Blues' Overwhelming Trade Expectations for Robert Thomas Revealed

St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas during pregame warmup

Despite the St. Louis Blues listening to trade offers on just about anyone on the roster, including star forwards like Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, there are still a lot of people around the sport who would be shocked to see Thomas moved.

Insider Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet acknowledged this weekend that it would take an overwhelming offer to pry the 26-year-old two-way, playmaking center away from St. Louis.

What it sounds like, if the Blues really wanted to do this … you make them say 'there’s no way we can say no'.
So it is either a huge package that makes them say we can’t say no to this or the other thing I have heard, is they’re looking for like a stud top-six forward who’s slightly younger than Thomas.

Friedman went on to compare it to trading in a few-year-old model of your nice car for the same vehicle, but this year's model.

So there it is, a stud top-six forward (which is what Thomas already is) in return for another one who doesn't have as many clicks on the odometer.

The insider suggested the Blues would "probably be looking at somebody who is 22 to 24 years old". Thomas will be 27 this summer.

What does Thomas bring a receiving team in a trade?

What would a team be trading for? He has five years remaining on his eight-year deal that carries a reasonable (for a player of his skill set) $8.125 million cap hit. A receiving team would be getting cap-friendly cost certainty on a creative, reliable, high-IQ center for another half a decade. Those don't grow on trees. So be prepared to pay up handsomely, is the message.

Thomas has been out since Jan. 15th with a lower-body injury and is set to be reassessed by the end of this week. He still leads the Blues in scoring this season, though his numbers are down a bit (probably reflective of the team's overall poor performance this year).

In 42 games, he has 33 points on 11 goals and 22 assists. He's been good for over a point-per-game since becoming a full-time member of the Blues' top-six five seasons ago.