Robert Thomas was never asked by Blues to waive no-trade clause

Robert Thomas was considered to be one of, if not the top player to get at the trade deadline, and while there was certainly some interest in his services, particularly from the Buffalo Sabres, no trade was made for the St. Louis Blues center before 3 p.m. ET on March 6th.

But how close was Thomas to getting dealt? As he revealed on The Sheet, not all that close – he was never asked to waive his no-trade clause.

Greg Wyshynski: “I know Colton Parayko got so far down the line that he talked to Jarmo. Did your situation get that far where you’re talking to Kekalainen?

Robert Thomas: “No, no, I was never asked anything from the Blues. There was everything that I heard was coming from the insiders and different things online. I just want to be clear: I was never asked, and nor did I ever ask for a trade.”

Greg Wyshynski: “I want to ask about Colton, though, because he was asked famously, as a player, not necessarily as a teammate. Do you take some pride in the way that Colton handled this no-trade situation? We’ve seen plenty of guys where the news gets out and all of a sudden all the insiders are talking about a trade. If he waives, it’ll happen kind of thing, and then they wave either maybe because they wanted to or because there’s public pressure. But Colton didn’t waive, he kind of flexed his contractual right to reject a trade. What were your thoughts on that?”

Robert Thomas: “It was obviously a really tough situation for him, with it going public. I know a lot of people felt bad for him, including people in our organization. So it was a really tough spot for him, he’s a guy that I’ve had here ever since I’ve been here, and he just loves the city of St. Louis. He spends his offseason here. There’s no one more Blue than him. So it was a really hard spot for him. And I think he went through a process and really weighed a lot of pros and cons and ultimately came to the decision he wasn’t ready to move on. Just as teammates, you love to see it. You hate to see guys go, especially guys that you’ve won with. It’s really hard to see those guys go like (Brayden) Schenn. So we’re so stoked that he stuck around.”

You can watch the full interview here…