Jori Lehtera's first season of three-year, $14.1 million contract with the St. Louis Blues was a dissapointment.

The 29-year-old, who signed the extension in 2015, saw his goal, assist, and point totals all decline for the second consecutive season.

Lehtera didn't make excuses when asked of his struggles, which included seeing him scratched in three of the team's 11 playoff games.

"It was a bad season for myself," Lehtera said, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I thought everything is going to come, I don't have to work through this. But ... it didn't. So it's just I have to go back to the work-basis and have a great summer workout-wise, come here and show everybody again I can play much better hockey."

Lehtera finished the regular season with seven goals and 22 points in 64 games. He scored one goal and added three assists in the playoffs.

The Helsinki, Finland native was coming off a 14-goal, 44-point rookie NHL season when the Blues signed him to his current contract in 2015. Blues general Doug Armstrong said the team never thought Lehtera would regress the way he has.

"When that decision was made to give him an extension, he had played one year in the league, he had close to 50 points, he was 28, it looked like a no-brainer at the time," Armstrong said. "We had Backes who was going to be an unrestricted free agent, he had synergy with (Vladimir) Tarasenko, and he had produced.

"I just thought you're going to get a 50-point player for the next three or four years. If he gets to 60-65, awesome, but he's not going to go quite honestly to where he is right now. I think he can bounce back. (But) he has to get better and it's our responsibility to help him."

Fox Sports' Andy Strickland reported last week he believes the Blues will protect Vladimir Tarasenko, Jaden Schwartz, Paul Stastny, Alex Steen, Patrik Berglund, and either Ryan Reaves or David Perron in the Golden Knights expansion draft, meaning Lehtera could be Vegas bound in June.

Lehtera scored at 13.6 per cent rate in his first NHL season in 2014-15 season, but his shooting percentage has since regressed to 10.7 per cent over the past two years.

He will turn 30 in December.