Canadiens claim Maple Leafs forward off of waivers

The Montreal Canadiens have claimed Toronto Maple Leafs forward Sammy Blais off the waiver wire and while it isn't great to lose a player for nothing, it was expected.

Announced through multiple sources -- all the national beat reporters that get the emails from the NHL about waiver wire activity, basically -- the Canadiens snatched up Blais after he was put on waivers Wednesday afternoon.

Sammy Blais heads back to Montreal on waivers

As TSN's Chris Johnston and others have alluded to, it was the Maple Leafs that originally claimed Blais off of waivers from the Canadiens back on October 7 as they were in the middle of a large injury crisis and just needed anyone capable of being an NHL forward without needing to dive into the AHL roster. Now, after almost two months in Toronto and a total of eight games played where he scored one goal and three total points, Blais is back with the team that originally signed him last summer.

Now with players like Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies, and Nicolas Roy returning from injury this week, the Leafs tried to sneak Blais back through waivers to keep him within the organization as another insurance player. Unfortunately, Montreal got what they wanted all along and Blais is back on the Canadiens.

Blais did all that was asked of him from the Leafs and head coach Craig Berube -- he played hard and actually produced some offense in the 66 minutes he wore the Blue and White. Not too bad of a little cameo for the former St. Louis Blues player after all.

Now instead of Blais, we get a whole lot of Dakota Joshua, Steven Lorentz, Scott Laughton, and Calle Jarnkrok forming the Leafs' bottom six. We'll always remember your eight games -- those eight wonderful games where Toronto looked like the worst team ever put together in the National Hockey League and all we really experienced was misery and boredom.

Best of luck, Sammy.