Jack Finley: 'I’m Very, Very Happy That St. Louis Took A Chance On Me.'

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Jack Finley was more surprised than anyone else.

But when the new St. Louis Blues forward realized he was claimed off waivers by the organization his father Jeff Finley once played for, the sting of leaving one organization to join another was less stinging.

The 23-year-old St. Louis native was on the ice for the first time on Tuesday with his new teammates after the Blues claimed Finley off waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It’s a bit of a culture shock going from a Stanley Cup favorite to a team near the bottom of the Western Conference, and initially, the move caught Finley off guard.

“A little bit, yeah,” he said after practice at Centene Community Ice Center. “Obviously Tampa’s a really good team. They’ve got an older team with a lot of great players. I think it was a little bit of a shock going into the break, but I’m very, very happy that St. Louis took a chance on me. I’m very excited to be here.”

Finley, a second-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Lightning who had two goals and one assist in 22 games in his first full season this year, was looking to perhaps head to Syracuse of the American Hockey League to get in some games during the Olympic break. That’s what the organization was thinking too. But he got the call from each general manager, Doug Armstrong of the Blues and Julien BriseBois of the Lightning, who were together when the call was made.

“I haven’t played a whole lot of games this year,” Finley said. “I’ve kind of been in and out of the lineup. I think the decision was to get me down to Syracuse to play some games and get some puck touches.

“I was at home in Tampa. I got a call from Julien and Doug. They’re together right now in Milan. I didn’t really know what to expect. You don’t really know until the time’s up. When I got that call from Doug, I was super-excited. A lot of shock and just grateful that they picked me up.

“They were together. I just had a quick chat with Julien and thanked him for everything and then I talked to Doug real quick. Obviously they’re pretty busy right now. They’ve got a lot going on, just a quick chat.”

Finley figures to fit into the bottom six of the Blues’ forward group. At 6-foot-6, 227 pounds, he’s a big body that can be useful not just for his size but his age bracket too.

“I think he fits into our bottom six forwards,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said of Finley. “Obviously the size is very noticeable, but he’s a heavy forward that wins a lot of face-offs, real detailed player. We see him fitting in somewhere, initially on the fourth line and then we see where he progresses to.”

Finley, who has this year at a two-way deal remaining before the final two years of his $775,000 average annual value contract kicks into a one-way, fits the mold of young, early-to-mid 20s players the Blues are trying to incorporate.

“I believe so. Obviously this is my first year in the league,” Finley said. “I think this team’s got a really good nucleus of young players that they’ve drafted and acquired and obviously they’ve got really good veterans, but for me, I think I can help with the youth side of it, keep developing and hopefully help this team.”

Finley wore No. 62 with the Lightning this season, but on Tuesday, he was sporting a familiar No. 37, one worn by his dad when he sported the Bluenote from 1998-2004.

“I just thought it was cool, playing in the same organization as him,” Finley said of his dad, who was a defenseman. “I grew up being a huge Blues fan. My first look in this world was in St. Louis. I just thought it was cool to wear that number.

“He’s kind of connected in hockey, but no one really knew what was going to happen. I called my parents and let them know I was going to St. Louis. Everyone was so happy. I was born here, my mom loved the city, my dad loved the city and the organization. It was a big part of my family growing up.”

Finley just doesn’t remember too much of his time growing up. He said he was, “only two or three,” when the family moved away. But he was in the lineup here when the Lightning visited St. Louis on Jan. 16, a 3-2 shootout win by the Blues that ended Tampa’s 11-game winning streak.

“The first time I actually had been back to St. Louis was this year when we came here to play them,” Finley said. “I didn’t really have a good chance to walk around, but I’m loving it so far. The guys already are great, coaching staff’s great. I’m very happy.”

Adding another forward, surprisingly, to the mix will create quite the cog for the Blues once everyone’s back and healthy.

“First of all, the numbers situation, you can’t carry 16 forwards,” Montgomery said. “That’s going to be a Doug Armstrong/Alexander Steen question. For me, it’s about getting everybody the same number of reps. Right now with the focus that we have is just getting our habits down, our details down, our skating conditioning back, our touches and then focusing on the competitive levels of winning battles in different situations. We did a little bit of that today, but it’s really going to progress starting tomorrow.”

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