NHL teams invite players to camp on professional tryouts (or PTOs) for a number of reasons. Sometimes, it’s just to fill out the veteran requirements for exhibition games. Other times, it’s done to increase the competitive atmosphere in on-ice drills and scrimmages. And still, other times, it’s because there’s a belief that the player in question has a genuine shot at making the team.

The Canucks most recently invited 28-year-old winger Sammy Blais to camp on a PTO, and we don’t know which of those outcomes they were envisioning when they did. But we do know that, when it comes to Blais, any of the outcomes are possible, including his cracking the opening-day roster.

It might seem like an uphill battle to break into an already overstuffed forward corps, and it is. But the preseason also happens to be the time of year during which Blais typically does his best work.

In fact, he’s a downright exhibition superstar — a regular Mr. September.

Let’s bring it all the way back to the earliest origins of his professional hockey career. Blais was, at the time, not a particularly notable prospect. He’d been drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the sixth round of the 2014 Entry Draft with the 176^th overall pick. He’d go on to have a productive junior run with the Victoriaville Tigres before being traded partway through the 2015-16 campaign to the playoff-bound Charlottetown Islanders.

Then, it was time to make his pro debut. Although he did attend the Blues’ 2016 camp, Blais did not dress for a single exhibition game that season. However, he did land a spot with the affiliate Chicago Wolves for the entirety of the 2016/17 season, where he put up a respectable 43 points in 75 games.

That earned him some preseason looks in 2017, and that’s where the legend of Septembery Blais was born.

Blais looked intriguing enough to suit up for seven exhibition games that year, nearly the full slate, and notched two goals and two assists. That, in turn, was enough for him to crack the Blues’ opening-day roster.

The production did not continue, however, which is also going to be part of the trend. Blais put up a single point in October, another in November, and a third point in December before being sent back down to the San Antonio Rampage for the remainder of the 2017/18 season.

But Blais’ preseason had put him on the map and into the discussion for a full-time position, and he was just getting warmed up.

Blais stormed into the 2018 preseason, racking up three goals and an assist in five exhibition matches. And once again, he made the team off the strength of that effort.

The in-season production didn’t take off any stronger. Blais managed just the same four points in 32 total regular season games and found himself re-assigned to San Antonio for a couple of stints. But by the time the playoffs rolled around, Blais was a full-time part of the picture, suiting up for 15 postseason contests (three points) and earning himself a Stanley Cup ring for his efforts.

Many players experience a Stanley Cup hangover after experiencing their first championship. But not preseason superstar Sammy Blais. He instead responded with his best exhibition run yet in 2019, with a goal and four assists in four games, a greater-than-point-per-game showing. Again, Blais made the team, and this time, the offence followed at least a little: Blais would post 13 points in 40 regular season games and four more in eight playoff games.

Of course, there was no preseason to speak of in 2020, so Blais had no opportunity to do what he does best. Thankfully, he was established enough with the Blues at that point to be pencilled into a spot anyway, and he responded with a then-career 15 points in 36 games.

We can’t know how much of a factor Blais’ preseason reputation was when the New York Rangers decided to make him the centrepiece of their return in the Pavel Buchnevich trade in the summer of July 2021, but it happened all the same. The Blues landed Buchnevich for the low, low cost of just Blais and a second-round pick. And Blais was on his way to New York.

Where, naturally, Blais starred in the 2021 preseason, posting two goals and an assist in four exhibition games.

Now, here’s where Blais’ career took an unfortunate turn. Once again, his scoring did not translate into the regular season, up to just four points in 14 games by November 14, 2021. That part was not unusual.

But what was decidedly unusual was the way in which Blais’ lower body awkwardly jammed into the endboards as the result of a PK Subban slew foot. The resulting injury ended Blais’ season, and most will attest that he has not been the same since.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the 2022 exhibition schedule, which Blais managed to return in time for, marked the one and only time in Blais’ career that he would go scoreless in the preseason. He played two games for the Rangers and scored zero points.

But he still made the team, albeit in his newly diminished capacity. He’d play 40 regular season games for the Rangers, putting up just five points, and at one point would pass through waivers unclaimed for a stint in Hartford.

Then, Blais was traded back to St. Louis, which proved to be a very good thing for him. For once, he started to put up points in the regular season at the same rate he did in the preseason, ending up with 20 points in 31 games for the Blues.

That torrid pace briefly continued into the 2023 preseason, in which Blais scored a goal and an assist in three games. However, it did not continue into the full 2023/24 campaign, during which Blais stayed in the NHL the entire year but only managed seven points in 53 games.

Leading him to today, with a PTO in hand and an opportunity to turn that into a real NHL contract, so long as he can impress in the exhibition schedule.

Which, as we’ve highlighted here, is absolutely Blais’ thing.

So, don’t go counting him out of the running just yet. If the 2024 preseason goes like most of Sammy Blais’ preseasons, he’s going to be a tough player to cut.