Could the Mammoth really acquire Robert Thomas?
The NHL Trade Deadline is just four days away, and contending teams will have an opportunity to add impactful centers to their rosters for their Stanley Cup runs.
Beyond Calgary’s Nazem Kadri and New York’s Vincent Trocheck, Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues is widely seen as available for interested parties. At just 26 and with a long-term contract already signed, his cost certainty and youth make him a unique asset to hit the market at this time of year.
While Thomas would fit in perfectly for any number of quality teams, the Utah Mammoth are a particularly intriguing fit. General manager Bill Armstrong has accumulated a considerable stockpile of assets that could, if he so chose, be put toward landing a top-six center in his prime.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed whether landing Thomas is feasible for the Mammoth and what it would mean for their hopes if they are able to pull it off.
Tyler Yaremchuk: On Hockey Night in Canada [Elliotte Friedman] came out and said that he thinks there is a decent chance that Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues does get traded before the deadline… He’s believing more and more that a trade could happen here. He linked Robert Thomas to the Utah Mammoth. It’d be crazy to think that the Blues could trade him in division, but a legit, I’d call him a close-to-star-level player who comes with a ton of term who’s still in his 20’s. If he does go to Utah, Hutts, again, in division? I just think that trade package is going to have to be massive.
Carter Hutton: Yeah, it will have to be massive. I know Armstrong has squirreled away a bunch of draft picks when you think back to those Arizona days and some prospects. I don’t know what moves the needle enough to move Robert Thomas out, but the fact of the matter is he’s been producing. The last two years he’s north of 80 points. He can play up the middle; he can do a lot, and this is kind of the trade deadline where there is a lot of centers available. The names are being thrown around, but to do it in division is nervous, right? How many times do we talk about a star player where the number one rule is he’s not staying in our division? We’re going to ship him out East or out West, get him away from us as much as possible. You look at the fact of last year, even the Mikko Rantanen one. It ends up Game 7, who’s the guy that beats you? It’s Mikko Rantanen. You traded him out of division, but he found a way back in. You don’t want to play against these stars over and over again.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, if you’re St. Louis, I think you probably start with one of Utah’s last first-round picks. Tij Iginla, is that a non-starter for a team like Utah to move him? Do you sit there and go, ‘You know what, if we’re getting Robert Thomas for six years and that’s the cost, then that’s the cost?’ Cole Beaudoin is their first-round pick last year, I believe 24th overall. Maybe he’s an option, but it’s probably mainly going to be draft picks. Utah has each of their first round picks for the next four years, and if you’re St. Louis I think where maybe you would be more inclined to deal him to somewhere like a Utah versus, I don’t know, a Colorado, go down the list of the legit Stanley Cup contenders, maybe it’s worth dumping him to someone like Utah, because if they bow out in the first round this year, and they could have a really tough first-round matchup, then that draft pick all of the sudden is 15th, 16th overall… Maybe you look at some of these middling teams and you think maybe there’s a chance we squeeze a bit more draft pick value out of him.
Carter Hutton: That might be where St. Louis is at, too, right? You’ve got to think about the fact that they’re trying to build to the future. They’re going to need some picks, and how much have we talked about that, right? If you’re going to rebuild your team and get somewhere where you want to be, it’s got to be through the draft. Right now, I think when you get to free agency, I think guys are going to be overpaying for the limited market that is there.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…