of the playoffs.
He was then the top free agent on the market, and rather than taking a boatload of money to play in a place like Arizona or New Jersey, he chose his favorite team from childhood and their $26.6 million offer.
Surely there will be pressure playing his hometown, and surely there will be added pressure playing at the Garden.
“A little bit more pressure than if you’re playing in San Jose,” Parker said.
But to follow in Leetch’s footsteps is exactly what Shattenkirk wanted, and now it is exactly what he is getting.
“Dreams come true,” Barbara said, as her son may not have lost that twinkle in his eye or that grin on his face, but he no longer has to answer that pesky question about when he is going to play for the Rangers.
“The decision is done,” Maloney said, “and now you go out and play.”