Thomas Considered Blues' Best First Time All Star

On February 3, the NHL heads to Toronto for All-Star Game festivities. First, the skills competition followed then by the 3 games between the league's 4 divisions. One notable first-timer will be the Blues' Robert Thomas, making his first appearance in the ASG in his 6-year NHL career, all with St. Louis.

The 24-year-old native of Aurora, Ontario will essentially be playing in front of his home crowd at Scotiabank Arena, something the Blues center has been looking forward to. With 16 goals and 25 assists for 41 points so far this season, it's no wonder he was selected by the league itself rather than getting in via the fan vote.

Such an offensive performance has been a bit routine for Thomas in the last couple of seasons, after a 65 and 71-point total in 2022-23 and 2021-22, respectively. He also put up similar numbers in his first 2 seasons in the league, making him a worthy candidate for a potential assistant captaincy down the road.

Now, Thomas didn't originally join the league and the Blues as a center, rather playing on the right-wing side. However, given his career numbers in most of his still very young NHL career, he's certainly adapted to the change of position, especially now that he's one of a very select few left from the Blues' 2018/19 Stanley Cup championship team.

As a 19-year-old then, he watched the likes of Ryan O'Reilly, Brayden Schenn, David Perron, Tyler Bozak, Jaden Schwartz, Pat Maroon, and Alexander Steen win their first championship alongside him. Now they're all gone (O'Reilly to Nashville; Perron to the Red Wings; Bozak retired in 2021/22, Steen after the Blues' championship season; Schwartz went to Seattle the same year Bozak hung up the skates; Maroon is now a 3-time champ with St. Louis and Tampa), leaving Thomas as the Blues' top center and by far the most impressive one. He does, after all, lead the Blues in goals (16), assists (25), and points (41) through 38 games, and he's definitely the Blues' go-to guy when it comes to facing the opposing top line.

Thomas is averaging 20:50 per game, which is a career-high, shooting the puck more, already at 80 shots on goal through 38 games after just 106 through 73 games last season, and shooting 20 percent. His face-offs are at 53.5 percent, which would be a career-best, breaking his PR of 52.9 percent set just last season. And his teammates even think he's a future Selke Trophy winner if the Blues as a whole improve more this season. There are still 3 months and change left to play, so it could happen. If not this season, definitely in 2024-25 with his current trend.