MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Nick Ritchie wasn't expecting the unexpected.
But the 27-year-old's current plight is just that -- unexpected.
Like many of his competitors who fall in line without a contract heading into an NHL training camp on a yearly basis, the forward is one of those players on the outside looking in.
On the outside without a contract, and the only means of trying to earn said contract is through a professional tryout.
"It definitely wasn't something I was thinking would happen," Ritchie said at St. Louis Blues training camp. "It wasn't in my mind at all, but obviously things happen. It is what it is. Now you can't change that. I'm just excited to get an opportunity here to show I can still play good hockey and help the team win."
It is the primary reason why Ritchie, the No. 10 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft by the Anaheim Ducks and an eight-year veteran who split last season between the Arizona Coyotes and Calgary Flames, chose to come to St. Louis and try and earn his way onto a roster that despite being crowded, gives him the best chance to make a team suited for his style.
"The St. Louis Blues have been a really good team in this league for a long time," Ritchie said. "I think they play a style, if I have a good training camp, I can help a team like this. They're a team that's looking to get back to the playoffs. I had a good summer and feel confident and ready to show what I got.
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"... I think this is a team obviously that's a big, strong team that plays, I don't know if you can say plays a little bit of the old school style, but they play a hard, gritty 5-on-5 game. Just a hard team to play against that doesn't give you much. I think that if I can show myself, I can add another element to the team as well.
"Just in talking to the coaching staff and the management, that's the way they've played and things aren't going to change in that regard. They're trying to get back to that to get back to the playoffs.
Ritchie is listed as 6-foot-3, 231 pounds. He's got a big, heavy upper-body build and used it to his advantage last season with 218 hits, the second-most of his career (247 with the Ducks in 2016-17). And even though he will be up against it trying to work his way into a group that has Oskar Sundqvist, Alexey Toropchenko, Jake Neighbours, Nikita Alexandrov, Nathan Walker and Mackenzie MacEachern vying for roster spots and playing time, Ritchie's style of play fits into the Blues' fabric and style, a style coach Craig Berube relishes.
"He's a big guy, he's played in the NHL, he's played that role on the fourth line, third line maybe," Berube said of Ritchie. "He's put some pucks in the net. A couple of good years scoring some goals. He's a big body that has good hands around the net. I like his size obviously. He's got experience. He's got to be a big body, he's got to use his big body, get on the forecheck, control things down low in the offensive zone, get to the net offensively. Just be a heavy guy, make it hard on the other team and just be responsible defensively. That's his role.
"We're going to give him a look. He's going to get some (preseason) games and go from there."
Ritchie, who has familiarity of playing with defenseman Torey Krug with the Boston Bruins towards the tail end of the 2019-20 season and was a teammate of Brayden Schenn's older brother Luke Schenn with the Ducks briefly in 2018-19, isn't just some fourth-line type the Blues can utilize as just being a forechecking, physical player. He's hit double figures in goal scoring in five of his eight NHL seasons, with a career-high 15 in 2020-21 with the Bruins; Ritchie had 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) in 74 games last season.
"You've got to keep the confidence high," Ritchie said. "Just get back to the things that have made me successful. It all starts here (in training camp). Going into the exhibition games, I've just got to try to be ready to go and just play my game."
And with the Blues' penchant for giving PTO's a chance to earn a contract (Mike Hoffman in 2020, James Neal in 2021 and Tyler Pitlick last season), Ritchie could be next in line.
"I think Ritchie's a proven NHL player," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "He's produced at this league and for whatever reason, he didn't get a contract and we said there's an opportunity here. We walked through and we go to our 7-15 forwards and said, 'This is your competition.' He had other opportunities too so he must have liked the opportunity. We told him we'd guarantee him exhibition games."
It starts with Saturday night's preseason split-squad game against the Coyotes in Wichita, Kan. The Blues play the Coyotes at 2 p.m. at home, and Ritchie will mark his debut in the lineup at 7 p.m. at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, trying to give whoever the competition is a run for their money.
"Even if you do have a contract, nothing's guaranteed in this league," Ritchie said. "You see the change every year with guys in and out. It's going to be no different this year. Everyone's got a great chance to make the team; it's going to be a good, competitive camp.
"... The way the league is now and with the salary cap, there's stuff that has to be sorted out and sometimes you have to prove yourself through a camp. That's what I'm going to try and do."
