E146: Who should the Blues trade and who should they trade for?

Um, I wanna start at the top, not in the sense of who is at the top of these lists, but at, at, uh, at the top of our minds, which is Robert Thomas.

Um, and Alec, it looks like based on some of the recent reports that he might not, uh, end up being on the move after all, and I, I think that we are relieved to see that.

Um, some of the, the, um, real puck knowers in, in the Blues fandom, I think, uh, [laughs] are relieved to see that.

And, uh, yeah, uh, it was Andy Strickland who, um, posted on Twitter and said, "Robert Thomas trade rumors can be put to rest.

The Blues are not looking to move their number one center.

Expect him to be on the roster when training camp begins in September." What do you make of, of this? And I assume you're, you're probably feeling relieved, right?

Oh, absolutely.

Um, I mean, it sounded like from all the reports that we were getting, the Robert Thomas discussions were going nowhere fast.

Um, the Blues were only looking to move Thomas if you could truly get a haul for what is one of the best young players in the NHL today.

Um, you know, the Blues were looking for, uh, an equivalent package of, you know, that would perhaps set the market or, or would rely on some of the more, uh, massive, uh, deals as of late in the NHL.

And teams were not even willing to give half of that.

Teams were throwing out packages that were borderline insulting to Alex Steen and to Doug Armstrong.

And so the Blues are saying, "Nope, the market's not, not there right now.

People aren't gonna give us, you know, how we value him, how we value, um, what, what he can offer on the field.

Uh, we're not gonna rush it." And I think that's absolutely the right protocol to take in an event like this.

Um, you know, there's no reason to, to be looking to trade Robert Thomas.

He's still a 26-year-old center.

Your f- your 1C and, and the engine of the Blues offense, as we've talked about at length, um, is, you know, to, to discard a player like that at a time like this would be, uh, bad practice to say the least.

Um, but would, would end up being a, a huge mistake I think.

And, uh, you know, the Blues are thankfully, uh, not as, uh, I d- whatever adjective you'd like to throw in there, uh, as they would need to be to make a mistake like that.

So, um-

Yeah

... yeah, thank you to, uh, Andy Strickland for putting the, the rumors to bed.

I am quite tired of this, uh, especially having dealt with it with another player who I think we're gonna talk about later in the episode, for so long.

Um, but yeah, sounds like Thomas is here to stay, and the Blues are all the better for it.