The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On The Road: Robert Thomas [Episode 3]

Episode Date: September 27, 2025

Join Jeff Marek in this episode of On the Road with Jeff Marek as he sits down with Stanley Cup Champion and St. Louis Blues star Robert Thomas at a beautiful Muskoka cottage on Airbnb. Robert opens up about life as a new dad, chasing Olympic dreams, and what it takes to be an elite NHL playmaker. From winning the Stanley Cup and Memorial Cup to memories of outdoor rinks, multi-sport development, and his London Knights days, Thomas shares stories that shaped his career. Jeff and Robert also dive into the evolution of the NHL, the future of the Blues, and how family and cottage life in Muskoka help keep him grounded. This candid hockey interview blends NHL insights, personal stories, and cottage-country vibes in one unforgettable conversation.0;00 – Intro0:43 – Robert Thomas: Stanley Cup Champion & New Dad2:10 – Olympic Dreams & NHL Season Outlook4:36 – Family Life & Cottage Living in Muskoka6:18 – Outdoor Rinks, Childhood Memories & Multi-Sport Roots11:20 – Junior Hockey Journey: London Knights & Hamilton Bulldogs14:55 – NHL Success, Playmaking & Lessons from Stars19:10 – St. Louis Blues Mindset, Coaching & Future Outlook24:23 – How the NHL Game Has Evolved29:10 – Facing Rivals, Division Battles & Nathan MacKinnon31:55 – Parenthood, Family Balance & Closing ThoughtsIn Partnership with AirBnB Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to on the road with me, Jeff Merrick in beautiful Muscoca, Ontario. Join me alongside notable guests from the hockey world as we discuss and dissect the best and wildest stories from hockey travel. road trips, favorite cities, and pit stops along the way, and oh yeah, of course, the best untold roommate stories as well. Welcome once again to On the Road. I'm Jeff Merrick in the lovely Muscoca, Ontario, Canadian cottage country, right? It's beautiful here. Impossible to have a bad day in Muscoca.

Coming up on the program today, Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues. Now, the business card is interesting for Robert. Thomas. It says Stanley Cup champion. It says Memorial Cup champion. He's been a winner just about everywhere that he's gone. Robert Thomas has a new title in his life. Dad. His daughter is 16 months old now and he couldn't be a happier parent. We'll talk to Robert Thomas about parenthood. We'll talk to him about the St. Louis Blues, the playoffs, the game itself, being an elite level playmaker, winning championships, and also the Olympics. And is that on the back of Robert Thomas' mind this season?

Robert Thomas, our guest today on On the Road. No way. Yeah, so it's pretty cool. Now he's this cottage on Airbnb is like a kid's true. Oh, but that's good. My family's healthy. Family's happy. Okay, Robert, I'm going to open up with the big one.

So let's do the checklist. Have you won the Memorial Cup? Yeah. Have you won the Stanley Cup? Yeah. What do you think about the Olympics? That's a big one That's the one I'm chasing

So yeah That would be That'd be pretty cool And kind of fill out the resume Yeah How often, I mean I know you're committed To the St. Louis Blues

And really focused, et cetera But in the back of your mind Like it's it's Olympic year And anyone who's in that conversation I would imagine Even if they don't want to say it It would have it in the back of their mind Is it a thought for you?

I know it's been a busy offseason But is that a thought for you? Yeah, I think anyone who says it's not a thought, is lying. You know, it's, especially since, you know, hockey, NHL hasn't been in the Olympics for a while. I think everyone's thinking about it. Everyone wants to get that first gold medal back.

And a lot of people that are kind of on the cusp and trying to make the team are doing everything that can to make it. So, yeah, I think everyone's thinking about it, to be honest. It's going to be an interesting year in the NHL. First of all, 82 games, soon to be 84. like even just watching it is hard i can't imagine playing it and now you throw the olympics into it as well do you do anything different are we getting getting are we going to eventually get into a place here where it's you know star players are resting more taking games off there we say game

management coming to the n hl how do you think this is all going to play out it's interesting i don't think i have the full answer um you know for in hockey i don't i think guys have so much pride in being out there every night. I don't think you're going to get into resting games and game management and all that kind of thing. You know, you see guys coming back from injuries early and everyone hates being out. So I don't think there's going to be guys missing games for rest and stuff.

