Robert Thomas’ rise: A Swedish stick, frozen passes and becoming the face of the Blues franchise

AURORA, Ont.

The garage door on Robert Thomas childhood home hums quietly as it climbs up the tracking, and Scott Thomas, Roberts dad, appears.

Scott was in the kitchen cooking a dish called Marry Me chicken that will be coming out of the oven soon.

In the meantime, the proud father points behind a bike rack to an enlarged picture of the St.

Louis Blues center.

Theres a couch and three TVs, where family and friends watched the 2019 Stanley Cup run, and a 14-foot Blues banner that gets displayed during the playoffs.

Theres also a shelf with hockey equipment left behind by NHLers Matthew and Brady Tkachuk and Mitch Marner .

Advertisement Thats Matthews Calgary stuff, and Mitchs helmet is up there somewhere, Scott says.

Just a few feet from that shelf, theres a changing corner where neighborhood kids would put on their pads before stepping onto the Thomas backyard rink.

This whole area is heated, and its where theyd get ready, he says.

The door opens to the backyard, where you expect to see the rink, but instead theres a tiki hut overlooking a curling sheet.

Yes, now that Thomas is 25 years old and moved on, Scott and his wife, Deb, play Canadas other popular sport on the surface.

For Thomas, however, this will always be, where I learned to play hockey.

Its where his grandfather, Bruce Waechter, set up an outdoor grill and BBQd for a group of kids that included Kody Clark, the son of Toronto Maple Leafs legend Wendel Clark.

Theyd sit their Gatorades in the snow and pass hot dogs and hamburgers over the boards.

We had lights everywhere, and theyd just play all day, all night, Scott says.

Steve and Patti Bromley lived two doors down at the time.

I would be in bed, its like 10:30 p.m., and theres pucks banging off the board, Steve remembers.

Youd look out, and it was Rob! This is where Thomas learned to skate with precision, forced by an oddly shaped rink that shrunk from 10 feet to 4 in some parts.

He was always on his edges because it wasnt rectangle and suddenly youre sticking-handling in a smaller area, Scott says.

This is also where Thomas developed the visual awareness for his elite-level passing.

We could never saucer pucks in the air because no one was wearing shin pads and it hurt, especially in the freezing cold, Thomas says.

So you had to put it on the ice and through someones feet.

And this is where the Bromleys and other neighbors would return pucks that were lost in the winter.

When the snow melted, there would be so many of them in everyones backyard, they would line them up on the top of our fence and wed pick them up, Thomas says.

But to learn what turned Thomas into the face of the Blues franchise just six years after his rookie year on that Cup-winning team, you have to go inside the home.

Advertisement You have to sit down in Scott and Debs kitchen, dig into dinner and soak up the stories about their son about the diligence that went into his decision to play junior hockey for the London Knights, the accountability he showed in the aftermath of that decision and others, and the resilience it took to go from trade rumors and a healthy scratch to an NHL All-Star in his hometown.

Unlike some of his friends growing up, Thomas had no professional hockey lineage.

His grandpa on his dads side, Robert, played university hockey, but the family once searched his name on Google and found out he was a bench warmer.

Scott played until he was 14.

His mom, Deb, was an athlete but didnt play hockey.

Her sport was flag football, and she could throw a spiral 40 yards.

Real plays, headset, microphones, she says.

A year ago, Deb saw a video posted by the Blues social media account of her son tossing a football.

Ive got to talk to him about how he throws, she quips.

The family put Thomas in rollerblades at 3 1/2 years old, and it was clear after his first lesson, Oh my God, he can actually skate, Deb remembers.

Back then, however, Aurora didnt have teams for kids until they were about 7, so Scott reached out to a friend, Lee Burton, and asked: What do you do with your boys? Burton was coaching a team in nearby Oak Ridges that needed a player, so they signed him up.

The way we parent is, If they want it, well put the carrot in front of them,' Scott says.

And he really liked it.

When Thomas was about 5, Oak Ridges played during the intermission of a Maple Leafs game.

He had a couple of breakaways to this day, I still remember the crowd cheering, he says but the closest he came to scoring was clanking the post.

Thomas skating ability allowed him to hang with older players, and while most of the talent in the area migrated to Toronto, he returned to Aurora and played for York Simcoe Express.

My parents have always been level-headed, and there was never really an expectation of playing pro hockey, Thomas says.

It was all just having fun and not too much pressure.

Advertisement Ron Thiessen coached Thomas with York Simcoe from age 9 to 12 and remembers how well he understood the game.

He was always that kid that was intent on learning and listening, Thiessen says.

Scoring goals was never the focus.

In fact, Scott came up with a system in which goals were worth one point and assists two.

It was designed to make him a good teammate and helped develop one of Thomas top traits.

If I wasnt passing the puck, my dad would always bring it up to me, Thomas says.

So youd start passing the puck a lot and sort of surprising yourself.

