Breaking News: Sammy Blais Placed On Waivers

The 2025-26 season has been a roller coaster for Blais, as it started with him getting claimed by the rival Toronto Maple Leafs from the Canadiens on October 6th, 2025, at the end of the preseason before ever getting the chance to play a regular season game with the Habs. He proceeded to play 8 games with the Maple Leafs, where he scored a goal and 2 assists before being placed on waivers again. Since the Canadiens already lost him to waivers during the season, under the CBA, they had the right to claim Blais back with the purpose of placing him in the AHL, as long as no other team put in a claim, which is exactly what happened when they got him back on November 27th.

Following being claimed by the Canadiens, Blais went down to the AHL to serve as a veteran presence for the Laval Rocket. He would play 9 games with the Rocket, where he scored 3 goals and 6 assists, putting up a point per game before he got called back up to the NHL on December 21st as a replacement for injuries. It took 13 games before players on injury reserve started to come back, and he fell to the press box as there was less room in the lineup for him.

Despite him losing his spot in the lineup, Blais proved to be a good 4th-line presence that was great on the forecheck while bringing a nice physical edge, could create some offence and seemed like he could be the perfect 13th forward for the Habs. However, it seems that with this move, on top of Joe Veleno getting into the lineup over him in recent games with Alexandre Texier, the Canadiens don’t feel the same way.

Given that the Maple Leafs lost Blais to the Habs earlier in the season, the same rules will apply to them, and there is a good chance that they claim him to send him to the Marlies or use him at the NHL level if they need him for depth purposes. With that being said, his time with the Canadiens organization seems like it’s over, at least for the time being.

As a result of this roster move, there is speculation about whether forward Patrik Laine may get into Wednesday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets or if a trade is coming soon. At the same time, there will be a roster freeze as of Wednesday night for the Olympic break that will take place following the slate of NHL games on Thursday night and will end on Sunday, February 22nd, once the Olympics are over. According to Renaud Lavoie, the Habs don’t seem like either Laine nor a trade will be coming but we’ll see what happens as he mentioned only that it’s what he’s understanding for the time being.

Do you think that the Canadiens have something brewing in the background before the roster freeze takes place on Wednesday night, a way to fit Laine in a game before making a trade after the break, or is it just to save some cap space?