Seattle Kraken left winger Tye Kartye and St. Louis Blues right winger Mathieu Joseph are on NHL waivers Thursday.
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I mean, we always hear St. Louis Blues players, whether it be Jordan Kyrou, whether it be Thomas, always Brayden Schenn last year, always put out on the market and then, never, never traded.
Now, the Blues are sort of mediocre this year.
They’re probably gonna finish outside the playoffs unless they go on a magical run like they did last year.
I’d ha- I’d be surprised if they trade Thomas.
He’s 26 years old.
He’s, for them, a number one center for probably a team, or, you know, teams out there that are be- that would be interested in getting him.
He probably would nestle in really nice as a number two center.
The pri- but the price that’s i- it’s gonna cost is probably the usual package for And then he’s got term on his contract, so it’s not like you’re trading for a rental.
The, the price is probably gonna be an NHL player, a top prospect, and a first-round pick.
And right now, I don’t, like, I don’t think that’s gonna happen before the deadline.
It might happen in the summer, but, I mean, if I was St. Louis, I would not rush into trading Robert Thomas unless there’s some underlying problem that he wants to get out of there.
Jim, what do you think?
Well, the talk of it equivalent of three first-round picks, it’s a heavy price, right?
But at the same time, you’ve got Robert Thomas, who is maybe and arguably the best center available this, this summer or this deadline, and the shortage of centers is very apparent in the NHL, right?
So if Thomas is on the radar of a team who believes he could play in a potential first-line role, and to Michael’s point, if he’s probably a second-line center on a team that’s contending, maybe you don’t wanna give up that kind of a package.
But I, I do believe if they’re not worried about his injury history, whatever team’s looking at him, they like the idea of his contract being locked in at a number as the salary cap increases, that they’re like, “This is a pretty good investment for us.
We believe he’s gonna be healthy.
We like his number.
He’s gonna be here for a while.”
I think you could find a team that is probably willing to give that up if they believe that he fits, in the first or second-line role and will be with them for the next several years at a number that they can afford and they like.
So, do St. Louis or will St. Louis move Robert Thomas?
I’m not really sure.
I’m– There’s a lot of talk about it, and it potentially could happen.
You never know with the Blues.
Doug Armstrong is the kind of guy that likes to do a lot of sending things out into the, you know, universe to see what, what sticks and what doesn’t.
But, Robert Thomas is an interesting one for me.
I, I believe Kyrou would probably move before Robert Thomas does, but I think that if you find the right mix of team that likes contract, team that likes the player, team that isn’t worried about his injury, you might be able to get that package for him.