The St. Louis Blues have finally moved forward from a trade deadline and offseason filled with changes across the roster. The team is essentially molded in new general manager Alex Steen's image. One mainstay on the roster is center Robert Thomas, who remains despite drawing significant interest by a variety of teams this year. It came to a mutual understanding that the team and player wanted to keep the relationship going.
On Wednesday, the Blues made a huge announcement, revealing that Thomas is the 25th captain in franchise history. From being floated on the trade block to being named the newest captain to replace Brayden Schenn, who was traded earlier this year to the New York Islanders. This goes to show that the Blues intend to build around Thomas and keep him in St. Louis for the foreseeable future.
With this new role, Thomas will not only be responsible for leading the team, but he will also have raised expectations. Thomas already has motivation.
Unnamed NHL scout critcizes Robert Thomas' consistency and drive in The Athletic's player rankings
The Athletic recently released an article where writers unveiled their official player rankings for the upcoming season, where they spoke with 20 people in the hockey world and placed them into five tiers. Thomas was placed in the third tier, which is designated for a top 60 player in the NHL or a strong top-line forward on a team. One scout took issue with Thomas' lack of consistency, even questioning his drive.
“I think he can be the best player on any given night in any given game, but I’m not sure he has the drive that some of the other guys in this range have,” the scout told The Athletic. “There’s just more nights off there.”
Besides the comments from the scout, The Athletic pointed to Thomas' slow start to the season, where he had 33 points through 42 games played. As they point out, he really rebounded once the Blues returned from the Olympic break, putting up 31 points in 22 games to close out the season. They want to see that kind of stretch of production throughout the entire season. For the Blues, they have to be hoping for the same.
Robert Thomas will lead the way in Blues' roster overhaul
The Blues opted to retool the roster, which was to avoid going for a full-on rebuild and hoping they could contend for the playoffs again. After all, the Blues finished just outside of a playoff spot at the end of the season. But, they did move on from the likes of Jordan Kyrou, Jonathan Drouin, and Schenn, in favor of bringing in Connor McMichael, Mason McTavish, and Brandon Carlo. The hope is that these moves, along with some other young players like Jimmy Snuggerud pan out for them.
The Blues are obviously trusting Thomas to help lead this new era of the franchise. Not only will that result off the ice, but also on the ice. That means being able to get back to his usual 80-plus point pace like he did the two seasons prior to the last campaign. That comes with the territory of having the "C" stitched onto the jersey.
The Blues finished just short of a playoff berth last season in a division that was top heavy with the likes of the Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, and Utah Mammoth. If they want to crack the top three of the division or secure one of the two Wild Card spots, they'll need Thomas to play consistently through the entirety of the season.
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