For Blues' 2025 draft pick Justin Carbonneau, confidence is just ‘part of who he is'

New York Times

a day ago

ST. LOUIS — Justin Carbonneau made his first trip to St. Louis earlier this month, and while wowing many fans with his performance at the Blues' development camp, he was wowed himself by one of the guest speakers.
As part of the initiation to the organization, the first-round pick in 2025 and fellow prospects were greeted by Hockey Hall of Famer and former St. Louis Blues center Peter Stastny.
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'I should've brought a notebook because there was so much learning about being the best for yourself every single day as a person,' Carbonneau says. 'With Peter, he talked to us about being a good teammate and being grateful for others. If one of the best players ever tells you that, it shows how important it is.'
Stastny's last game with the Blues — and in the NHL — was April 1995 and Carbonneau, 18, wasn't born until November 2006. So it's not like the youngster can recall the career that made Stastny 'one of the best players ever.'
But born in Levis, Quebec, Canada, Carbonneau grew up the son of a longtime Quebec Nordiques fan, Pascal Carbonneau. Stastny played 10 seasons with the Nordiques (1980-90), the team that retired his No. 26.
Pascal, now 49, had that No. 26 jersey.
'Peter Stastny was my idol,' he says. 'I was very young, but he was the captain and the star player. Even though Justin never saw him play, he heard plenty about him at home, and I probably showed him a few clips. So I think Justin was pretty impressed meeting his dad's childhood hero.'
Carbonneau was impressed and approached Stastny afterward. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound right winger told him that he was from Quebec and said, 'It would be sick to get a picture with you!'
Stastny obliged, and Carbonneau immediately sent that photo to his family.
'When I told my dad that I met Peter Stastny and shook his hand, he was pretty jealous,' Carbonneau remembers. 'I know he's a legend, so I'm grateful that I had the chance to speak with him.'
The exchange with Stastny has only heightened Carbonneau's passion about playing the sport he's loved since he was 4 years old.
Pascal coached his son until he was 10 or 11 and recalls him always being driven.
'The confidence Justin has in himself and his abilities, it's part of who he is,' Pascal says. 'On the ice, even though he wasn't the best player, he was by far the most intense, the most competitive, and determined among the young players. He was built differently. He was very demanding of himself, even at the age of 6 or 7.'
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Carbonneau's mother, Audrey, remembers him setting goals at that ripe age.
'It was little challenges each year: 'Next year, I want to achieve this. The next year, I want to achieve that,'' she recalls. 'He was very rarely satisfied with what he has done. Even if he won the tournament, he was satisfied, but not that much because he was thinking about the next step.'
Carbonneau's older brother, Jeremie, says his younger sibling always wanted to be on the opposite team.
'He was always trying to have a fun time, but a tough time, too,' Jeremie says. 'He wanted to win, but work to win. It was kind of rough to play against him. I don't think he's scared of a lot of people. He just has something in him that, yeah, he's really not scared of anyone.'
Sometimes, Carbonneau's confidence could be interpreted as cockiness.
'Jeremie would say, 'It's enough,'' Audrey recalls. 'It was a challenge because his intensity was driving him all the time. We had to understand how he was working in his head.'
To Carbonneau, it was simple.
'I've always believed in me,' Carbonneau says. 'You know you have to put the work in. You know you have a lot to learn and you have to stay humble. For me, I'm humble and I work my butt off, but I believe in myself.'
'The Mamba Mentality,' adopted by former NBA star Kobe Bryant before his death in 2020, was something that helped Carbonneau understand the mindset that it takes to play at a high level and maintain a balance.
'Kobe's mindset was, 'If you think you're good, well, you're not good enough,'' Carbonneau says. 'He was the first one in the gym and the last one in the gym, and I learned more and more about him and everything he did to get where he was.
'Michael Jordan, too. 'The Last Dance' popped to me because every single thing that happened, the more it brought fire in his eyes. They try to find ways to work on themselves, so when it's time to take the final shot, they believe in themselves.'
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Carbonneau began to find motivation in perceived slights, as well. In 2022, he felt that he should've been selected in the first round of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft and instead went in the second round (No. 20 overall).
'It kind of slapped me in the face saying, 'You're not good enough,'' Carbonneau says. 'It brought me into a mindset where I'm never going to stop working. From that moment, I started working on so much details. I started finding ways that I didn't know existed. I just told myself, 'Make sure that that never happens again and you prove everybody wrong.''
'It was more (of) a slap in the face than I thought,' Jeremie recalls.
Carbonneau began working with former NHL defenseman Yannick Tremblay, a sixth-round pick of the Maple Leafs who played nearly 400 games with Toronto, Atlanta Thrashers and Vancouver Canucks.
Tremblay already liked Carbonneau's approach to the game.
