Schwartz growing into new role for Blues

Though he scored goals on each of his first two shot attempts in the National Hockey League, St. Louis Blues forward Jaden Schwartz gained his NHL foothold by skating primarily on the club’s fourth line. He didn’t appear in any playoff games as a 19-year-old last season after making the transition to professional hockey from Colorado College, where he had recorded 88 points in 60 games over his freshman and sophomore seasons.

As a 20-year-old, Schwartz had an encouraging 2012-13 season with seven goals and 13 points, though it wasn’t until April that he began seeing ice time alongside captain David Backes in a variety of situations.

In Game 1, Schwartz had excellent opportunities denied by Jonathan Quick as he took six shots in 19 minutes and 36 seconds, ice time that surpassed the total he logged in any regular season game of this career.

The 14th player selected in the 2010 NHL Draft, Schwartz was chosen immediately before the Kings took Derek Forbort 15th overall.

Skating opposite Alex Steen on a line centered by Backes, it’s likely that Schwartz will see plenty of even strength time against the Kings’ line of Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams.

Kopitar was cognizant of the attributes the Melfort, Saskatchewan native brings to St. Louis’ top line.

“Quickness, I guess, and some skill,” Kopitar said. “He made some plays, but again, I think overall we didn’t make it hard enough on their team, too. They had lots of time to make plays, so we have to correct that.”

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock weighed in on the growth Schwartz has made in his 52 career regular season games and one career playoff game.

“He was a little bit too respectful of the league to start with,” Hitchcock said. “He deferred a lot to other people, both on our own team and the opposition. I think he gave players on our own team a little bit too much respect, and he gave the league too much respect, and then once he started to dig in and just play his game, he’s become very effective. For me, he’s the player that everybody saw in college and in the World Junior. This is the type of player. He’s tenacious on the puck. He’s strong. He’s such a smart player. He knows how to get people to put the pucks in the wrong areas that he can pick off, and what he lacks in size, he makes up for in smarts. He’s one of a few players in the league that can forecheck all by himself and create the turnover all by himself. It’s a good sign.”