Blues Forward Sammy Blais Enters Summer Confident After Strong World Championship Performance

For Sammy Blais, if the best thing in the last year was getting traded back to St. Louis, then perhaps the next best thing was playing for Team Canada in the World Championship.

Blais won gold with Canada at last month’s World Championship in Latvia and Finland, and he was one of the best Canadians at the tournament, which also included Canadian teammates Jake Neighbours and Joel Hofer, plus Scott Perunovich (United States) and Kasperi Kapanen (Finland).

Blais had eight points in 10 games and scored twice in the gold medal game against Germany. Only two Canadians had more points than Blais did in the tournament, and he formed an effective line with Neighbours and Buffalo’s Peyton Krebs.

“At the beginning, it was a little weird playing on a big ice like that, so it was a little adjustment,” Blais said in a phone interview this week. “As the tournament went on, I think I played with confidence and just tried to do anything possible to win. I think that was pretty much our team. We were working really hard, being physical, that’s pretty much why we won. We were wearing other teams down.”

The showing was a continuation of Blais’ performance at the end of the season, following his trade back to the Blues as part of the Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola deal.

In St. Louis, Blais had nine goals and 11 assists in 31 games, which would have put him on pace for about 53 points across a full 82-game season. He was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this summer but instead signed a one-year extension worth $1 million in the spring.

“I think he’s looking like he has potential to be a regular top-nine player,” said Blues general manager Doug Armstrong, who also was the GM of Team Canada. “Now, to do that, it’s a consistency and it’s a consistency in the details. I saw that at the Worlds. I saw that a little bit more when he got here.

“You want the peak as high as it can be, but you want the valley close to the peak. I think he’s understanding that bad games can’t be minus-2 and minus-3, and to push his two-way game. I thought he did a heck of a job when he got him back. I thought he did a heck of a job over there.”

While Blais’ career-long production profiles more as a physical fourth-liner, if he can continue to chip in at a higher rate, it could result in a more versatile and deeper bottom six in St. Louis. Toward the end of last season, Blais saw time alongside Pavel Buchnevich and Kapanen, plus players like Robert Thomas and Jakub Vrana.

Maybe all it took was for some comfortability and familiarity with the Blues organization.

Blais scored in his first game back in St. Louis — his first goal since being traded to New York — and built from there.

“After I scored that first goal in my first game back, for sure that gave me confidence and then it just started from there, just building every game,” Blais said. “Playing a little bit more and playing more free, not gripping my stick too hard. It was nice to get it going again and I think the World tournament was big, too, get to play a little bit more than most guys. It was good for me to go there.”

On a few different levels, next season is a big one for Blais.

It will be the first time he will have had a full summer of working out following a torn ACL suffered while playing for the Rangers. He spent last summer mostly rehabbing the knee, and it still required treatment during last season. Now, Blais said he was “really happy with how my knee is doing,” and that it wasn’t sore during the World Championship.

It will be Blais’ first full season back in St. Louis since 2020-21, and that was the COVID-shortened 56-game season. It will also be another contract year for Blais, as he’s scheduled to be a UFA next summer.

“I hope he can take advantage of a full summer of training, get himself in top physical condition,” Armstrong said. “Not only does it help the St. Louis Blues, but the salary cap’s going to go up a year from now, and he’s going to be a free agent a year from now. Having motivated players for all the right reasons is going to be good.

“One of the reasons is it’s a business and he can make a lot of money if he can parlay what he did when he got here to the World Championship to next year, he could have a good next July.”

It may be unrealistic to expect that Blais puts up a 50-point season next year (he only has 64 career points), but the Blues will take any scoring punch they can get from their depth players.

Blais went back to Montreal this week and will spend the summer training there, including with Blues defenseman Marco Scandella. He’ll also turn 27 years old Saturday.

“I know I can play in this league and be good,” Blais said. “Just going to be enjoying my summer, work hard and come into camp in great shape. Just try to keep the same thing going (with) how my season ended.”