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Surprise team could offer sheet Blues' Robert Thomas

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Brennen Beaudin
September 16, 2021  (1:09 PM)
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St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas remains unsigned with just a week left before training camp. Of course, there is still plenty of time to get a deal done, but there are no reports saying that the two sides are close to a new deal.

Currently, the team only has about $2.3 million in cap space, which they may think is enough to re-sign Thomas. On the other hand, Thomas believes he is worth much more than that, especially after they signed Jordan Kyrou to a 2-year, $2.8 million contract earlier this offseason.

That is where the offer sheet from other teams could come into play. According to Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, a team like the Arizona Coyotes could be looking to give the 22-year-old an offer sheet. The compensation for his contract would likely only be a second round pick, and the Coyotes currently possess five second round picks in 2022, so there would be absolutely no problem there.

«It would make sense,» the source said. «If I'm looking at a chessboard, that's a move that I could anticipate and say, 'I'm not too surprised by this'."

«Should Arizona take a page from the way Carolina structured their successful offer sheet (to Kotkaniemi), Arizona could be willing to explore paying a premium on a one-year deal to acquire the player and then subsequently renegotiate an extension. But perhaps Arizona still feels they aren't quite done maximizing the asset value of the roster and they have a continued focus on accumulating future draft picks.»

It would be reasonable to believe that the Coyotes could take a chance on the 22-year-old especially for just a second round pick. Of course, there is the chance that the team will still just want to keep bundling up picks in order to progress in their rebuild.

theathletic.com