But there's a lot of hockey. I think whether it's your training in the summer, you know, time off in the summer and training more during the season, I think that's going to be a huge factor going forward. But I think there's a lot of. There's a lot of unknown in the hockey world. You know, Four Nations was such a big success. So, you know, there's going to be an event like that every couple years. And whether it's World Cup or Olympics, like, there's a lot of hockey coming.

And I think it's going to be a little bit of an adjustment for everyone. Let me park the hockey conversation for one second. You're a cottage guy. This is lovely. Yeah. This is great. What are off seasons like for you? Like, as far as seasons over, I need to physically unwind.

I need to mentally unwind. What do you do? Yeah, I'm a big family time guy. I love spending time with the family, you know, especially, you know, growing up I had a lot of, you know, our family had a cottage and we used to spend a ton of time with our cousins, aunt and uncle, and those are huge memories in my childhood and stuff I loved doing. So that's the whole idea of the cottage is to get up there, spend time with family, not think about hockey, not think about anything else other than. enjoying your family time so that's how i try and spend the first half of it and then the second half's uh all steam ahead training yeah well like when you're when you're when you're spending time like relaxing at a cottage like with your family what do you what do you know your family is you have a very young daughter um but like what is like when you say like we need to we do like family things together like what is that for you uh it could be anything um we like doing like a lot

of projects like we had an older cottage we redid it all ourselves um stuff like that we love card games board games um you know my dad loves barbecue and uh so we love cooking um campfires those kind of things are our stuff we love doing before you became who you were in the oh hl and now in hl how interested were you in international hockey like how much were you watching juniors world juniors was every christmas uh i'm not We'd play on the backyard rink. I'd have all my buddies that played minor hockey with. You'd be off for Christmas break.

You'd be outside. You'd have the TV through the window. You'd be watching the game. As soon as Canada came on, you'd run inside and watch the game. And in the intermissions, you're going out trying to do what they did out there. So it's so important. I think any Canadian growing up was such a big fan of those events. And it's so great to have the Olympics back.

You mentioned the ODR. like I'm an ODR dad too I do there every year I say I said I'm not doing it and then I'm back out there doing it your dad Scott is like next level with the ODR and really kind too like everybody skates on the Thomas family's outdoor rank

what are your memories of playing on the ODR I have so many you know even from when before I was born he was making it or before I could even skate I remember one of the first times I started skate when I was, I think I was two or three. You know, a bunch of neighbors on my street were, you know, six, seven years old. And they're all out there playing.

And I just jumped in and started playing. That's where I learned how to play. And, yeah, like I was talking about, the world juniors, every day after school, all my buddies on the street would come over. We'd play all day. You get off, have some dinner, and you get right back out there. So it's the coolest thing, you know, something I'm so thankful for that he did. a lot of memories there. And even when, you know, me and my brother were out,

he kept it going for the kids on the street. The neighbor kids? It was always a special place. You know, is that going to be you one day? Making the ODR, depending on how big the family gets? Yeah, I definitely can see it coming. Just how many great memories I had on it. You know, in the future, I'd love my kids to do that as well.

What do you think you learned playing on outdoor ranks? You know, hockey is so structured right now. Ice time is so expensive. Kids are, you know, every moment is governed. And every moment is, you know, has to have a teachable element to everything you do at practice. What do you think you as a player gain from just going out there and dropping the puck? I think creativity, probably number one, love for the game.

That's so important. You know, as you kind of go on in your career, it gets hard there's competitive there's you're looking at where you're getting drafted all these different things and uh i think just remembering your love for the game and where it came from is is so important to to continue your development as well as like just like that's where i learned how to pass you never you never shoot because you had those little nets you'd try and pass it through your buddy's feed and all that stuff and there's so many things that you you you just learn and become a habit that when you get later in life, you realize where it came from and how important

it was. All those things came right from the ODR. Talk to us a little bit about young Robert Thomas playing sports. Now, you're a multi-sport guy. We know about hockey, certainly. LaCross, baseball, what am I leaving you out? Anything? I tried a lot. You know, through school in St. Andrews have played some volleyball. I loved volleyball. I tried rugby. It wasn't really. It wasn't really good for me at the time, you know, going into the OHL. I can imagine your minor hockey coach at YACC saying you're doing what? Yeah, no, that wasn't too fond of. But, yeah, I loved baseball lacrosse and volleyball were my main ones.

