I get it from the blues perspective, but lets say they randomly did decide to blow it up and rebuild, I would even consider trading Danielson and Kasper + 15 OA for him, not sure blues even do that either tho.
It would be an interesting proposal, but unless I’m forced to trade Thomas, I’m asking for Edvinsson and Danielson still.
I spent almost 4 months combined over in the WHL this season and it’s pretty tough finding a better forward in the league. If he has a fault, it’s that he doesn’t shoot the puck enough, but we always hear that with pace setter type players. He controls play during games. He’s not just a finisher or pure offensive player like most of the great forwards in the league. Where you won’t hear from them for 5-10 minutes and then they’ll make a great play and score, or generate chances, etc, etc. He literally is controlling the games during his shifts.. most of the time against the other team’s best players. If those kids are anywhere near a PPG in junior, they usually end up pretty darn good NHL players, who can drive a line. The people who watch stats will never understand what that means in Juniors. That Junior stats don’t mean very much for these players. As long as they’re PPG types, they’re just fine. The great part about the trade is, he was finally able to shut some people up, who don’t understand how playing in Brandon effected his overall point production. Funny, we see similar comments this year about Ryder Ritchie, who faced many of the same issue in Prince Albert this year. If Detroit keeps that 15th pick, don’t be surprised if they take him as well btw. Higher than people think he’ll go. I know they’ve been one of the few teams to have been in Brandon, Prince Albert and Saskatoon a ton this season. Probably more than anyone in Prince Albert. They’ll know how good Ritchie truly is as well. If you’re drafting 15-20 and have your sights set on him, you probably weren’t happy how well he played at the U18s lol.
Danielson is the best forward prospect Detroit has had in a very long time, and the sky really is the limit. I say Trevor Linden from the Medicine Hat days, but comparisons are unfair. Lots of Toews in his game too. Smoother than both though. The best part, and why Detroit has to be really excited right now is, the better the competition, the better he usually is. He’s not only controlling pace in games, he’s shutting down the opposing team’s best players most nights.
That’s what I think of Robert Thomas, and so should the Blues. That they could demand two of the best prospects in the game for him. Where in 3 years from now, there’s a good chance this looks like a bad trade for Detroit. That’s the chance you take for NHL proven vs non proven yet.
The good part is, there’s no chance this happens, and Detroit will get to watch these prospects evolve into NHL players.
