Blues' Brodziak: St. Louis was 'probably my most hated team to play against'

St. Louis Blues forward Kyle Brodziak didn't exactly enjoy facing his new team when he was a member of the Minnesota Wild.

“To be honest, (the Blues were) probably my most hated team to play against just because they’re a very difficult team to play against,” Brodziak told Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“Not only myself but the rest of my (former) teammates in Minnesota and teams around the league really dislike playing that team.”

Brodziak spent six seasons with the Wild, battling against the Blues in 24 regular-season games and the six playoff contests in the first-round series won by Minnesota this past spring.

The Blues signed Brodziak to a one-year, $900,000 contract on July 2.

“It’s funny that it works out that way,” he said. “Coming into it, I didn't really think the Blues were going to be a possibility just because I knew the depth up front that they had. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a fit. When I found out that it was, it was something that got me really excited."

Brodziak was part of the NHL's best penalty-killing club in 2014-15, as the Wild posted a league-high 86.3 percent success rate during the regular season.

“That’s something I take a lot of pride in and I think our team overall was very good on the penalty kill last year,” he said. “It’s something that I played quite a bit on last year and hopefully I’ll earn the trust of the (Blues) coaches to put me out there in those types of situations."

The 31-year-old veteran of 10 NHL seasons is looking forward to playing alongside agitator Steve Ott and some of the other Blues players he faced for years in the Central Division.

“Yeah, he’s definitely one of them for sure, (and) I’ve never met him off the ice,” Brodziak said. “To be honest, I’ve heard good things about a lot of guys in the room. I think that it’s going to be exciting for me to meet all of the guys that I’ve battled against five or six times a year.”