Montreal Canadiens News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Ex-St. Louis Blues forward Sammy Blais – (Photo by Joe Puetz/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Make Right Call Waiving Since-Claimed Blais

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Ryan Szporer | Last updated Oct 7, 2025 8:35 AM ET

Due to Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes’ lack of high-profile activity on July 1, many might have misinterpreted Sammy Blais as an underwhelming “big” free-agent signing. In truth, he was more of a very good depth signing. The Habs just ended up having too much that exposing Blais to waivers out of training camp was the only logical play.

Veleno over Blais?

That the Toronto Maple Leafs ended up claiming Blais is obviously a bit of bad news. However, the fact that the Canadiens could afford to, instead opting to keep the likes of Joe Veleno out of training camp, should be the main focus. After all, Veleno, as a just-25-year-old former first-round pick, has legitimate secondary-scoring potential. Blais, despite scoring 20 points in 31 games with the St. Louis Blues in parts of 2022-23, is actually closer to a 20-point scorer prorated over an entire season, based on his career numbers (22.7).

While that’s technically true of Veleno (21.7) too, it’s telling he has more games under his belt (306) than Blais (257) despite being 3.5 years younger. Based on the decent all-around play Veleno displayed in camp, he just amounts to more of a versatile player, even if his scoring potential ends up remaining untapped. It’s an intriguing dynamic, because both had been clients of Hughes, during his player-agent days. However, it isn’t simply a matter of Hughes choosing Veleno over Blais, but rather Hughes making an objective decision to cut the latter, seeing as the Canadiens went with a 22-man roster (instead of 23). If Hughes had really wanted, he could have kept Blais in the NHL, but, from his perspective, it didn’t make practical sense.

Blais wasn't going to play with Habs … would have been the 14th forward if they kept him. St. Louis prefers to carry only one extra forward and it also helps with salary cap. Habs have Xhekaj and Beck if they need to call up another forward.
— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) October 6, 2025

All due respect to Blais and his Stanley Cup in 2019 with the Blues, who were coached by Craig Berube with whom he’ll be reunited in Toronto, but that he spent all of 2024-25 in the American Hockey League is significant. Coming off a Calder Cup win with the Abbotsford Canucks, Blais was simply in more of a position to contribute with the Laval Rocket, at least based on the depth the Habs have in the NHL.

Ex-St. Louis Blues forward Sammy Blais – (Photo by Joe Puetz/NHLI via Getty Images)

Make what you will of the Leafs deciding they needed him instead… and also waiving ex-13th Canadiens forward Michael Pezzetta, who the Habs only played sparingly if that last season and who Blais was seen as replacing. Bottom line: If the Habs didn’t play Pezzetta, they weren’t going to play Blais.

Granted, signing the physical Blais initially seemed to be in response to suggestions the Canadiens had been outmuscled by the Washington Capitals in their five-game first-round defeat last spring. So, from that perspective, it would have been easy to envision them keeping him on as an insurance policy of sorts. However, in truth, the Habs outhit the Caps in the series and were in every game except for the deciding contest.

Canadiens Get Priorities Straight

So, devoting a roster spot to Blais would have arguably been an overcorrection, especially in light of how well the Canadiens seemed to handle themselves against the Ottawa Senators in their penultimate preseason game in Quebec City, when the “host” Sens doubled up the visitors in accruing 100 penalties in minutes, but still got shut out 5-0.

Without digressing too much in regard to that contest’s extracurricular activities, the Canadiens, specifically Arber and Florian Xhekaj and Jayden Struble, were impressively able to stand their ground in response to an apparent bid on the part of the Senators to intimidate and injure. Of note, Blais didn’t dress in that game, perhaps prompting management to reconsider their priorities heading into 2025-26. All they may really need is to commit to playing the elder Xhekaj regularly, with his first postseason appearance in Game 3 contributing to a decisive 6-3 win over the Capitals to give the Habs some life.

While it would have been nice to keep Blais in the mix, circumstances such as they are indicate the Canadiens simply didn’t need him. And, if they didn’t need him, they didn’t need to sign him this past summer. It’s almost like it didn’t happen, with the Habs obviously having given up nothing to acquire the free agent. Looking at it from that angle, the Habs didn’t lose all that much in the grand scheme of things. It was still an impressive offseason of work on Hughes’ part, with him having secured defenseman Noah Dobson in the lead-up to free agency. He’s the big offseason acquisition who should actually move the needle significantly.