When Quinton Burns was in town last month for Blues development camp, it was his healthiest trip to Ƶ across the last year.
Burns wasn’t on the ice at last year’s development camp due to an injury, days after the Blues selected the left-handed defenseman in the third round of the 2023 draft. When he was back for training camp in the fall, he re-injured himself in the preseason opener against Arizona in September. Then he returned to Centene Community Ice Center in mid-October when rehabilitation wasn’t going according to plan.
But now?
“Starting off right now, I feel good,” Burns said at development camp. “I’ve had half a summer since I’ve been down in Kingston to do lots of working out. It’s been nice because it’s been my first summer where I’ve come back from a season completely healthy, no injuries. I’ve been able to get right into working out and not have to worry about really rehabbing things (in-depth). I’m still rehabbing my hip and previous injuries to make sure nothing lingers.”
After missing the first eight games of last season, Burns played 58 games for Kingston in the Ontario Hockey League, posting six goals and 29 assists. He also had a team-leading 120 penalty minutes, which tied him for sixth-most in the OHL. If Burns had played a complete 68-game season, he would have led the league in PIMs.
Burns said the injury initially occurred at the Under-18 World Championship in 2023, was “lingering” during Blues training camp before “re-tweaking” it in an NHL exhibition.
“But during the season, once I came back after I missed a little bit of games, it was a little bit of an adjustment to get back into the speed once you miss that time,” Burns said. “After probably 10 games or so, I felt like I sort of got it back. I thought I had a good second half of the year.”
Most recently, Burns has been a participant in the World Juniors Summer Showcase for Team Canada, as he makes his case to be included on the Canadian team in his last season of World Junior eligibility. Burns is one of six Blues prospects included in the showcase, joining Americans Colin Ralph, Lukas Fischer and Paul Fischer, plus Swedes Otto Stenberg and Theo Lindstein.
Burns played for Canada in an intrasquad game on Tuesday night and again in an 8-6 win over Finland on Friday afternoon.
Making Canada’s World Junior team has been tough to do for recent Blues draft picks.
Defenseman Michael Buchinger and forward Zack Bolduc were both cut in their final chances to make the Under-20 team at their respective selection camps. Jake Neighbours played in the 2022 tournament for Canada before it was postponed due to COVID-19, and he did not return for the summer rendition of the tournament.
The last Blues pick to play for Canada at the World Juniors was goaltender Joel Hofer in 2020.
Burns was one of 13 defensemen invited to the showcase, and seven of those players were drafted higher than Burns (No. 74) in either the 2023 or 2024 draft. That includes two 2024 top-10 picks in Zayne Parekh and Carter Yakemchuk, in addition to potential WJC returnee Oliver Bonk.
But Burns brings a different element to the ice with his physicality.
He said he weighed in at 198 pounds during Blues development camp, up from the 175 he was at around Christmas. Last season in the OHL, he had four fighting majors and 20 roughing minors. That’s in addition to eight misconducts (that the OHL doesn’t include in PIM calculations), four cross-checking minors, two instigator minors, two kneeing minors and an elbowing minor, among other transgressions.
“I’ve always been physical and just to keep being physical, I thought I was good at that,” Burns said. “As you get older in the OHL, you get more confidence and more poise with the puck. That helped. I’ve put on some weight, so it makes it easier in front of the net.”
The Blues have not signed Burns to an entry-level contract yet, and they have until June 1 to do so or else they would lose his rights and Burns would re-enter the NHL draft.