HENDERSON, NV — Robert Thomas had a front-row seat for the panic wrought by his general manager on the Edmonton Oilers. And he couldn’t be happier.
The St. Louis Blues star was having a post-workout lunch at Gary Roberts’ training camp with four core Oilers — Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, and Darnell Nurse — on Aug. 13 when all the NHLers’ phones blew up with news of the surprise moves.
Blues GM Doug Armstrong had hit the Oilers with a double offer sheet of restricted free agents Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg, setting in motion a successful plot to swipe two of the Stanley Cup finalists’ more promising youngsters.
“A couple of them were just looking at me like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ I was so happy. You couldn’t take the smile off my face for 20 minutes,” Thomas, still grinning, recounted for a taping of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast at the Player Media Tour.
“Hey, you gotta go after the best in West.”
Thomas is a native of Aurora, Ont., not far from where Roberts runs his gruelling annual summer camps and where McDavid & Co. have been regulars.
Thomas said he was aware that Armstrong had an interest in Broberg, a promising young defenceman, and Holloway, who appeared in 25 playoff games during the Oilers’ run to the final.
But even Thomas was caught off-guard… in a good way.
“I was having a great time,” Thomas said.
“They weren’t too happy. I teased them for a couple weeks.”
