Confirmed with Link: Thomas signs!

[bluesXwinXtheXcup]

$2.8M AAV for 2 years

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[bluesXwinXtheXcup]

Thomas agrees to two-year deal

 

[shpongle falls]

Nice! Took 'em long enough.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Nice! Took 'em long enough.

Plenty of time to spare. Camp doesn't start for like 36 hours.

 

[BlueDream]

Absolutely a fair deal for both sides.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

Interesting, figured it'd be a 1yr deal, must be a deal brewing to move someone out.

 

[SwivelSchwartz]

Love to see it.

 

[BlueOil]

glad he's signed and still a RFA after

 

[BlueSeal]

LETS GO!!!

 

[Jannik Hansen]

I was a very big fan of his as a prospect. Hopefully he can continue to develop, and eventually supplant ROR as your 1C in a few years. He's got tremendous vision.

 

[Mike Liut]

I’m really expecting Sanford to be moved at some point

 

[simon IC]

I thought it would be a one-year deal. What will his situation be when the deal expires? One year of RFA with arbitration rights?

 

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

Did anyone else hold out last decade as RFAs besides Pietrangelo and Schwartz? I was mildly concerned that if Thomas entered that group we might see a similar fate to eventually losing him in free agency (in other words, the Blues don’t see the value). Giving him this contract before camp signals to me that they are confident in who he is going to be.

 

[Xerloris]

Did anyone else hold out last decade as RFAs besides Pietrangelo and Schwartz? I was mildly concerned that if Thomas entered that group we might see a similar fate to eventually losing him in free agency (in other words, the Blues don’t see the value). Giving him this contract before camp signals to me that they are confident in who he is going to be.

Sabotka!

 

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

Sabotka!

Sort of similar fate there, too.

 

[mk80]

I’m really expecting Sanford to be moved at some point

I wonder if he would be a part of a mid-season/ TDL Tarasenko trade?

 

[BlueDream]

I wonder if he would be a part of a mid-season/ TDL Tarasenko trade?

A lot of questions still to be answered.

I like to speculate too but we just don’t know who is going to get moved or how the team will look. It very well may be Sanford but what if Kostin doesn’t bring anything this year? Or Sundqvist never looks fully comfortable after returning from his injuries? Or someone else gets injured? Then we might need to keep him.

Impossible to know how things will shake out.

 

[Zachary Hines]

I could see scandella maybe moved since we seem locked up on LD with Faulk, krug on long deals. And walman, scott P and mikko all as solid 3 pair LD options. Could put MacMac and Clifford on waiver. They would probably clear.

 

[bluesXwinXtheXcup]

I could see scandella maybe moved since we seem locked up on LD with Faulk, krug on long deals. And walman, scott P and mikko all as solid 3 pair LD options. Could put MacMac and Clifford on waiver. They would probably clear.

Scandella on waivers is not smart until we know what we have with Perunovich. Faulk is RD.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I could see scandella maybe moved since we seem locked up on LD with Faulk, krug on long deals. And walman, scott P and mikko all as solid 3 pair LD options. Could put MacMac and Clifford on waiver. They would probably clear.

Faulk is a RHD. Yes he can play the Left side, but I don't see how he pushes Scandella off the team.

 

[jura]

robert the thomas

Sabotka!

who dat?

 

[Vladys Gumption]

I thought it would be a one-year deal. What will his situation be when the deal expires? One year of RFA with arbitration rights?

Wouldn’t he have two years of RFA left?

 

[TK 421]

Anyone know how this leaves us in regards to cap space?

 

[ezcreepin]

Anyone know how this leaves us in regards to cap space?

Just based on capfriendly, it says we have zero cap space and $0 over the cap, ~$1.3 mil on LTIR used (I have no idea from where) and I don't think Sundqvist is counted towards LTIR currently, so take that for what you will. The logistics of how the cap is calculated still doesn't make sense to me, so usually I just check capfriendly if I'm uncertain.

 

[Brian39]

This is more than I expected, but I'm very happy with a 2 year deal. This is more than the absolute most we could give him without some sort of mid-season cap changing move, so something will have to happen. That creates some discomfort, but it is worth it if the extra few hundred thousand is the difference between Thomas being happy vs holding a grudge before his next negotiation.

To clarify his status after this contract, he will be an RFA who holds arbitration rights. Assuming he doesn't suffer a season-long injury, he will still need to accrue 2 more seasons before hitting UFA (he will be at 5 years of NHL service at the end of this deal and you need 7 before you can hit UFA prior to turning 27 years old).

Today is a day to be very happy as a Blues fan. Another move (or significant injury) will need to happen at some point in the season and I'd like to find a way to improve the D. However, the absolute worst case scenario is that we get backed into a cap corner that results in losing Sanford or Barby for nothing. That's not at all a bad worst-case-scenario given the forwards we have in the organization. We enter camp with the following forwards vying for a spot in the opening night roster:

Stone cold locks: ROR, Perron, Buch, Saad, Schenn, Kyrou, Thomas, Bozak

Locks unless there is a surprise trade: Tarasenko, Sanford, Barby

Fighting for the last spot: Kostin, Mac, Clifford, Neal, Frolik, and arguably Jushua and Walker

That's a damn good group from top to bottom.

The top: ROR/Schenn makes the 1-2 center punch top 10 in the NHL. The best 4 of Buch/Perron/Tarasenko/Saad/Kyrou is no doubt an above average group of top 4 wingers league-wide. Looking around the league, I have a very hard time coming up with 10 teams that have a better looking top 6 forward group.

The middle: Thomas/Bozak/Barby and eventually Sunny might be the best group of bottom 6 centers in the league. Thomas is a near lock to center this line for now and then you throw the 5th winger from the above group onto one wing. Round out the line with one of Bozak/Sanford/Kostin and you have a 3rd line that should be at least league-average (and I'd wager top 10). And who knows, maybe one of the PTOs shows that they aren't completely washed and finds chemistry with Thomas to steal the final wing spot in the top 9.

The bottom: Some combo of Bozak/Sanford/Barby/Mac/Clifford/Frolik. A more-than-capable 4th line.

Depth: Eventually you get Sunny back to bolster the middle/bottom by replacing someone. Right now, the organization has 14 guys who are clearly NHL-caliber players and then a handful of fringe guys who can be NHL level in a pinch (Clifford/Joshua/Walker). There aren't many teams better suited to absorb injuries.

This is a pretty clear top 10 forward group in the league. ROR, Perron, Buch, and Saad were all on pace for 25+ goals last year with ROR/Buch on pace for 30+. Schenn was on pace for 23, Kyrou was on pace for 20. Ignoring Tarasenko, we have 6 guys who should hit (or at the very least flirt with) 20 goals this year if they stay healthy. If Tarasenko is even slightly better than he was last season, we could be looking at 7 guys hitting the 20 goal mark. We're probably not going to have a 100+ point player like a lot of the top offenses do, but we should have an 80 point guy (or two) and some of the best secondary scoring in the league. ROR is a perennial Selke contender and there are a number of defensively sound guys sprinkled throughout the forward group.

I think this team is still a move (or two) away from getting back to legit contender status. I still vehemently disagree with the way Army shaped the blue line since June of 2019. For me, the jury is still out about whether the organization can get back to contender status. But credit where credit is due. Army had an amazing offseason and built a fantastic forward group. The group we are bringing to camp is pretty much the best case scenario from where we were the day after the Tarasenko trade request went public. This signing concludes the offseason and I don't see how anyone could give Army anything below an A- for the summer. I give him an outright A because I truly don't think that the market existed to trade Tarasenko and upgrade the roster.