{"id":445204,"date":"2026-02-04T14:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/445204\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:27:15","slug":"analyst-floats-trade-proposal-sending-robert-thomas-to-the-canadiens-in-a-four-player-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/445204\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst floats trade proposal sending Robert Thomas to the Canadiens in a four-player package"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Jan <\/p>\n

Photo credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The excellent Marc-Olivier Beaudoin has just put forward a very interesting trade proposal for Montreal Canadiens fans.<\/p>\n

With young Oliver Kapanen having seemingly hit a bit of a wall, here\u2019s an intriguing suggestion involving a center.<\/p>\n

Kapanen still has solid numbers on the season, with 17 goals, 13 assists, and 30 points.<\/p>\n

That said, his pace has slowed recently, reopening an old discussion in Montreal.<\/p>\n

For months now, we\u2019ve been hearing the same thing around the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

Kent Hughes is looking for that elusive second-line center, especially if the team wants to keep a stable top six.<\/p>\n

Kapanen now finds himself at the center of that conversation despite his 30 points.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s respectable production, but it doesn\u2019t completely shut the door on trade ideas.<\/p>\n

And when Montreal is in a tight race, fans start calling for reinforcements.<\/p>\n

Marc-Olivier Beaudoin targets Robert Thomas and puts a concrete trade offer on the table<\/p>\n

With that in mind, Beaudoin floated a proposal that\u2019s generating plenty of reaction.<\/p>\n

His scenario would send Robert Thomas to Montreal, with a massive return heading to St. Louis.<\/p>\n

MTL receives: Robert Thomas (6x $8,125,000)<\/p>\n

STL receives: Oliver Kapanen + Alexander Zharovsky + 2026 1st (top-10 protected) + 2027 2nd + Patrik Laine (for cap reasons)<\/p>\n

The name that immediately grabs attention is Thomas.<\/p>\n

This season, he has 33 points in 42 games with the Blues.<\/p>\n

Over his career, he has totaled 429 points in 508 games, including 118 goals.<\/p>\n

At 26 years old, he also fits the timeline of a core that wants to win sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

But the question remains simple: do the Canadiens really want to empty that many assets in one shot?<\/p>\n

“People don\u2019t seem to want to acquire Thomas\u2014a defensively responsible center who produces close to a point per game, all while being on an excellent contract at just 26 years old.<\/p>\n

Several have mentioned that Zharovsky is a prospect on the same level as Demidov (in different words).<\/p>\n

We may need to reset expectations, because even though Zharovsky remains a very good prospect, he\u2019s nowhere near Demidov.”<\/p>\n

– Marc-Olivier Beaudoin<\/p>\n

A first-round pick, a second-round pick, a prospect, a young center, plus Laine\u2014that\u2019s starting to look like a price that sticks with you for a long time.<\/p>\n

So what about you\u2014would you make this trade?<\/p>\n

Previously on Montreal Hockey Fanatics<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

1 HOUR AGO|148 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Analyst floats trade proposal sending Robert Thomas to the Canadiens in a four-player package<\/p>\n

Would you accept the offer for Robert Thomas involving Oliver Kapanen?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images The excellent Marc-Olivier Beaudoin has just put forward a very…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,1749,21,4,1618,1482,6045,1532],"class_list":{"0":"post-445204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-kent-hughes","10":"tag-montreal-canadiens","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-oliver-kapanen","13":"tag-robert-thomas","14":"tag-trade-deadline","15":"tag-trade-proposal"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116012833399001816","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}