How Do The St. Louis Blues Offset The Loss Of Their Top Center?

With Robert Thomas sidelined with a fractured right ankle and will be reevaluated in six weeks, everyone on roster will have to pick up slack

MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. – The worst-case scenario unfolded for the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday when it was announced that top-line center Robert Thomas fractured his right ankle and will be reevaluated in six weeks.

The silver lining is there was no announcement of surgery required, like there was when Jaden Schwartz broke his ankle at the start of the 2015-16 season and missed 49 games when he slid into the goal post during practice in front of goalie Brian Elliott.

But if Thomas is gone for six weeks or four weeks, five, longer than the six-week evaluation period, that will mean a minimum of 18 games to be without your top-line center and leading scorer (86 points) and leader in assists (60) from a season ago, and someone who played all 82 games.

So how do they do it?

Conventional wisdom says it will have to be the guys in the room, and there are plenty of them. But are they capable?

“I know we have a great group in here and I think at the same time, we have a group of guys in this locker room that are going to pull in the same direction on the rope and that’s the biggest thing,” Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. “As long as we have 20 guys each night pulling the string in the same direction, we’ll be fine. Just work hard, play together as a group. The wins will take care of themselves. We’ve just got to make sure we go out and we work for each other, have the effort, obviously get some bounces and things like that but at the same time, if we’re all working together, we’re going to be fine.”

At practice on Wednesday, Brayden Schenn was on the top line in Thomas’ spot between Brandon Saad and Oskar Sundqvist, who was a placeholder for Jake Neighbours. Pavel Buchnevich centered the second line, Dylan Holloway was moved to the middle of the third line and Radek Faksa was in his usual spot in the middle of the fourth line.

Alexandre Texier can also play in the middle, as can Sundqvist, who was activated off injured reserve on Wednesday.

“He can play both,” Blues coach Drew Bannister said of Sundqvist, coming off a torn right ACL. “It’s a good problem for us to have now too that Robby’s out that he can both play wing and center. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, but it’s something that we’ll look for that he can play wing or center.”

Nathan Walker can also slide in the middle and so can Zack Bolduc if needed. Regardless of who, Schenn is thrust into the spotlight now and will have to pull a lot of the rope and get everyone else to follow suit.

“I feel like the shot’s been there and some chances here and there, but my job’s going to be to play a 200-foot game,” Schenn said. “I’ve got to be able to produce for us, but at the same time, be reliable defensively. Obviously everyone’s minutes are going to go up a little bit. This is a guy that was playing 23 minutes a night for us.

“It’s something you don’t want to see, but it’s a part of the game that sucks. We have to buy in together as a group.”

Bannister will have to juggle this carefully. After all, Thomas was already at a 62.6 percent clip on face-off wins, on the top power play unit averaging 2:34 per game ad averaging 20:33 ice time per game.

“Everybody’s role’s going to increase right now,” Bannister said. “It just goes back to the team aspect. We need everybody on the same page. We can’t have any individuals. We have to have everybody pulling in the same direction here. ‘Schenner’s done that. We’ve had a lot of guys doing that. I felt like last night was a game in where I didn’t see any passengers. The effort was there and the effort’s always going to be there. Today was a regroup day, but it wasn’t a day where … you’re disappointed with the result, but I wasn’t disappointed with the effort. Now we had to regroup. I thought we had a great practice, lots of energy, guys came to work. They’re ready to go on the road and play some hockey.”

Would general manager Doug Armstrong explore trading for a center? It would likely have to be an apples for apples type of trade, even though the Blues do have Torey Krug's long-term injured reserve cap space at their disposal. But even then, who is trading away a top-six center just over two weeks into the season? Probably nobody. 

And for anyone clamoring for Dalibor Dvorsky to get called up from Springfield of the American Hockey League, don't count on it. If the No. 10 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft couldn't make the opening night roster two weeks ago, what's going to change in that time? Dvorsky does have four points (two goals, two assists) in five games with the Thunderbirds but best to allow him to play in the AHL and get cooking there before the next step.

So it's either a collective effort from the ones on the roster now more than likely or bust, eve though replacing Thomas is quite the task.