The St. Louis Blues have an interesting decision to make come Friday afternoon. The Trade Deadline is going to reveal a lot about the future of this organization, for this season and years to come.
With how close this team is to a playoff berth, the odds of them being buyers or sellers at the deadline is much like this season, 50/50.
We went over some untouchable players for the Blues to not give away, but these three players absolutely cannot get traded away, now or in the future.
No matter how dire, these three should be Blues for life.
Robert Thomas
There has not been one player on more of a hot streak then Robert Thomas. Over his last 10 games, he has four goals and 10 assists.
He is also on a generational run, with recording an assist in all of his last 10 games. That is good enough for a tie with Craig Janney in 1991-92 and Bernie Federko in 1980-81. The Blues record was set in 1999-00, by Pierre Turgeon, at 14 straight games with an assist.
Thomas will undoubtedly break that record, and prove he is worth every penny of his $8.125 million AAV contract. This team thrives off of his play, there is absolutely no reason to get rid of him.
Jordan Binnington
At this point in Jordan Binnington’s career, it would only be right and just to have him retire as a Blue. He has a place in the Blues history book, and will one day have his #50 hanging from the rafters from the Enterprise Center.
This season was labeled as a disaster, but thanks to the greatest hockey tournament of this century, the 4 Nations Face-off, Binnington has turned things around. The only way the Blues make any kind of advance on the playoffs, is with Binnington in net.
Once again, at the age of 31, he is entering the second-half of his career gracefully. Why try and start somewhere new? The Blues owe him more than that.
Jordan Kyrou
Outside of Thomas, the second half of the one-two punch is Jordan Kyrou and he is the closest thing this team has to a superstar.
Leading up the deadline, the Blues should at least give a look at some potential deals for a superstar talent to bring to the ‘Lou. If not, Kyrou is developing into that kind of role, but he has a ways to go to proving he can play like that every single night.
The best part about retaining Kyrou and not shipping him off, is that he is locked under contract for $8.125 million AAV, the same as Thomas, until the end of the 2030-31 season. There is a nice little window from now until then for this team to make some playoff runs.
Kyrou and Thomas will be at the front of the line, leading the way for the Blues.