Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Samuel Blais wanted ice time.
He’s already gotten loads of work with the Laval Rocket.
“It feels good enjoying a whole lot of minutes right here,” the left wing mentioned following his debut weekend with the Rocket, “so I’m feeling fairly good.”
Blais’s probability with the Montreal Canadiens has not come. Not less than not but. After signing with Montreal as a free agent and going to coaching camp with the crew, the Toronto Maple Leafs grabbed him off waivers on Oct. 6.
The Leafs alternative reunited him with head coach Craig Berube, who coached Blais in St. Louis when the Blues gained the Stanley Cup in 2018-19. His Toronto debut got here Oct. 29 at Columbus, the place he performed a season-high 10:55. Slowly his ice time dipped, nevertheless, falling to a low of 4:19 on Nov. 13. Blais has 265 NHL video games on his ledger and produced a aim and two assists in his eight video games with the Leafs, however he spent all of final season in Abbotsford and the Leafs – trying to type by a sluggish begin to their season – didn’t essentially have the luxurious of giving Blais a whole lot of further time to ease his method again into the NHL tempo.
“I assumed the video games I performed, I had some fairly good video games,” Blais mentioned of his temporary spin with Toronto. “However they’d a whole lot of gamers there, good gamers. I assumed after I bought within the lineup I did a very good job.”
Reclaimed off waivers by Montreal final week, Blais was assigned to Laval. For the product of Montmagny, Que., that is as near residence as it will possibly get for him. And naturally, the Canadiens prevented him from becoming a member of the North Division rival Toronto Marlies.
Head coach Pascal Vincent put Blais proper to work, enjoying the left aspect of a line with captain Lucas Condotta and Xavier Simoneau, forming a line that may trigger appreciable issues for opponents. All three play a gritty, agitating fashion.
In his debut on Saturday night time at Lehigh Valley, Blais produced a first-period aim after which pressured time beyond regulation by way of one other tally with 33.6 seconds to go in regulation. He completed off the 5-4 victory with the one strike within the shootout.
An evening later in Hershey, Blais chipped in a pair of assists in Laval’s 4-3 victory. And in his residence debut at Place Bell on Tuesday, Blais picked up an help in a 4-1 win over Windfall, his fifth level in three video games.
AHL followers are aware of Blais. He was a power throughout final 12 months’s Calder Cup run for Abbotsford, recording 19 factors in 23 video games whereas continuously hitting, forechecking and sporting down opposing defenders. Eight days after skating the Cup at Bojangles Coliseum, Blais had a brand new one-year contract with Montreal.
“They (the Canadiens) have a younger crew, a very good crew, and when you’ve an opportunity to signal together with your hometown crew, I feel it’s a straightforward resolution,” Blais mentioned. “I’m glad I did.”
The consistency that Blais displayed final spring is what the Canadiens are hoping to see.
“After they gained the Cup in St. Louis,” Vincent mentioned, “he was so good throughout these collection. Similar factor final 12 months. Bodily man. I feel he has his personal identification. He’s bought nice palms, however he could be bodily on the identical time. I feel he can carry one thing that’s onerous to seek out.
“We have to see consistency in these areas. One-on-one battles. Attending to the web. Driving performs. Being dependable defensively. What he’s good at is he can shoot the puck, he could be actually good across the internet, and he could be bodily. If he does that basically nicely and persistently, I feel he’s giving himself a very good probability.”
After successful the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy in 2024-25, the Rocket are once more among the many AHL’s high golf equipment, main the North Division at 15-6-0-0. Blais makes them even higher. Possibly it means Laval taking the following step in direction of a championship. Or possibly it is going to open one other alternative to hitch the Canadiens. Both method, Blais is in a very good place.
“I’m simply completely happy I’m enjoying a whole lot of hockey,” Blais mentioned, “and getting my confidence again.”
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