I wasn't too good at soccer. But I just played to hang out with my buddies. Did that help you as a hockey player? Because kids, like, my two kids, like, they just want to stay on the ice all the time. I kick them off for at least a month. It's like because I don't want them to burn their hips out. But like I feel bad. I'm like, I can't believe I'm telling you, kid, not to go and skate or exercise or go, you know, do athletic things.

What do you think about that? I think you got to play as many sports as you can. There's so many different things that, you know, you can pick up on and improve in, whether it's the cross in your hands, baseball, it's all timing, hand eye coordination, you know, your eyes a lot. So I think there's so many things that the more. sports you play the better as a whole you know hockey's a very athletic sport you need you know you're moving you're you're on ice like there's so many different parts of your body that you need and I think the more sports you can play the more you can improve those little things like a lot of the stuff you know through atom oats you do a lot of release stuff and it's it's tennis it's golf it's

baseball all those things kind of come together and you know hockey releases and the way you pass the puck the way you pull Pucks, there's so many different things. Let me ask you about your junior days. You know, it seems here in this series, every second person I talked to played with London Knights. Yeah. Sam Gagne, Sam Dickinson, Robert Thomas. What was the London experience like for you?

I mean, everyone that comes through talks about mini-NHL, mini-NHL. What was it like for you? I think for me, You know, my first year, our team was completely stacked. And there are so many guys that you already knew were going right to the NHL. And just to watch and learn from them, I think that's something they do so well is they give you so many tools, whether it's ice time, gym, video. They spend the most time doing video, individual video.

They watch NHL guys. And they find those little details that make a huge matter or a huge difference in the game and your development. And I think just the culture there, everyone's there to learn from the older guys. They, you know, Marner Kachuk. Those guys really took me under their wings my first year and showed me what it's like to work hard. It's such an interesting environment, like what the hunters have put together there. And like every year consistently, this is a team that is always in the conversation with the playoffs. and most times in the conversation

for the OHL championships if not the Memorial Cup. Like, what's the secret sauce? It's a great question. I think just the way they really care about every player and making them better, I think you look at last year's team,

you know, they almost won it two years. They won it last year, but they almost wanted the year before. And all those guys were draft picks that, you know, no one thought they would get as quickly as great as they are. And they were able to develop them,

care for them. And it's just a special feeling there that people that are there get to experience and learn from. And they have so much knowledge about junior and what it takes to get to the next level that the more you just be a sponge there, the better off you are.

One more junior question. And I want to have some fun. So you mentioned that first team that you're on with the London Knights, total wagon Memorial Cup and you got back as well playing with Hamilton the 100 year anniversary of the Memorial

Cup in Regina. How by then had you changed as a player? I mean I remember watching that you could take over games like you were that guy but like how did you change not just as a player but as a person like that's your OHL journey. Yeah it changed a lot definitely had to grow up a lot

you know moving on to Hamilton I had such a great experience there And the way they were so eager to grow that program. And they did, you know, after I left, they had another couple really good years before going to Brantford. But, yeah, they tried to be a mini-Nh-HL there. And we had a great team there as well. It just fell a little bit short.

But that one still kicks me. I think we could have got it done that year. It was, I mean, this like like uh there were some there were some good teams there um but i going into that one and it was just my oh-h-l bias coming through i'm like hamilton's got this yeah like you guys felt that in the room right like yeah we're winning this we we thought we had it the whole time and yeah that was that's that's that's that's still haunts me today actually really i really thought we could have done that and then you just walked into the n hl won the stanley shop hockey's easy

robert thomas i should have just retired after that You know, it's interesting, too, because, like, you're calling, like, you're a great playmaker. Like, that's the one thing you think about Robert Tom, playmaker, like, amongst the elite in the NHL. Like, when you look at other players, Leon's got to be top of the list, too. He's fantastic. But, like, you're right there with all these guys. Who impresses you, though? Yeah, there's so many.

