St. Louis Blues: Robert Thomas Deserves To Stay In The NHL

The St. Louis Blues are now faced with a hard decision of whether or not to keep Robert Thomas on the NHL roster or send him back to juniors.

The St. Louis Blues have used all nine of Thomas’ trial games in the NHL, and now they are forced to make a tough decision. The team is loaded with depth, and the offense has not been the problem so far for St. Louis, but sending Thomas back would be a huge mistake.

To begin training camp, the Blues front office said that Thomas was going to get every opportunity to make the team, and boy did he. All preseason, Thomas was continually playing with some of the Blues best players in hopes that he would find some chemistry with Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly.

When O’Reilly was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a handful of players and picks, head coach Mike Yeo stated that he could envision Thomas centering a line with Tarasenko and O’Reilly.

This line combination may have come across as a bit ambitious for many Blues fans, but after realizing what Thomas is capable of during the preseason and to start the regular season, it is clear that he belongs at the NHL level.

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Thomas began the year on the fourth line with Ivan Barbashev and Jordan Kyrou (subsequently demoted to AHL San Antonio).

It took Thomas a couple of games to really get his feet under him before he started to settle in and get comfortable playing at such a high level.

Thomas was then given a couple of games off to readjust his game and learn from his early experiences at the NHL level. In his first four games, Thomas had recorded just one assist but still found ways to manipulate certain areas on the ice.

Since returning to the lineup on October 27 against the Chicago Blackhawks, Thomas has seen his time on ice (TOI) increase. In the last four games, Thomas is averaging right around 10 minutes per game.

The time on ice may not look significant, but with Thomas moving up in the lineup and playing with better players like Robby Fabbri and David Perron, his ice time will continue to increase and so will his production.

Thomas now has four points in his nine games so far this season, all being via the assist but he has more than just his playmaking ability to offer.

When Thomas was drafted in the first round of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, the scouting report said that Thomas had exceptional vision and skating ability and that has been evident in his early stint at the highest level.

The decision comes down to whether or not the Blues want to start the clock with Thomas’ entry-level contract. If he plays at least 40 games this season, then it will count as one full year of service, and he will be under team control for seven years instead of eight.

It’s difficult to imagine where Thomas would fit into the Blues lineup on a full-time basis. He would be fourth on the Blues depth chart behind Brayden Schenn, O’Reilly and Tyler Bozak, so if the Blues want to keep him around then they may need to roll out four scoring lines.