'The bigger the challenge, the more Justin's willing to try things and try to make it work,' Tremblay says. 'I said this to one of the scouts, he's always looking actively at doing whatever needs to be done. He says, 'If this needs to be done, I'll go and do it.''
So the two honed in on Carbonneau's details — learning how to get off a good shot when the puck may not be in the right spot, or finding ways as a power skater to have quicker bursts of speed in small areas.
'Justin, from the get-go, he was really willing to not be comfortable,' Tremblay said. 'He's actively asking, 'How can I make it harder so that when I need it, it's going to be easier and I'm going to be able to execute?''
Carbonneau set a goal of being picked in the first round of the NHL Draft this summer, and after what happened in junior hockey, he made sure that he put himself in good position. In 2023-24, he had 31 goals and 59 points in 68 games with Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, and he followed that up with 46 goals and 89 points in 62 games last season.
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'For me, it's just finding motivation everywhere I go,' Carbonneau said. 'It can be in front of me or what I'm hearing. Not a lot of people make it to the NHL, so there's a lot of comments on that. For me, it's just motivating me to prove everybody wrong.'
The Blues had the No. 19 overall pick in the first round and took Carbonneau, who had about 30 family members and friends in Los Angeles for the draft.
'It's still hard to believe,' Pascal says. 'We knew he could be drafted in the middle of the first round and we all became emotional when we heard his name called by the Blues. We tried to enjoy the moment, despite the stress. We were very happy with the final destination and Justin seems to be very happy with the organization.'
'A lot of emotion,' Jeremie says. 'We knew it was his goal since he was 4 years old. Where we're from, there's not a lot of drafted players and he was first round. Some of my friends were texting me, saying, 'Damn, first-round pick, that's really big!' Yeah, it's really big.'
But remember what Carbonneau said about staying humble?
'You get drafted because you're good, but the best thing about drafting me is that I know I'm not good enough right now,' he says. 'I know I have a lot to work on and I will put the work in. I think sometimes the best thing is not the hockey player you are now, but the player I will be in a couple of years.'
Carbonneau traveled to St. Louis from L.A. for development camp and was warmly greeted by Blues fans at the airport.
'The first 15 minutes, everybody was saying 'Welcome here, we're happy to have you!'' Carbonneau says. 'I felt the support, and I'm not even playing yet.'
My son got to meet the @StLouisBlues newest draft pick Justin Carbonneau at the airport tonight! #BleedBlue pic.twitter.com/iigLhMkXQ1
— Kyle Gross (@kylegross03) June 29, 2025
Carbonneau arrived at camp the next day, and when he wasn't chatting up Stastny, he was listening to a pair of other former Blues: Paul Stastny (Peter's son) and Robert Bortuzzo.
'One thing the Blues taught us is, when you enter that room, you leave your ego on the side and you're being a good teammate,' Carbonneau says. 'It just shows how much that's what they want because every single guy in the locker room were good people. Good players, too, but good people.'
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Carbonneau can't get enough of that stuff. He's currently reading a book titled 'The Captain Class' by Sam Walker and up next on his list is 'The Energy Bus' by Jon Gordon.
'The one that I'm reading now, just the best leaders around the world, sometimes they're not the best players and don't have the spotlight on them,' he says. 'I want to learn from them and be the best teammate that I can be. I'm 18 years old and I want to be a big leader for my team next year. Books like these about the mentality of athletes over the years, it's just great to round up your learnings.'
Carbonneau announced recently that he will be back with Armada in 2025-26, choosing to return to his junior team for a fourth season over an opportunity to play NCAA hockey at Boston College.
'I had some good talks with Boston College and Armada, and even with St. Louis, and everybody gave me their opinion,' Carbonneau says. 'To be honest, it was an easy decision. There's different things that I can learn from college. You play against bigger guys, but you don't get the road trips or the pro playoffs.
'Also, I didn't want to let my (Armada) teammates down. I think I showed that with my decision. I give it all to teammates, and it would've been stupid to let them down and go somewhere else. I love these guys and I want to win with them.'
Tremblay is on board with the decision Carbonneau made.
'You can't compare both leagues with the age and level of the players, but at the same time, it allows him to have a different role that maybe he would not have had in the NCAA and that can be beneficial,' Tremblay says. 'I don't think it's going to hinder his development because he sees what he needs to improve. He came back from development camp and he had a bunch of things he told me: 'I need to do this. I know I will need that. Can we work on this?' I don't think that's going to be slowing down because he's going back to Armada.
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'He's got the size, he's got skill, and he's willing to do what needs to be done. So starting from that, the ceiling is pretty high, and with that ingredient of always wanting to do more for the impact he has on the team, yeah for sure, I see him having a pretty good impact in professional hockey. I see him with the Blues doing really good things.'