{"id":513180,"date":"2026-03-04T06:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513180\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:15:08","slug":"blues-and-sabres-engaged-in-thomas-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513180\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues and Sabres engaged in Thomas talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

TSN\u2019s Hockey Insiders discuss St. Louis and Buffalo in trade talks for Robert Thomas<\/a>, the Oilers seeking a No. 3 centre, interest heating up on Conor Garland<\/a> and the price for Rasmus Ristolainen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gino Reda: A solid centre at 26 in the prime of his career and locked into a reasonable contract for this and four more seasons – that\u2019s where we start with our Insiders Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger. Dregs, what\u2019s the latest on Robert Thomas<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Darren Dreger: I can tell you, as we reported earlier, that negotiations between the St. Louis Blues<\/a> and Buffalo Sabres<\/a> heated up on Tuesday. Now it\u2019s not at a point yet where it is right at the finish line – that could happen with a simple phone call – but it\u2019s pretty evident that Jarmo Kekalainen<\/a>, the new general manager of the Sabres, is trying to put his stamp on this team and bolster his lineup as the Sabres prepare for the playoffs. <\/p>\n

We know that there\u2019s been a ton of conversations around Thomas with Blues general manager Doug Armstrong. Some serious contenders, more tire kickers, but at this point it does feel like the Sabres are the frontrunner.<\/p>\n

Chris Johnston: And the Blues have been looking for three to four \u2018premium assets\u2019 in this deal, which is one of the reasons all these teams out there with that interest haven\u2019t got to the point where Buffalo is. <\/p>\n

What I can tell you with the Sabres is the belief is they have gotten into that range where we\u2019re talking about a package of picks, players and prospects that gets to about four players. <\/p>\n

If you get to that stage, you have to wonder, will the Sabres be able to pry just a little bit more from the Blues than Robert Thomas<\/a>? <\/p>\n

[The Sabres] are looking for a defenceman and the Blues do have some players at that position available in this trade market. So that\u2019s another thing to consider here as teams continue to grind away at this deal.<\/p>\n

Pierre LeBrun: And you just mentioned the really high asking price for the Blues and Robert Thomas<\/a>, as it should be, and it\u2019s because of that asking price that\u2019s too high that I don\u2019t see the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> as being a serious player. <\/p>\n

Yes, they\u2019ve had conversations with the Blues about Thomas, but when the ask involves the likes of Michael Hage, David Reinbacher<\/a>, plus, plus, it doesn\u2019t make sense right now from the Habs\u2019 perspective to get into that kind of transaction.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re just starting their window here, this is not the time for them to have the blockbuster that puts them over the top. <\/p>\n

The Habs are being really patient, from what I understand, they\u2019re waiting for some deals to come to them, but they\u2019re not going to force one here on Robert Thomas<\/a> unless the price comes down.<\/p>\n

Reda: The Oilers got their right-handed defenceman to bolster their lineup, that\u2019s already done, so what\u2019s next for Edmonton now?<\/p>\n

LeBrun: What\u2019s next, first, is they have to somehow separate themselves from Andrew Mangiapane<\/a> and his contract. <\/p>\n

We know he cleared waivers a couple of days ago, and they spent a lot of Tuesday trying to find a landing spot on that extra year at $3.6 million. Once they\u2019re able to do that, the top priority is to go and get a third-line centre who has physicality, some ruggedness, the type of player who really fits in come playoff time. <\/p>\n

The name of Nicolas Roy<\/a> has been out there, the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> player that came over in the Mitch Marner deal. <\/p>\n

The Oilers do covet the kind of attributes that Nick Roy has, though I\u2019m told they have not yet made a trade offer to the Maple Leafs, but he represents the kind of player they\u2019re looking for right now. <\/p>\n

If not him, there\u2019s a bigger name out there right now in Brayden Schenn<\/a>, who has two more years on his deal at $6.5 million a year. The Blues would have to retain salary for that to ever make sense for Edmonton, but again, ruggedness, physicality, that\u2019s the top of forward they would like to get in Edmonton before the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Reda: Guys, in a perfect world, GMs who are selling want to sit back and wait for a bidding war to maximize their return, but that\u2019s not happening right now, Dregs?<\/p>\n

Dreger: No, lots of conversations, but that\u2019s just par for the course when you\u2019re looking at a looming trade deadline. I can tell you that Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, these are teams with GMs who are eager and are having tons of conversations, but they\u2019re caught up in what is being described right now as a buyer\u2019s market. <\/p>\n

A buyer\u2019s market means that there are a lot of players who are in play right now, so these GMs don\u2019t have a choice but to stay patient. They know they\u2019ve got quality pieces, so we\u2019ll find out whether the action picks up between now and Friday.<\/p>\n

Reda: We know the Canucks are selling and we\u2019ve heard a lot of talk around Tyler Myers<\/a> and Elias Pettersson<\/a>, but you\u2019re hearing another name out of Vancouver drawing some significant attention right now, CJ?<\/p>\n

Johnston: Yeah, that would be Conor Garland<\/a>, who saw a spike in trade interest on Tuesday. The reason that might be a surprise is that he\u2019s got a lot of term attached to him. <\/p>\n

The six-year contract extension he signed last summer doesn\u2019t kick in until this July 1, but Garland has some admirers in the Eastern Conference in particular. <\/p>\n

That includes the New York Islanders<\/a>, who have been linked to him, although I was cautioned about trying to oversell that. Nothing is certainly done when it comes to the Islanders and Garland but definitely at this point in time the Canucks are working through some of this interest and seeing if they can get something done with Garland before Friday.<\/p>\n

Reda: The Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> have a much-coveted defenceman who\u2019s available, but he\u2019s not going to come cheap, Pierre.<\/p>\n

LeBrun: No, the current asking price for the Flyers for Rasmus Ristolainen<\/a> is a first-round pick and a prospect. He\u2019s got another year on his deal at $5.1 million – that in itself is very appealing for the kind of player he is. <\/p>\n

There are two playoff runs left in his contract, so teams are definitely calling. <\/p>\n

I also think that the Tyler Myers<\/a> situation has an impact here, another right-handed defenceman, but the Myers situation might finally be resolved come the end of Wednesday.<\/p>\n

So whether he accepts a trade to Detroit, or Dallas makes an offer, we\u2019ll see, but once Myers\u2019 situation is done then perhaps we\u2019ll get more clarity on where Ristolainen ends up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TSN\u2019s Hockey Insiders discuss St. Louis and Buffalo in trade talks for Robert Thomas, the Oilers seeking a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[712,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-513180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}