3/1: As expected, Thomas has been activated from injured reserve ahead of Saturday’s game against New Jersey. He had been on injured reserve with an injury sustained in January and took a personal leave of absence following the Olympic break.
In a corresponding move, St. Louis has designated Robby Fabbri to the non-roster list, implying that he will likely be placed on waivers before Saturday’s game per AP News’ Stephen Whyno. Fabbri signed an in-season contract with St. Louis after beginning the year with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. He has four points, 12 penalty minutes, and a minus-three in 15 games with the Blues.
2/25: The St. Louis Blues will be without their leading scorer and top center as they return from the Olympic break. The team announced that Robert Thomas will be taking a personal leave of absence until Friday of this week. He will miss Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken but should be back with the team beforf Saturday’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
Thomas’ role in the Blues lineup can’t be understated. He has been a pillar of the Blues offense, averaging the most ice time (19 minutes) and scoring the most points (33) among St. Louis forwards through 42 games this season. Thomas entered this season on the heels of two career-years, marked by 60 assists in both seasons, to go with 86 points and 81 points respectively. He has been St. Louis’ main playmaker since the departure of Ryan O’Reilly and leaves a major hole to be filled for next game.
Thomas sat out of four games in late October and missed an additional 11 games after sustaining a lower-body injury on January 10th. St. Louis leaned heavily on Pavel Buchnevich in response, placing the veteran Russian winger into Thomas’ role atop the powerplay and penalty-killing units. Buchnevich also moved into the team’s top-center role, though he has struggled on faceoffs, with a 39.8 faceoff percentage this season. The Blues could look to Slovakian Olympian Dalibor Dvorsky to take center duties off of Buchnevich’s hands in the short-term, or could task Brayden Schenn and Jimmy Snuggerud with platooning in the role form their spots on the second-line. No approach will be perfect as St. Louis looks to replace their star in an important, Western Conference matchup.
A little personal time before he gets shipped to Detroit.
Hopefully he and his wife, Are House shopping in the Metro Detroit area.
If Fabbri can stay healthy he’d be a worthwhile addition for the stretch run as he’s proven he can produce. His problem is availability, so would be a low risk, high reward move
Thomas may have played his last game in a Blues sweater.
Well coming on the heels of a 2.5 week break the timing is odd. Hopefully all is well in the Thomas household. Perhaps it’s another case of the team presenting a trade option & the player, with control, seeks time to consider. But in Myers case, it’s the team that sat him…
maybe he took a 2 week vacation and decided he’d rather extend it than go back to the Blues
Well considering most of these things are due to family illness or something similar you can’t really control when that happens. Still after the recent speculation about a player who should be close to untouchable it is probably a tad curious. I’m just trying to consider the sources there which I consider lame at best. Anyway I hope all is good at home.
If he did get traded, would it be to Seattle and that’s why he is sitting this one out?
The Blues’ top goalscorer has 14. No one has more than 34 points. Difficult to believe.
Welcome to Buffalo!