Thomas Keeps Adding to Impressive 2023/24 Resume
The Blues' 1st time All Star recently became just the 4th player in franchise history since 2000 with 80+ points since the turn of the 20th century, in addition to earning a career-high 80 points this season
By Andy Knapp
With the Blues 6-5 shootout win over Anaheim last Sunday, first time All Star left winger Robert Thomas joined some elite franchise company with his 4 point performance. The 24-year-old became just the 4th player in Blues history since 2000 to have 80 points in a season, his best in his still very young NHL career.
Pavol Demitra (93 points; 2002-03), Pierre Turgeon (82 points; 2000-01), and Vladimir Tarasenko (82 points; 2021-22) are the other 3 that Thomas has now joined. Thanks to his 25 goals and 60 assists this season in 80 games played, Thomas has also set new highs in both those categories as well.
Thomas is 5th on the team in goals scored, 3rd in games played this season and leads the team over Jordan Kyrou in both assists and points in 2023-24. Add to that picking up his 1st All Star Game appearance back in February that saw him play in a home crowd in Toronto, and the Aurora, Ontario native is having quite a spectacular season.
Now, Kyrou himself had a strong game against Anaheim like Thomas, adding 3 assists of his own to boost his 2023-24 season totals to 29 goals, 36 assists and 65 points, but Thomas was also the one who picked up 3rd star of the game honors. That's something Kyrou didn't achieve.
Back to Thomas, it's the closest he's ever been to being a first time 30 goal scorer, something he hasn't quite managed to do in his 6 years in the league so far. Like many of the Blues' young guns, he is definitely more acquainted with setting up goals, given his strong helper numbers not just this season but in the last couple.
In 2022-23, he had a similar goals and assists count (18 goals, 47 assists for 65 points) to 2021-22, where he had 20 goals, 57 assists for 77 points, which was his previous career high. And speaking of how he leads the rest of the team in both points and assists, he does it for both by significant margins, leading Jordan Kyrou by 18 points and 22 assists, respectively.
With numbers like those and a commanding team lead such as that, Thomas could easily be one day slated for his 1st 30 goal season and maybe even more future All Star Game appearances.