St. Louis Blues: Trying To Understand Confusing Junior/Minors Situation

By Todd Panula |

REGINA, SK - MAY 21: Robert Thomas #27 of Hamilton Bulldogs skates against the Swift Current Broncos at Brandt Centre - Evraz Place on May 21, 2018 in Regina, Canada. (Photo by Marissa Baecker/Getty Images)

With the St. Louis Blues fleshing out their roster with impressive moves, they now have decisions to make about their young players. It’s not anything close to cut and dry though.

The St. Louis Blues find themselves in a somewhat envious position, but also a tenuous one heading into the 2018-19 season. They have increased their talent levels by quite a bit, pushing their prospects to work even harder to crack the lineup.

The issue with that idea is that the Blues don’t have as much wiggle room as some might believe with regard to certain players. So, they may have put undue pressure on a certain player, which is exactly what they said they were trying to avoid.

The player in question is Robert Thomas. The pressure they have put on him is that he better make the team out of training camp or it’s a complete year without him.

What this boils down to is the age restriction on players coming out of the CHL. It’s all quite complicated, but one of the writers at Stanley Cup of Chowder did a good job of breaking it down with regards to the Bruins in 2012.

Essentially, the agreement between the NHL and the CHL is that CHL drafted players cannot play in the minor leagues until they are 20 or have completed four years at the junior level. This is mainly to protect the CHL from losing all its good players very early and then seeing them sent to the AHL or ECHL.

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The reason it is a sticking point for the Blues is that Thomas is neither 20 nor has he played four years. He will be 19 when the 2018-19 season starts and just completed his third season in the OHL (a branch of the CHL).

Again, boiling it down to the simplest terms, Thomas has to make the Blues or he has to play for the Hamilton Bulldogs. There is, unfortunately, not much middle ground.

The Blues do have a handful of games during the regular season with which to decide on. We saw that with Alex Pietrangelo. In both 2008-09 and 2009-10, he played eight or nine games with the Blues and then went back to his junior team for the rest of the season. If the Blues kept him past that time, he would have begun his pro contract with a pro salary and had to stay in the NHL the entire year.

From the CHL’s perspective, it is a good rule. You don’t want the NHL convincing these guys to go after one or two years and then only see them play for minor league teams. The CHL has no problem letting them go, but only if they are good enough to play in the NHL.

However, for the Blues, they have created some problems with all their summer additions. While many assumed that Thomas would not be playing center in the NHL right out of the gate, he is in a spot now where that is almost impossible. St. Louis has Ryan O’Reilly, Brayden Schenn, Tyler Bozak and Ivan Barbashev who all play center and Alexander Steen, Robby Fabbri, Oskar Sundqvist and even Jordan Nolan who all can play in the middle.

The Blues are also pretty full at the wing positions now, with guys like Dmitrij Jaskin, Sammy Blais and Zach Sanford potentially on the outside looking in. They all already have NHL experience and will find playing time hard to come by.

So, where is this playing time going to come from? It surely will not be given for the sake of it. Thomas will have to earn it, but will also not have time for growing pains since he cannot really stick it out or learn in the minors.

He could also, potentially, miss out on a season of growing with future teammates. If, by some chance, he has to spend another year in juniors, he won’t get to play with guys like Jordan Kyrou or Klim Kostin. Kyrou is old enough to play in the AHL this season and, though he is 19, Kostin is exempt from the rule since he came from Europe.

With all the additions, Kyrou is almost certainly not going to make the Blues. He would have to have an unbelievable camp and even then, you have guys on contracts that would be more difficult to send down and clear waivers. Still, a year in the AHL would be good for him to see how he can handle the size of pro players.

It simply makes for an odd dynamic with different rules. Kyrou will be in the minors, Thomas could be in the NHL or the CHL but guys like Kostin or Dominik Bokk have exemptions. Even Bokk, who is only 18, could start the year in Sweden and make his way over to the AHL or ECHL at some point, if he or the Blues felt it in his best interest. That probably won’t happen, but it could.

At this point, the Blues seem a little stuck from the outsider’s point of view. They have made enough comments about Thomas playing this season that it would be hard for some fans to swallow if he has to have another year in juniors. Doug Armstrong went so far as to say that he could envision a line with Thomas in the middle and O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko on the wings by Christmas.

That does not sound like a team that has any intentions of putting Thomas back in the CHL this year. But, with all the added depth they’ve acquired, is it fair to expect Thomas to get playing time right away if he struggles at all? Is it fair to him to have him sit in the press box as a scratch if other players have earned the right to be on the ice?

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It is a rather odd situation and one that I do not envy for the decision makers. The best case scenario is that Thomas impresses, as we all believe he can, and makes that part of the decision easy. Most fans could stomach the idea of sending someone like Chris Thorburn or Jaskin through waivers if we knew Thomas was legit right away.

Having him go to the CHL for an entire year, with no option of bringing him back would be a kick in the teeth after all the hoopla though. It will make training camp much more interesting than it would have been otherwise.

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