In terms of playmaking, I think, you know, you look at Marner and Kuturov. Those are two guys that, the way they can pick up the puck off the wall and make passes quickly, there's very few that can do it, especially on their backhand. It's incredible. I mean, especially Kutrov on the power play, it's the puck's getting rimmed over. He's one tapping it to the middle on his backhand. It makes it look so easy, but it's so hard to do. So I love those two guys.

In terms of playmaking, I think they control the puck. The whole game goes at their pace when they have the puck. And it's pretty incredible. You know, we always talk about, you know, which players, like, as a fan, who would you pay to watch specifically? And someone from an NHL team said, I bet if you asked NHLers that same question, who would you pay to watch in the NHL?

He said, most of them will tell you Kucherov. Is that true? Like, once in a part of the time, like Marian Hosa was, the player's player, is that Kucharov now? I think he's definitely one of them. You know, I'd say, obviously, like, the speed and skill that, like, McDavid and McKinnon have, McCar, is, like, so impressive. In terms of being, like, a hockey nerd, I think you look at Kutrov, you know,

Neelander, Marner, those guys, those guys are so impressive. Just the little details that you pick up on You try and bring them to your game Those guys, Panarin, they do it in their sleep And it's incredible. The thing I always, and I, Robert, I bite on it every time And I've seen it a million times. That fake slap shot with the pass to the slot to Braden Point.

I've seen it. We've all seen it at millions. I still bite. Yeah. And I'm still like, when he makes that pass the point And then I catch myself like, we stop being shocked. But he like, he sells it better than anybody yeah even when you're playing you know it's coming you can put your stick right there and

it's under your stick and it's in the back of your net yeah um yeah he he's he's a magician over there it uh it really is remarkable um to your st louis blues um at the end of the season end of the playoffs what was like what were you saying amongst each other about this upcoming season like about at that point what's happening next year yeah i think a ton of excitement You know, we, the last little while, we were a team that we felt like we were a really good team. We just couldn't get over that hump. We do little things throughout games that would cost us games. And we just weren't in that winning mindset.

And, you know, it clicked for us in the second half. You know, our habits got better. A lot of our details and the way we played, we tried to tilt the ice a lot, and we found a lot of success doing it. And, you know, we were so close in that playoff series. It's a heartbreaker. But for us, like, we believe we're a top team in the league now. We have a good mix of older guys, younger guys. And our younger guys coming up, they are incredible players,

but they also have such great character. And they understand the details of winning. And, you know, for a lot of guys that have been around for a while, we are so pumped about it. Yeah, it's an impressive team. And look, I'm a big fan of Jim Montgomery. I'll always have been. how has Montgomery been as a coach for Robert Thomas?

He's been great. You know, I was fortunate enough to have him as an assistant coach a couple years back. Everyone knew he was going to St. Louis one day, right? We all hoped. We all hoped. But just the way he was able to connect with me as an assistant, you look at Buchennevich, Kairu, and myself all had career years with him. And obviously, there's a lot of other people involved in that.

But he really helped us out one-on-one. and taught us the way he thought about things. And, you know, he came back as a head coach, and he really promoted using your skill, trusting yourself, and brought a big structure to our game. And I think for the way our team is and how many young guys we got coming up, it's going to be so awesome for them.

You know, it's interesting sometimes, not always, but enough that it's like a thing. When an assistant coach becomes the head, head coach of that team. Now mind you, he had to go elsewhere and then came back. Personality has to change because you have a new position. And sometimes players go, you know, that same guy that was having me over for barbecue is now health bombing me. Was there anything like that with Monty or was it the same personality only now he was a head coach?

I think a little bit. There's obviously, it has to be some change. But he's a guy that shoots you straight. He'll tell you how it is. And I think guys respect that and are able to understand that. And him being clear about what he wants to see and how to kind of change things allows guys to give him something to work for and something to try and get better and get back in the lineup. So there's that.

