The St. Louis Blues didn’t trade Robert Thomas at the NHL trade deadline despite all the hype. The failure to make a deal happen wasn’t because Blues’ GM Doug Armstrong got cold feet. It was quite the opposite. Armstrong stuck to his guns and, well, other GMs were unwilling to call his bluff.
Such was the case with the Utah Mammoth. Utah was the team reportedly most interested in landing the 26-year-old top-line center. But the deal didn’t go through in the end.
The reason? Insider David Pagnotta offered insight into the situation. The sticking point was that the Mammoth were unwilling to part with the Blues’ required prospect package.
“Utah wasn’t prepared to package two of their top-five prospects in a deal, despite the Blues’ insistence. Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong may have been willing to include 2025 fourth-overall pick Caleb Desnoyers in a deal, but that seemed to be as far as he’d take it.”
Several of the Mammoth’s top prospects were making the rounds. Those prospects include Tij Iginla, Daniil But, Maverick Lamoureaux, and most intriguingly, Dmitri Simashev.
Nevertheless, Pagnotta believes that the most the Blues could have gotten was one of those prospects. Judging from the eventual deal that Utah pulled off with the Calgary Flames for MacKenzie Weegar, the Mammoth parted with three second-round picks plus prospect Jonathan Castagna. That situation could provide some insight into why the Blues chose to pass on the Mammoth’s offer.
Could Blues revisit deal with Mammoth in offseason
One of the common themes this season has been teams potentially circling back on deals in the offseason. This trade could be one of them. The Mammoth might want to circle back to this deal in the summer.
Much of that situation could depend on how well Utah does in the playoffs. They’re on a collision course with the Colorado Avalanche in the first round. While there’s a chance they could sidestep Colorado, the Mammoth could then run into the Vegas Golden Knights in the opening round.
Either way, the Mammoth will be in tough. A rough showing in the playoffs may prompt Utah to pony up and pay the price for a player like Thomas.
That’s purely hearsay, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Blues rumors pick up once the season is over. The lead-up to the 2026 NHL Draft could yield a couple of more surprises, potentially leading to the blockbuster trades that just didn’t get over the line at this year’s trade deadline.