Boston Bruins
The Bruins will need to part with several draft picks and blue-chip prospects in order to pry Thomas out of St. Louis.
Robert Thomas has surpassed 80 points each of the last two seasons. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)
Speaking a little over a week before the NHL trade deadline, Bruins GM Don Sweeney preached patience — and restraint — as his team tries to chart the proper path forward this season.
“We still want to try and complement, supplement our group. The players have done a great job to be in the position they are. We’d like to add to it. We’re going to be a little more cautious than we have for 10 years running in terms of really being aggressive,” Sweeney said on NESN Thursday. “But if there are opportunities, we’re going to try to pursue them to improve our hockey club.”
The Bruins — still holding onto a playoff spot in the jam-packed Eastern Conference — aren’t looking to enact a roster fire-sale for the second spring in a row.
But after years of hemorrhaging draft picks in search of win-now reinforcements, this retooling Boston roster likely doesn’t have much of an appetite on the rental market if it does choose to add before Friday’s deadline.
That may not preclude Sweeney and his staff from bolstering this lineup — especially if it’s a high-value asset that could both help the current club punch its ticket to the postseason, and thrive as a franchise fixture for the foreseeable future.
That may not be “cautious” when it comes to Boston parting with plenty of assets in a blockbuster deal. But it could also be a prudent move for a Bruins team that has both an appealing treasure trove of picks/prospects — and a desire to further boost a depth chart that is well ahead of schedule.
As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Bruins have been linked to one of the top trade chips on the market in St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas.
According to Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff, Thomas is a “name that the Bruins really like” — adding that Boston has “the ammunition to at least stay in the mix until the finish line” for the expected bidding war for his services.
Thomas, 26, has the potential to be a top-six star in Boston for years to come. But after restocking their cupboard of draft picks and prospects last spring, the Bruins would inevitably have to drain their pool of future assets once again to pry Thomas out of St. Louis.
Here’s a look at the pros and cons for a potential blockbuster deal for the Bruins:
Pro: He’d fit a clear need for the Bruins in 2026 and beyond
This is the easy part of the equation.
Bringing in a legitimate top-line center like Thomas — just entering the prime of his career — would be a major coup for an Original Six franchise that was seemingly destined for an arduous rebuild at this point last season.
Thomas may not be on the same level as the true franchise pivots in the NHL like McDavid, Draisaitl, MacKinnon, Eichel, Matthews, and others.
But the Ontario product is still one of the more underrated and effective centers in the game – surpassing 80 points over each of the last two seasons.
A gifted playmaker who has seen his shot rates spike in recent years, it feels like a lock that Thomas would regularly operate at 80-plus points a season if stapled on a top line next to David Pastrnak.
Since the start of the 2023-24 season, there have been 794 NHLers who have logged at least 500 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time. Thomas ranks seventh in that deep pool of talent in assists per 60 minutes at 1.73, per Natural Stat Trick.
The only players ahead of him? Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid, Ivan Demidov, Nathan MacKinnon, Pastrnak, and Mitch Marner.
Thomas’ value is further elevated by his contract, with the 26-year-old center signed through the end of the 2030-31 season at an annual cap hit of $8.125 million — a payout that should continue to age well as the NHL’s salary-cap ceiling continues to soar.
The cost would be steep, but a player like Thomas at least falls in line with what the Bruins have tried to prioritize over the last few years — like when Boston acquired a 28-year-old Hampus Lindholm in March 2022 and immediately signed him to an eight-year extension.
The addition of Thomas — coupled with the presence of talented pivots like Fraser Minten, James Hagens, and Dean Letourneau both on the roster and in Boston’s prospect pipeline — could give a center grouping poised to contend both now and in the years ahead.
Speaking of those blue-chip prospects….
Con: The Bruins would have to cough up several key assets to pull off this deal
The Bruins’ future looks bright – beyond the contributions from under-30 stars like David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Jeremy Swayman, and Morgan Geekie.
They have four first-round picks in the next two drafts, with Toronto’s 2026 first-round pick (top-five protected) currently slated to give Boston the No. 8 pick in June. They’ve got promising youngsters currently on the NHL roster, including Fraser Minten and Mason Lohrei.
James Hagens (40 points in 30 games at Boston College) is looking like a future top-six stalwart and could be donning a black-and-gold sweater as soon as late March.
Fellow Eagles pivot Dean Letourneau has blended his tantalizing potential and frame (6-foot-7) with proven production at Chestnut Hill (19 goals, 34 points in 32 games). Will Zellers — a pickup from last March’s trade centered around Charlie Coyle — is up to 17 goals and 27 points as a freshman at North Dakota.
But in order to acquire a top-line center in his prime like Thomas, the Bruins might have to part with more than a few of those valuable future assets.
Two of those four first-round picks might have to be relinquished to catch the attention of Blues GM Doug Armstrong. A blue-chip prospect like Letourneau will be a possible concession made for a proven pivot like Thomas. An NHLer like Lohrei could also be of some value, while more money would need to be moved off Boston’s roster to make the money work.
And even that might still have Armstrong holding out for more.
There’s a lot to like about what Thomas would provide Boston over the next five-plus years as a top-six stalwart — especially alongside other players in their prime like Pastrnak, McAvoy, and Swayman.
But it would significantly curtail some of the youth movement that Boston has — for the first time in a long time — successfully cultivated over the last year or so.
Pro: Boston has enough assets to add a big fish — and not completely gut their system
An offer like the one mentioned above (two firsts, Letourneau, Lohrei) might cause some Bruins fans to recoil in horror.
It’s a massive asking price, no question. But as steep as it is, the Bruins’ roster teardown last spring has given Boston an abundance of riches to work with.
Even if Boston and St. Louis were to agree to a trade package like that, the Bruins still have two more first-round picks the next two years (including a potential top-10 pick if Toronto’s ‘26 pick is off limits), another elite prospect in Hagens, a potential 20-goal winger in Zellers, and an already proven middle-six center in Minten.
Oh, and a star center signed long-term in Thomas.
So long as Hagens and/or that Toronto first-round pick aren’t the true deal-breakers from Armstrong and the Blues, the Bruins have the means to at least play ball when it comes to joining the bidding war for top assets like Thomas — without necessarily draining the entire pool of future talent.
Con: The Blues don’t *have* to trade Thomas before Friday
Of course, Armstrong and the Blues aren’t necessarily under any pressure to trade Thomas before Friday.
The Blues and former Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery are staring at a long-term rebuild after bottoming out with a 22-29-9 record. It’s to be expected that St. Louis will deal veteran players like Justin Faulk and Brayden Schenn to recoup assets.
But a 26-year-old center in Thomas under a long-term deal doesn’t need to be moved right now by St. Louis, who could opt to hold onto its star player and revisit talks at 2026 NHL Draft or next season.
The Blues might be intrigued by a Bruins’ proposed offer for Thomas. But they could also hold out to see if a team like Boston has the stomach to part with a prospect like Hagens or a young NHLer like Minten and truly overpay.
If a team like Boston or Utah (with a former top-10 pick in Caleb Desnoyers) wants to put all of their chips on the table, then St. Louis could agree to a deal. But they’re not necessarily in a rush — not with them having all of the leverage when it comes to such a sought-after asset.
It takes two to tango in any of these trades. The Bruins have plenty of reasons to pursue a Thomas trade. But it’s far from a given that Armstrong and the Blues are ready and willing to make this a smooth negotiation for such a gifted player.
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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