He always has a good personality. Like you see in his interviews and stuff. So he's able to really connect with people on more than just a hockey level. And I think that helps that point as well. Who do you think that we're still sleeping on with the St. Louis Blues? Like, who are we not? I'm indicting my own side of the game here. Like, who are we missing out on on the St. Louis Blues?

Like, you look at yourself, how come they're not talking more about this guy? I think there's a lot of guys. I, you know, Bouchnevich is a big one that comes to mine, Kairu. Those are two guys that they're incredible players. And they don't get enough love. Butchnevich, his two-way game is, he's so, smart out there and you know kairu he he does things that not many people can do and for like a hockey nerd it's it's pretty impressive um i would say those two guys are you know people are starting to pick up

on broberg holloway those guys are incredible um neighbors snuggerud i could go on peranco he's getting his love now um you know his role is so hard um i mean i could list off 10 more guys i think there's a lot of guys that don't get enough love around you know as we're having this conversation in the the middle of august it's like the one-year anniversary of the offer sheet offer sheets rather that shocked the world when you first heard about it what went through your mind like you guys just offer sheeted roberg and holloway robert thomas hears about it and says what i was shocked um you know it's something that doesn't happen too often yeah um especially to get the players it was it was incredible.

Did you think you were getting both? I didn't think we were getting either, to be honest. I remember getting some text messages from guys, especially guys that played them in the playoffs in the finals, and they said how incredible of players they were. And, you know, knowing a couple of the Oilers, I knew how good a guys they were as well. So I was so excited.

And when we officially got them, it really helped our team quickly. You're a thoughtful guy And you, like, understand the game at a very high level. How do you see hockey right now in the NHL? I'll sort of couch it this way. I was talking to a coach earlier this season, and I asked him and said, How often does the game change?

And he said, about every five years. And, like, I'll go look back at a game from, like, 10 years and it looks different. 15 years ago, it looks different. How do you see the game right now? Any patterns, trends, anything that you notice? Yeah, I think the last bunch of years, hockey's just gotten so fast.

You know, teams are flying up and down the ice, especially lately, you know, Florida's had great success the last two years, so a lot of teams are trying to implement their strategies and systems. They're not a fat. They have a couple guys that can really go, but like...

They play fast. They play fast, but like, if you look at, they're skating like there's no McDavid's out there no but as a team they're able to move the puck fast they're they're smothering teams um yeah I think you know players have gotten so fast and so skilled that

there's almost you know of times to slow it down there's there's a lot that opens up if you can just be a little bit more patient and um I think that's where you see you know there's so many guys that have the assist totals have gone way up and scoring and um you know a lot of guys are slowing it down even though the game's gotten so much faster. You know, for a while there, hockey was, you know, bluntly table hockey.

But he had the lane and it was just up and down and super fast. And some, there's some old school coaches that's still like that. It was almost like, I'll tell you, it was almost like the whole NHL was doing that except the Sedeans. They're like the only guys going east and west. And it was like, you'd hear, you know, the broadcast, be like, Henrik to Daniel, to some guy who's got an empty net. Like, that's just like, they were just like so creative because they're the only one. one's doing that.

Do you find the game is swinging back more to East-West, even though it is faster than ever? Yeah, I think it's honestly, you know, conference-based. I think each conference has a different style of play. Still, hey? Yeah, I noticed it, especially our division is just, it's just rough. Every night, you know, every team's trying to play a forechecking game, a possession game.

You know, you get into some of the Eastern Conference, you notice a lot of east-west, a lot of rush games. So I think it's more kind of conference-based. But you can tell everyone tries to follow the trend of who won last year and trying to adapt to their systems and the way they play. It's always interesting. That's what's so cool is the game. I feel like it changes every two years.

It used to be very much a thing. And I'll be honest with you, it really shut down in a lot of ways, trades with the fencemen from the east of the west. I think everybody noticed. it right away. It was a fascinating phenomenon. I just don't know that it's really true anymore and how much Eastern Conference and Western Conference

is more similar or more different. But you think it changes every two years, eh? Is that just a skill and speed thing? I think so. I think the way teams try and play, like if I look back over my career, you know, when we won, we were heavy behind the net. Teams started to play behind the net a lot.

