St. Louis Blues Will Need Robert Thomas To Step Up
By Jason Martin
St. Louis Blues rookie forward Robert Thomas had an immediate impact on the team in his first year. However, next season, he will need to contribute more offensively.
The 20-year-old St. Louis Blues rookie sensation Robert Thomas did everything that was asked of him during his first season as an NHLer. He created space and time for his teammates and excelled at distributing the puck.
Thomas, however, did not produce on the scoresheet all that often. The Blues did not necessarily need him to score 20 goals last year, but they might need him to score more than the nine goals he scored in 2018-19.
All Thomas has done throughout his professional hockey career is win. He has won a significant trophy three years in a row playing with various teams and has filled his trophy case with great honors.
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Before being selected by the Blues in the first round of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, Thomas spent his time in the Ontario Hockey League with the London Knights.
Thomas began his dominant run to prospect stardom with a Memorial Cup championship in 2016 and also captured a U17 World Hockey Championship gold medal with Team Canada.
The following season, Thomas led the Hamilton Bulldogs to an OHL Championship, cementing his first-round draft potential. During that season, Thomas split time with the Knights and Bulldogs, registering 24 goals, 55 assists, and 79 points in 49 games played.
Not only did he tear up the OHL in the regular season, but he also dominated the playoffs, earning the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award for playoffs MVP. During those playoffs, the 19-year-old netted 32 points in 21 games played.
It took some time for Thomas to adjust his game to accommodate the style of play the NHL possesses. Despite only scoring nine goals and assisting on 24, the Blues will need to see more offensive input from him.
The Central Division is still one of the hardest divisions in the entire league, and with some of the offseason moves made by rival teams inside the Central, it will be critical for St. Louis to maintain the secondary scoring they showed last season.
During the 2018-19 season with the Blues, Thomas found himself playing on all four lines at some point during the year. Starting on the fourth line with Sammy Blais and Jordan Kyrou, Thomas eventually graduated to see himself playing with the likes of Vladimir Tarasenko and David Perron.
The 20-year-old does have an advantage. He has shown he can play multiple positions for the Blues, besides his natural center spot. In fact, the majority of his time played last year was on the wing with Tyler Bozak centering his line.
There is still a chance that we see Thomas on a different line beside the one with Bozak, especially if the Blues are unable to resign Pat Maroon.
If St. Louis decides to place him in a top-6 role, then he will need to adjust his style of play to be more offensive minded. Toward the end of the regular season, we saw Thomas start to gain more confidence with the puck, but it still resulted in some hesitancy to shoot.
His shooting ability would figure to be in his offseason plans, though his wrist injury sustained in the playoffs may throw that plan into a spiral. According to Jim Thomas of the Post Dispatch, Thomas underwent surgery to repair a tendon in his left wrist.
The plan for Thomas is to rehab the injury for the majority of the summer, and with the offseason being shortened by a Stanley Cup victory, it may result in Thomas getting off to a slow start next season.
Thomas, by no means, was anything short of spectacular last season for St. Louis. However, if he wants to progress in his development and earn a more impactful role, I hope to see him as a regular on the scoresheet in 2020.