Thered be moments in games where youd do something, and youre like, Oh, that was pretty cool! That stuff just kept happening for me, and I slowly gained more confidence.

Thomas received an invitation to play spring hockey with a select team, where he met the Hughes family.

Quinn, Jack and Luke are all now in the NHL .

Thomas played with Quinn and took trips to Europe for tournaments.

On one of those trips, Thomas grandpa Bruce bought him a Swedish floor hockey stick.

It had a big toe that allowed you to cup the ball and flip it around.

When Thomas returned home, he never put it down.

Deb would be doing laundry, and Rob would be stickhandling between her legs, Scott says.

We would think hes doing his homework and tonk, tonk, tonk.

It was nonstop.

Yeah, Thomas says, laughing, there were a couple of times when the hardwood floor didnt love it! If Thomas wasnt stickhandling around the house, he was watching or playing sports.

On NHL trade deadline day, hed tell his dad that he was skipping school to stay home and watch TSNs coverage.

Hed drive me nuts because the ticker would say theres eight hours left until the deadline, Scott says.

Im like, Rob, you can read about it.

Hed say, No, Ive got to see.' Advertisement Wherever the familys travels took them, Mom and Dad had to find a baseball field.

Wed bring the bases, Deb says.

Or a golf course.

One year Robert sat with his grandpa for five hours in a sand trap, trying to play golf, Scott says.

If the game was football, Thomas admits his arm isnt as good as Moms.

Yeah, my spiral aint too pretty, he says, laughing.

She has a couple of national championship balls in her office.

Six years before Thomas won a Stanley Cup, there were still no plans for a pro hockey career.

Its easy to say now in hindsight, but I dont think anybody wouldve thought that he would make the NHL, Scott says.

It wasnt until Thomas attended nearby St.

Andrews College for Grades 9 and 10 and was selected by the London Knights in the second round of the OHL draft that it started to seem like a possibility.

The main goal with hockey (before that) was if you could pay for an education, youre doing pretty good in life, Thomas says.

Thomas wanted to jump at the junior opportunity.

But at 15, it would mean living 2 1/2 hours away with a billet family and forfeiting NCAA eligibility.

He was like, Dad, I want to do this,' Scott says.

We said, OK, go upstairs and write a list.' Pros and cons, Deb says.

Thomas had been through this before.

Mom made him write a lot of pros and cons lists.

When I really wanted to do something, there would always be plenty more pros and I would hide a couple of cons, Thomas says, chuckling.

He returned with his lopsided list.

It was very well done, though, Scott says.

He looked us right in the eye and said, Ive got this one!' His parents agreed to let him go.

Scott and Deb had one caveat, though.

They made their son sit down with St.

Andrews coach David Manning and tell him personally that he was leaving.

That was a tough conversation, Thomas says.

The school had done a lot for me.

Manning remembers that day vividly, including where he and Thomas were standing in the corner of the hockey complex when they spoke.

Advertisement I said, Im not disappointed in you.

Im disappointed that we wont have the opportunity to work together,' Manning recalls.

But his game had taken him to a level where he had this amazing opportunity in London, which had a track record for producing professional hockey players.

I said, Know that well be cheering you on.' In Thomas first season in London, 2015-16, playing with Matthew Tkachuk and Marner, he won the Memorial Cup.

But it was a season of resilience for Thomas, who played just 40 of 68 regular-season games.

The young guys have to sit in London, Scott says.

Even Mitch Marners dad, Paul, he took Robert aside and said, Listen, it happened to Mitch and itll happen to you.

Just be careful and stick with it.' There were other London players in similar situations whose parents or agents were complaining to the club, and they found themselves traded.

Robert called me and said, If I ever catch you calling the Knights, youre in a lot of trouble!' Scott recalls.

He said, I can handle my hockey!' Thomas had an agent, but wanted to change representatives.

His dad set up individual dinners with three candidates, and once the interview process was over, Thomas picked Craig Oster, the brother-in-law of former Blue Keith Tkachuk.

Like with Manning, his parents had him call the two agents he didnt choose to tell them.

It couldve been some ugly conversations that scarred me, Thomas says.

But they were very nice about it and appreciated the call.

I think it was an important life lesson.

By the time of Thomas NHL draft year, 2017, he was projected to go in the second or third round.

I told my dad, Im going in the first round.

Watch!' he says.

In his second season in London, Thomas had 16 goals and 66 points in 66 games, and nearly every NHL team lined up to interview him at the combine.

Advertisement His time at St.

Andrews prepared him for that, Scott says.

They had public speaking (classes), so he knew to look you in the eye and shake your hand.

The Blues met with Thomas three or four times.

They had the No.

20 pick at the draft, which was held at the United Center, home of the Chicago Blackhawks .

When it was the Blues turn to pick, Thomas name was announced to loud booing.

You hear about all these big rivalries, and youre part of it as a fan, but to get the first taste of it, it was pretty neat getting booed, he says.

There was plenty of excitement that day, but after another season in London, Thomas thought the Blues might have traded him.