Then you look at Colorado one, now everyone's rolling three, four. high. Now, you know, Florida's been winning. So it's five men in the rush deer playing forwards. It's all over the place. Yeah. That's the stuff I kind of notice when I say it changes every couple years. Yeah. And, you know, you look at production and how different guys thrive in different areas of when the game's kind of changing. So it's kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny you mention like the high ice phenomenon. I mean, when it started to become a thing, I'm like an old school guy who's watched hockey and I always get like nervous.

about like the turnover under the blue line but you guys are so comfortable with it I mean that's just betrays how skilled this game is right now just like the first time I saw like breakouts up the middle of the ice like no no breakouts to the wall

the game's different yeah the game's all different what kind of game do you like playing like what's like the sweet spot of the bat for Robert Thomas I love possession games I love when you're able to tilt the ice forward

make the team feel like they're they're struggling to get your red line. Make it hard for them to even get it in your zone. And when they do get it in your zone, they don't have enough pressure to maintain it. So those are the games that, you know, it feels like you can never get tired because you're always pushing up the ice.

And that's when you have the most fun. You mentioned a division a couple of seconds ago, man, that's a hard division. Like that's, it's a steady diet of like, here's Dallas, here's Colorado, here are the Winnipeg Jets Minnesota Wild Now they don't have

You know that Not in salary cap Jail anymore Like all of a sudden Like watch them And they've And they've you know Punched above their weight

For a number of years Like It seems like there's no easy games Is that the way it feels? Definitely Even throughout the league Like every night is so hard It's so hard to win

It doesn't matter who you're playing against There's no easy games You see What you would consider Upsets every single night that's that's the fun in it i love being in the central i think we all try and play a similar style and try and beat each other up and it's uh it's a blast every night what's it like playing against me i just got to ask you bluntly uh what's it like playing against nathan

mcannon like he's the closest thing i always look at him and say like if you were allowed to dress a rhinoceros in the in the n hl it would be nathan mcannon yeah that's him like when he gets ahead of steam oh yeah what do you do. It's hard. Yeah. I'm watching from my couch. You're on the ice with him. I try and pass him off to Parenko every time I see him winding up with speed. But it's incredible how powerful he is. Not only skating laterally and like in the zone, he's flying around. He stops. He loves going up high and it's hard to contain him. But that's the fun challenge about it. But yeah, there's few guys that can can move. Obviously, his stickwork matches his feet, but it's a fun challenge.

What did you notice about the Winnipeg Jets last year? That's a tough series, man. Yeah. No, it was like watching that series and looking back on it. I mentioned it to one of the guys I ran into. I can't remember who it was, but I was like, I don't know how you guys played two days after. Like, I was stuck on my couch for two days. I couldn't get up.

I was so sore. That was, you know, the way they played, they're hard-nosed. They're very well-structured. They play as a team and obviously have a great goalie. So, you know, we know we can beat them, which is great. It gives us a lot of confidence moving forward. And, yeah, that was a melee out there every game. How is it being dead?

It's amazing. It's, uh, everyone talks about, uh, how great it is, but it's, it's even better than that. Yeah. When you experience it. The, uh, and I, I experienced it too, becoming a, God, it's 15 years ago now. Um, you're never more tired and more happy. Yeah. I'm probably sure you, you've heard that.

And now you understand it. Like, is that the way it feels to you? Like, yeah, it's tiring. But man, I'm so happy. Yeah. Uh, obviously, it's a, it's a ton of work. But, um, yeah, I think every. you know, especially during the summer, you talk about family time.

Like, it's, it's so special. You know, during the year, you get afternoons after the nap and you try and make the most of it. But just to have, you know, weeks on end that you're able to spend with the little girl is so special. And everyone talks about once they start walking, you want them to just not be walking so you can hang out with them. But, yeah, she's motoring around and running away from me all the time now. take it from someone who knows eventually they start talking back yeah enjoy this while you have it yeah thanks so much for us really appreciate it appreciate it I'm going to be able to be.