{"id":576629,"date":"2026-05-16T20:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T20:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/576629\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T20:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T20:21:14","slug":"wild-tried-to-acquire-robert-thomas-at-trade-deadline-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/576629\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Tried To Acquire Robert Thomas At Trade Deadline \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

An impactful top center has been atop Minnesota\u2019s wish list for many years now.\u00a0 While Joel Eriksson Ek<\/a> is a quality top-six middleman, they haven\u2019t been able to find the pivot to help round out their top six.\u00a0 It appears that they attempted to do so before the trade deadline, however, with Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic reporting (subscription link<\/a>) that the Wild made a pitch to acquire Robert Thomas<\/a> from the Blues.\u00a0 Included in the proposed package were goaltender Jesper Wallstedt<\/a> and center Danila Yurov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Back in March, the expectation was that the Blues were seeking at least three top-15-level assets (players, prospects, or draft picks) plus maybe more if they were going to part with Thomas.\u00a0 Wallstedt and Yurov, though both picked just outside the top-15, probably would meet the criteria, but it\u2019s unclear what else Minnesota was offering in their package.\u00a0 Their 2026 first-round pick was moved in the Quinn Hughes<\/a> trade earlier this season, making their 2027 first a logical piece, although it\u2019s unlikely that the Wild will be in the back of the lottery next summer.<\/p>\n

Thomas would certainly have been a needle-mover for Minnesota.\u00a0 The 26-year-old surpassed the 80-point mark in 2023-24 and 2024-25 and would have had a chance to do so this season had he not missed 18 games due to injury.\u00a0 Still, Thomas put up 64 points in 64 outings.\u00a0 He also took a regular turn on the penalty kill and would have given Minnesota an all-around impactful center, one who is signed through 2030-31 at an $8.125MM AAV that will become even more team-friendly in the coming years.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s understandable that the Blues wouldn\u2019t view Wallstedt and Yurov as being viable centerpieces of a trade for their best forward.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that neither is a quality player but rather that the fit on the roster is less certain.<\/p>\n

Wallstedt\u2019s first full NHL season was a successful one.\u00a0 He worked his way into a platoon with Filip Gustavsson<\/a>, getting into 35 games during the regular season where he had a solid 2.65 GAA with a .915 SV% along with four shutouts.\u00a0 He then took over as the starter for Minnesota\u2019s playoff run, compiling a 2.77 GAA and a .909 SV%, numbers that are skewed by the opening game of the Colorado series that saw him allow eight goals.\u00a0 But while he\u2019s certainly a quality young goaltender, St. Louis has Joel Hofer<\/a> in the mix already and are likely envisioning him as their goalie of the future.\u00a0 He and Wallstedt would make for an enticing tandem, but moving a top center for a tandem piece might not be the most practical for them.<\/p>\n

As for Yurov, he had a decent first season in North America.\u00a0 The 22-year-old potted 12 goals and 15 assists in 73 games, playing primarily in the bottom six.\u00a0 He also stuck down the middle all season although there are some questions about his ability to stay there long-term.\u00a0 That\u2019s where the fit with the Blues becomes less certain.\u00a0 Yes, he\u2019s a promising player but if St. Louis is going to move their top center, they\u2019d probably prefer a youngster coming back who is more of a safer bet to be a top-six middleman down the road.<\/p>\n

Given that Minnesota\u2019s need still exists and Wallstedt\u2019s value is likely higher now than it was back at the deadline based on his playoff performance, it wouldn\u2019t be entirely shocking to see GM Bill Guerin circle back on this.\u00a0 And if it doesn\u2019t pan out, the two youngsters represent intriguing trade chips to try to bring in a quality center to make their roster that much more dangerous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An impactful top center has been atop Minnesota\u2019s wish list for many years now.\u00a0 While Joel Eriksson Ek…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8478,5,795,38,4,1482,84],"class_list":["post-576629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-danila-yurov","tag-hockey","tag-jesper-wallstedt","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-robert-thomas","tag-st-louis-blues"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116586118117477838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576629","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=576629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}