ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues will name a captain after all, and they will unveil the 24th in franchise history on Tuesday morning.

They haven't had one since trading center Ryan O'Reilly to the Toronto Maple Leafs Feb. 17, and general manager Doug Armstrong left it out in the open after last season ended that it was no guarantee the Blues would name a captain for the 2023-24 season.

"I haven't decided, but I'm saying that there's certainly a possibility there couldn't be," Armstrong said at the conclusion of last season. "I guarantee we won't be announcing one in the next few months."

And they didn't, but now, they have, and from the word go, 32-year-old Brayden Schenn, the ultimate heart-and-soul skater for the Blues since his arrival in 2017, seemed like a shoe-in to be next in line after O'Reilly, and before him, Alex Pietrangelo to have the 'C' sewn on.

But the Blues have been known to be a leadership group by committee, and they will continue to have a group that leads by example, whoever wears the 'C' and/or whoever wears an 'A.'

So it could very well be, and is believed that 24-year-old Robert Thomas emerged as the front-runner to be the captain in Blues history.

Thomas, who was drafted 20th overall by the Blues in the 2017 NHL Draft, is the team's No. 1 center and enters this season as the highest-paid player -- along with Jordan Kyrou -- with an eight-year contract with an average annual value of $8.125 million.

"You have to be an extremely hard worker and you've got to be a highly competitive person to be a captain because you cannot be a captain if you can't lead by example on the ice or off the ice," Blues coach Craig Berube said. "Those are the two biggest qualities."

And the Blues believe they have that in Thomas, who was a rookie on the Stanley Cup-winning team in 2018-19.

But there will be quite the supporting cast in Schenn, Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk, who was another one who had strong credentials to be the selection, and perhaps another player to enter the picture, maybe Pavel Buchnevich or another veteran like Nick Leddy. Thomas wore an 'A' last season.

Make no mistake: the Blues thought long and hard on this one, and after naming a captain on Tuesday, the number of NHL teams without a captain will be down to seven.

"It's something I thought about when Alex left is that, 'What is the role of a captain and is the role of a captain in sport anymore,'" Armstrong said in April. "I don't know if there is. I think you have such a group dynamic in everything that these guys deal with. A leadership group, this group, that group. I don't know if you need a 'C' or if you need multiple 'A's to pull a team together. I also think that if you're a leader, you don't need a 'C.' You don't need (head equipment manager) Rich Matthews to sew a letter of the alphabet on your jersey to indicate that you're a leader. You're going to do that with your actions every day, but that's more a global question on the captaincy and that's something I've been struggling quite honestly since 'Petro' left. Is it a one-man job anymore? My inner circle are ex-players in [Scott] Mellanby and [Al] MacInnis, Timmy Taylor; non-players Peter Chiarelli, who's won a Stanley Cup, a Presidents' Trophy, been to the finals. I have a good inner circle. I've got to tap into those guys to and what they think we need to do, and I also got to go to my rolodex of guys that I've got a ton of respect for that are recently retired. The Barret Jackmans of the world, maybe the David Backes's of the world, people that I know internationally from other organizations. It's time for me to learn and grow so I can support these guys."

If Thomas is the guy, the Blues see a player that will be with the franchise long-term beginning with his eight-year contract, and they don't want to name a captain every couple of years or so, something they've done. Backes is the last captain to last more than four years (2011-16) and not since Brian Sutter (1979-1988) have they had one last longer than five seasons.

"Ultimately it is (Armstrong's decision), yes, just because I think when you're doing something like that, you have to have a vision past a current year," Armstrong said. "You don't want to have revolving 'C's. As I say that and we've had revolving 'C's, but it's not something that you put on someone hoping that it lasts a year or two so you can do it again. But ultimately, I won't do it in a vacuum where I'll just wake up one day and not let anyone know what I'm doing. But I think that's the management's responsibility. Other guys think it totally different. Other guys have a team vote. But you have a team vote and next year, seven of the guys that voted for you are gone, where are your leadership skills? Where's your base? I guess it won't go to a vote."