St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas was the subject of trade rumours leading up to last week’s deadline, but told reporters Tuesday the team didn’t ask him to waive his no-move clause to facilitate a deal and he never asked for a trade.

Still, Thomas said it was difficult hearing his name become the subject of rumours.

“Yeah, obviously a really tough week on the family. You never know what’s going to happen, so it was tough,” he said via The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford.

Thomas: “Yeah, obviously a really tough week on the family. You never know what’s going to happen, so it was tough.”

— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) March 10, 2026

But Thomas also understands it’s par for the course at that time of year, especially considering where the Blues are in the standings.

“You know what, it’s part of the business. We understand the situation we’re in. I think it’s been publicly known [GM Doug Armstrong] had a meeting with us beforehand and let us know what was going to happen, so we had a good understanding of what was going to go on,” Thomas said.

“It’s part of it and you move forward. You do your best to finish the end of the season strong and then you go from there.”

Sitting well outside the playoff picture, the Blues were major sellers at the trade deadline, shipping out captain Brayden Schenn and defenceman Justin Faulk in separate trades. They also had a deal in place with the Buffalo Sabres involving defenceman Colton Parayko, but the veteran blueliner declined to waive his no-move clause and remained with St. Louis.

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reported in last week’s edition of Insider Trading that it made sense for the Blues to have any deal involving Thomas in place a day ahead of last Friday’s deadline in order to give the star centre time to decide whether he wanted to accept a deal to a new team.

Thomas said he anticipates more discussions in the off-season about his future, as well as the team’s. The Blues enter play Tuesday seventh in the Central Division at 25-29-9 with 59 points in 63 games, on pace to miss the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.

“Obviously there’s lots of conversations that have to go on at the end of the season. I think we can talk more in the off-season about that. Ever since I signed my contract, I’ve made it known that I want to win again here, I want to be a leader here. That message has never been changed from me to them,” he said.

The 26-year-old is in the third year of an eight-year, $65 million contract that carries an $8.13 million cap hit. He carries a no-trade until the final year of his deal, at which point it transitions to a modified no-move clause with a 15-team no-trade list.

Despite the down season for the Blues it’s been another strong year for Thomas, with 15 goals and 40 points in 46 games, continuing his near point-per-game pace from throughout his career.