St. Louis Blues Extend Sammy Blais Two Years Amid Cap Confusion

The St. Louis Blues are not sitting on their laurels during this forced break in their season. With nothing else to do, they extended one of their energy guys.

The St. Louis Blues must have figured they had enough of just sitting around. Either that, or they wanted to give me something to actually write about. I’m sure that’s it.

Whatever the reason, Doug Armstrong was working the phones during this lull in the action and got a deal done. Sammy Blais will remain a member of the Blues until at least 2022.

The Blues signed the forward to a two-year extension. The entire deal is worth $3 million, with a cap hit of $1.5 million per season.

Interestingly, Armstrong was only involved in a minor way. Armstrong said that Director of Hockey Operations Ryan Miller was the main person in contact with Blais’ agent.

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Overall, this is a great deal. In a vacuum, it works as both a raise for the player (up from $875,000) and also a team-friendly deal to keep options open elsewhere on the roster.

With Blais signed, the Blues only have two free agent forwards this summer. Makenzie MacEachern and Jacob de La Rose are restricted free agents. You could count Troy Brouwer as a free agent, but nobody expects him to be back, so that’s likely a spot open for a prospect.

However, the only problem, potentially, with this contract is the timing. The Blues have no idea what the salary cap is going to be in 2020-21 or beyond.

Before all this happened, it was widely reported that the salary cap would actually go up. It could have been anything from $83-86 million.

Now, with the vast amount of money the league and its teams are losing, there are varied reports about what would happen to the cap because of that. Some suggest the cap should just remain where it is, to at least give teams some knowledge of what they could spend to.

On a radio show, Pierre McGuire said he was told by a source (unnamed of course) that the cap could be reduced by 25-40%. That seems insane.

Smarter people than myself know how it would be possible. The league would have to rollback salaries somehow or a good portion of the league would not be cap compliant even if you allow them one free buyout of a contract.

Time will tell on how that all works out. At this point, it is all conjecture and speculation.

Regardless of all that, it is good to know Blais will be sticking around. He’s been used in an energy-line roll, but he’s got talent.

Blais proved that earlier in 2019-20. When paired with Ryan O’Reilly and David Perron, Blais was scoring like crazy for him. 20 games into the season, he had five goals and was getting the odd whisper about All-Star potential with the pace he was setting for himself.

However, a wrist injury kept him out until January. After that, he was relegated to a bottom-six role, though his play did not note any disappointment if there was any.

Blais just kept doing what he does. He chipped in offensively when possible, but was a human missile to provide energy.

“We saw last year in the playoffs when he got in,” Armstrong said, as reported by Jim Thomas. “We just think he’s a young player, that’s a little of a late-bloomer in junior hockey. I thought Craig Berube really did a great job with him his first year in the American League, and has confidence in him. So I think Sammy feels that, too, and has continued to grow under Craig.”

If nothing else, Blais provides versatility. He has the skill to be able to play on the second line, but the toughness to play lower in the lineup too.

Next. NHL Draft will be a chore to pull off. dark

$1.5 million is good value for everything he provides. The only question now is how much of the cap that will eat up.

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