Robert Thomas placed on injured reserve

The St. Louis Blues have been hit with another setback in a season full of them, as top-line center Robert Thomas has been placed on injured reserve. It'll be two weeks until his next evaluation.

While Thomas is one of the Blues' better and more important players, this has been an underwhelming season by his standards. In 42 games, he has 11 goals, 22 assists and 33 points--well off the point-per-game pace he's played at in previous seasons. In Thomas's defense, most of the Blues have not played all that well this year (they're floating around the bottom of the standings for a reason), but if they'd had any hope of digging themselves out of the hole they've put themselves in, it almost certainly would've required Thomas playing like the top-line center he's expected to be.

With the schedule so condensed for January in anticipation of the Olympics, the team's depth will be put to the test. Pius Suter remains out with injury, which means the first-line center is likely going to be captain Brayden Schenn who, at this point in his career, almost certainly cannot handle that work load. Behind him, you have rookie Dalibor Dvorsky and offseason addition Nick Bjugstad down the middle--a team with that sort of center depth is not winning anything.

Thomas's injury should put a damper on trade rumors for now, too. It's unlikely a team would part with the assets required to land Thomas while he's unable to play, but that could change if he's healthy again by the Olympic trade deadline or the March trade deadline.