“I took it pretty hard,” Blais said. “It was really hard for me. Won the Cup here and I have a lot of good friends here, so it was really tough leaving. I’m just so happy to be back here now.”

After more than 1½ seasons with the Rangers, Blais is back with the Blues as part of Thursday’s Vladimir Tarasenko trade.

When he came out on the ice for Friday’s practice at Centene Community Ice Center, he was greeted by stick taps — the universal sign of hockey respect — by his teammates. When the team gathered around the center ice circle to stretch at the end of practice, Blais was in the middle — kind of an honorary designation in the hockey world.

After a bit, captain Ryan O’Reilly skated in and gave Blais a little tap to the leg with his stick.

A day after Farewell Vladi, it was Welcome Back Sammy.

“Obviously, we’re excited to have a guy like that back,” teammate Brayden Schenn said. “He’s a big body, big hits, heavy skill, lots of skill. Just a guy that walks in your room and always a smile on his face and lights up the room.”

Blais, 26, will be in the lineup Saturday night when the Blues return to game action after an 11-day break to play the Arizona Coyotes at Enterprise Center.

He will be playing on a bruising third line that includes Ivan Barbashev and Noel Acciari. Between the three of them, they have combined for 382 hits this season. Yep, that’s a lot.

“They’re gonna play hard,” coach Craig Berube said of that trio. “They’re gonna take the body, that’s their game, and the forecheck. So it should be a good identity line for us.”

Blais was at a mall Thursday in New York, shopping for a dress shirt, when he got this text from Blues center Robert Thomas: “Is it true?”

“And I was like: ‘What’s that?’” Blais replied.

Blais went on Twitter and saw numerous reports that he was headed back to St. Louis. Thirty minutes later, Rangers general manager Chris Drury called to inform him of the trade.

As a result, he never completed the shopping trip — he still needed a dress shirt.

“I might go today,” Blais said with a chuckle from his locker stall at Centene.

Blais wore jersey No. 9 during his previous stint in St. Louis, but that number now belongs to Tyler Pitlick. He wore No. 91 with the Rangers, but out of respect for Tarasenko doesn’t want to wear that number here.

He wanted to wear something with the number nine in it, so he told former teammate Vince Dunn (now with Seattle) after the trade that he might take No. 29 — Dunn’s jersey number as a Blue.

“He told me that would not look good on me, so I decided to go with 79 instead,” Blais said, smiling.

Dunn and Blais lived together in the Central West End while with the Blues and remain best friends.

About half of the current Blues roster consists of former St. Louis teammates; the rest are new names and faces — including the player he got trade for from the Rangers, Buchnevich.

“Lot of new faces but most of them have been really nice,” Blais said. “And a lot of guys that were here when I was here. So it’s been pretty easy right now. Hopefully, I’ll just get in here and play good.”

Blais was limited to 14 games last season with the Rangers because of a knee injury and surgery. He had played in 40 games this season — but had no goals and a modest nine assists in those 54 combined games. He was averaging a career-low 9:38 of ice time this season with the Rangers.

“Last year was really, really hard mentally and physically for me,” Blais said. “Even this year, it didn’t go the way I wanted it to go in New York. Obviously I wanted to have a bit more of an impact there, but it’s in the past now and it’s a new start for me here.”

O’Reilly (foot) and Buchnevich (ankle) practiced again Friday, and Berube said he’s expecting both players to play against Arizona. O’Reilly centered a line flanked by Brandon Saad and Buchnevich on Friday.

• After missing two games before the All-Star/bye week break, Robert Thomas is back and is centering a line flanked by Schenn and Jordan Kyrou.

• Defenseman Tyler Tucker, recalled from Springfield of the AHL on Thursday, practiced with the team Friday and is slated to play on the third pairing with Calle Rosen against Arizona. That would make Robert Bortuzzo a healthy scratch.