Barret Jackman is one of the brightest new players to hit the NHL and the hockey in the past few years. He is a tough, able-bodied defenseman who takes a licking and keeps on ticking (most of the time). He was one of the few Blues players in the 2002-2003 season to play in all 82 games. Not only does this kid play with a wisdom of a ten-year veteran, he can take the hard hits and keep on going with hardly any interruption in his pace.

Stats

Barret was born on March 5, 1981 in Trail, British Columbia. He stands just at six feet tall and shoots left. He was St. Louis' first round selection, 17th overall, on June 26, 1999. Through the 2006-2007 season he has amassed 11 goals, 48 assists - good for 59 points - and 469 penalty minutes. He has no points in 8 playoff games yet but has served 16 post season minutes in the sin bin. He wears jersey #5.

History/Highlights

Barret Jackman knew early on that he wanted to be a hockey player, reportedly putting on his first pair of skates at age two. He played four seasons with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League and became their youngest captain in history. Before being called up to the Blues on the last game of the 2001-2002 season, he played for their immediate farm team, the Worchester Ice Cats, where he had scored 14 points and 266 penalty minutes. 2002-2003 was his first full season with the big boys where he played every game of the season, which was a rarity among the injury-plagued club. While playing alongside captain Al MacInnis, a 20-year veteran of the league, he developed into a Grade A defenseman with a game that would fool anybody without a media guide into thinking he had been playing for decades. This defensive skill, along with his endless amount of toughness earned him the Calder Memorial Trophy, the first St. Louis Blues player ever to win that award. The trophy, according to the Blues website, is awarded "to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the National Hockey League."

Indeed, he posted a +23 rating (second among NHL rookies in 02-03) and led all rookies with ice time, playing an average of 20:04 per game. He recorded a career high three assists while posting a plus four rating on Februrary 17th vs. Calgary. His first NHL goal was on November 3, 2002 at the NY Rangers.

Jackman only played 15 games in the 2003-2004 season, where he scored 3 points (1G, 2A). He attempted to come back from a nagging shoulder injury twice, each time playing only one game before returning to the DL. Finally, he went ahead with shoulder surgery in January that sidelined him for the rest of the season and the playoffs.

During the 2004 NHL player lockout he played some games for the IHL Missouri River Otters.

In 2005-2006 he was awarded an alternate captaincy but it was one of the worst seasons in Blues history as they finished dead last in the standings and missed the playoffs for the first time in 25 years. He did manage to score 4 goals, one of those his very first overtime winner (in one of the few overtime victories for the Blues that year). But he was still a solid, talented defenseman that year and would be an intregal part of the team rebuilding in the years to come.

Source: www.stlblues.com, www.jeffio.com

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