On July 1, 2018, the family was driving home from its cottage when the deal for Ryan OReilly was announced on the radio.

When the names of the Blues players going to the Buffalo Sabres were mentioned, Thomas said, Mom, did I just get traded?' Deb recalls.

He heard Tom and he thought they said Thomas.

It turns out, it was (former Blues prospect) Tage Thompson .

I had heard my name in trade talks the year prior with Max Pacioretty , he says.

So yeah, it was a pretty crazy time.

That day, the Blues also signed free agent Tyler Bozak, creating a lot of center depth heading into the 2018-19 season.

Robert said, Im not going to make it!' Scott remembers.

I was definitely a little worried, Thomas says.

It made my job a little harder, but looking back, it allowed me to play wing, get more comfortable and learn from some great people.

Along the way, Thomas also got some help from the Tkachuk brothers, who had moved to Aurora to train with former NHL player Gary Roberts.

The Bromleys had moved but kept their house near Thomas and offered it to the Tkachuks.

Every night, the group watched hockey together.

Hockey is in their DNA from Walt (Keith Tkachuk), Thomas says.

They just have it engrained in them, and you pick up on it slowly.

Advertisement Thomas was also picking up some strength.

They ate a lot , Deb says.

We definitely polished off some steaks, Thomas says, laughing.

Dessert was popcorn, not ice cream.

Matthew was hellbent on making Calgary s team, and when Rob saw the amount of effort he put into it, he started to learn, OK, Im a different player than Matthew and Brady, but maybe I can do this,' Scott says.

They were just so locked in all the time, Thomas says.

They had their whole careers mapped out, and it was a big eye-opener for me in terms of how focused they were, even in the middle of the offseason.

The boys had some fun, too.

The Bromleys had a pool, and one day Steve dropped by to find Thomas, the Tkachuks and Mark Scheifele , among others, in the water.

I tried to add up all the NHL contracts, Bromley recalls.

Millions of dollars in the pool.

Thomas was still a rookie trying to establish himself, a couple of years away from the eight-year, $64 million deal he signed in 2022.

On Oct.

20, the Blues visited his hometown Maple Leafs, and then-coach Mike Yeo made him a healthy scratch on a night when he had 30 family and friends attending.

That one still hurts me today, Thomas says.

But its all part of it, and you just kind of keep growing.

In early December of 2018, Team Canada came calling about Thomas playing in the World Junior Championship.

Blues general manager Doug Armstrong gave him the option to go, and Thomas dad thought it would be a good opportunity.

Rob said, You dont understand Dad! Were really good and were getting our (act) together!' Scott recalls.

He didnt go to (the) World Juniors and then a month and a half later, the Blues hadnt lost a game.

I was getting in a groove, and regardless of where we were in the standings, we had a lot of belief, Thomas says.

Six months later, the Blues were Stanley Cup champs, and Thomas assisted on arguably the biggest goal in club history, to Pat Maroon in double overtime in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinal.

Back in Aurora, the house erupted.

Theyd send me pictures after games with all my friends and family supporting me, Thomas says.

It was a really cool experience.

The Tkachuks, along with OReilly, attended Thomas Stanley Cup party, where there was no popcorn.

He was eating ice cream out of the Cup, Deb says.

Then last season, five years after Yeo made Thomas a healthy scratch in Toronto, he was named an All-Star for the game in his hometown.

He called me, Hey, guess what?' Deb recalls.

She gets the good news! Scott says.

I get the call, Dad, theyre sitting me again!' Now, Thomas has a chance to show how far hes come in another town from his past, with the Blues playing the Blackhawks in the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field on Dec.

31.

Eight years after being booed in Chicago, Thomas comes in as the face of the franchise.

Advertisement When people say that, I still shake my head a bit, Scott says.

We always believe that its a team game.

But ever since hes been in St.

Louis, its a place thats kind of adopted him.

I remember one year he didnt make the team, but there was one family that came up to him and said, Robert, youre going to be a good player.

We love you.

Just stick with it.

He was blown away.

Hes so happy there, Deb says.

Thomas feels like hes back in Aurora.

It reminds me of where I grew up, where its a small town and everyone knows everyone, he says.

Its been an amazing place to live, and its a great place to grow a family.

And Thomas hopes to be as good at it as his mom and dad.

Theyre very humble, and theyre really good parents, Bromley says.

Im sure Rob would tell you, My dad never pushed me to do this.

If I wanted to go to St.

Andrews and be a nuclear physicist, that wouldve been just fine.

It was a perfect situation for a kid like Rob, and its turned out wonderfully.

I never got the sense they thought Rob was the best thing since sliced bread, Manning adds.

They wanted to help their son the best way they could and were both massively supportive.

The best parents are the ones who provide guardrails for the journey, and they did a really good job of that.

They were great guardrails.

They werent snowplowing.

(Top photos of Robert Thomas : Jeff Curry / USA Today and courtesy of the Thomas family).

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