It hasn’t been an easy couple of years for Sammy Blais since winning a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. For someone who was supposed to cement himself as a solid middle-6 option for contending teams, the winger has found himself dealing with a variety of injury issues and an inability to produce consistently.

It’s how Blais finds himself at the 2024-25 Vancouver Canucks training camp, on a professional tryout contract after inking an AHL deal with the Abbotsford Canucks. He knows that he’s guaranteed to play the year in the minors at the very minimum – but the chance to showcase himself and show that he still can contribute at the NHL level is something that he’s eager to grasp.

“When they [the Canucks] offered me a PTO, they just said that they liked players like me and that I would get a good shot at making the team,” Blais said about his initial conversations with Vancouver and how they brought him in.

His style of play makes him a better fit in the bottom 6 than the recently traded Vasily Podkolzin. “I’m a physical guy out there. I play the game hard, nose to nose … I’m able to make some good plays too with the puck and be confident with the puck.”

The question is, can Blais show enough?

“It’s my first time being on a PTO. Normally, I go onto a team with a contract and stuff, but it’s been a little nerve-wracking,” Blais said about the entire experience so far. “But like I said, I’ve been around a long time in the NHL, so I kind of know what to do to be successful. So that’s kind of what I’ve been trying to do these first three days and not put pressure on me, and just be myself.”

“You got to stand out. But for me, practices are kind of hard to show that a little bit. But when games come, I think just play my game, play hard.”

Blais said that the past couple of years have been rough on him as well. “Last year was not my best. My best year was not really there in St Louis, but the year before I got back St Louis, I was put in a situation to be successful, and I think I proved it,” the winger said, referencing the 2022-23 season. “I think I belong in the NHL, so it’s just going to be for me to prove it.”

He’s finally feeling healthy, too. “This summer was pretty much like the first summer where I really felt good. I tore my ACL two and a half years ago, was a pretty tough break for me. When I got traded to the [New York] Rangers, I think I was playing good when I got hurt, and coming back from that, that injury was pretty hard, but now I feel good and I feel confident on the ice,” Blais said about coming into camp.

Canucks management certainly seems to be a fan of him already. “[He’s] an experienced guy, played games on a contending team in St Louis a couple of years ago,” GM Patrik Allvin said on Wednesday during the opening press conference. “It’s a great opportunity for him. I think what he contributes to on the ice is the way we want to play. We want to be hard to play against and he is a checker. So there is, there’s an opportunity for him.”

Certainly, the door is left open for Blais to make the Vancouver roster. Stylistically, he fits the mould of a Tocchet player, and that experience in the playoffs will make him valuable. He’s been featured on a line with Nils Åman and Linus Karlsson, a potential look at what a fourth-line combination could be for the Canucks.

“Craig Berube and Tocc are pretty much the same kind of kind of guy, they like the physical game and playing hard. I think that’s kind of my game, hard to play against,” Blais spoke about playing under Berube in St. Louis and now Tocchet in Vancouver. The two coaches not only happened to be teammates in the NHL but also roommates. “That’s why I made myself like that in the league, just hard to play against. When I was in the AHL, I was more like a scorer, passer, but when you get to the NHL, everyone has skills, you’re not always getting top-line minutes and you got to do something else to stand out.”

“For me, it was being physical, hard to play against, and that’s what made me successful in the NHL.”