Inside the home of Robert Thomas is a replica Stanley Cup sitting on a desk. It’s a conversation piece, a reminder of career accomplishments and something his guests inevitably drink out of during house parties.
“I mean, it’s only like a good half sip,” Thomas said, laughing. “But it’ll do the job.”
Thomas lifted the actual Stanley Cup in 2019 with the St. Louis Blues. He was a rookie then. He’s an NHL All-Star now. He admits that the championship feels “forever ago” to him.
“I was pretty lucky my first year. So I was kind of going into every year thinking I’ll be in the Cup Final or winning it all. And now, a couple of years later, we haven’t gotten close,” he said. “I’m just itching to get another chance at it.”
He was a 19-year-old supporting player who skated 13:07 per game in the Blues’ Stanley Cup run. Now in his sixth season, Thomas is the leading scorer for St. Louis with 69 points in 62 games, playing 20:53 on average.
His general manager, Doug Armstrong, said there’s “no question” Thomas is a No. 1 center in the NHL. Armstrong followed through on that praise by giving Thomas an eight-year contract with an average annual value of $8.125 million in July 2022.
This is the first year of that $65 million contract. Armstrong has called it an investment in Thomas’ future; and like any investment, he wants to see it mature. Before the season, Armstrong said he wanted to see Thomas go from being an offensive standout to a complete NHL center.
“It’s the 200-foot game,” the GM said. “It’s a tough task. You’re going against [Auston] Matthews. You’re going against [Sidney] Crosby. You’re going against [Anze] Kopitar. His job is not only to play with those guys, but to outcompete them and outperform them. But the belief in Robert has never been higher that he’s ready for that challenge.”
Thomas accepted the challenge.
“I put a big emphasis on it this summer. Improving the 200-foot game. And I knew I was gonna be matched up against top lines all year long. If I didn’t work on that side of it, then we wouldn’t be doing too well,” he said. “I feel like I’ve taken a big step defensively, but obviously there’s always room to grow.”
The results have been impressive. Through 62 games, the Blues have a goals-against average of 1.93 at 5-on-5 when Thomas is on the ice, the best rate for any St. Louis player with at last 30 games played. He’s starting to get mentioned in Selke Trophy conversations.
“Since I’ve been here, he’s been an outstanding player for us. He sees some real tough minutes and he seems to be thriving on it,” Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. “The offensive side comes easy to him. The defensive side, for any skilled hockey player, that’s the one thing that lags a little bit. But with Robbie, we’re starting to see him really mature into a good two-way hockey player here.”
Thomas’ commitment to defense started with self-reflection about who he is as an NHL player. He’s been a top scorer for the Blues over the past three seasons and is on track for the highest points-per-60 minutes average of his career (3.2). But he’s not Connor McDavid or Crosby or Nathan MacKinnon as a scorer. And he’s OK with that.
“I wouldn’t say I’m an offensive guy that’s one of the top [scorers] in the league. There are guys that can just make so many more plays and score and use their speed and different things than me,” Thomas said. “So you look at different ways to kind of get better. For me, it was defensively.”
To find that defensive game, he studied and learned from some accomplished two-way centers, taking parts of their games to build his own.
As a fan and an opponent, he admired former Chicago Blackhawks star Jonathan Toews, who was a Selke Trophy winner and a four-time finalist in his career. As a teammate, he learned plenty from Ryan O’Reilly, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP with the Blues. As a student, he’s worked with Hockey Hall of Famer and skills coach to the stars Adam Oates, who has also helped players ranging from MacKinnon to Matthew Tkachuk.
“There’s a lot of information out there, especially from guys that have played or are currently playing and everyone’s so happy to share their knowledge,” Thomas said. “You just kind of soak in as much as you can and try and find different pieces that work. Things like stick positioning from one guy, or the way you should turn to find guys coming into the zone from another guy. All that stuff.”
Is he ever surprised how many trade secrets veteran players are willing to share?
“Not at all. That’s what hockey’s about. It’s always about helping guys out. Older guys help the younger guys and younger guys help each other,” he said. “I mean, I’ve been in the league a little bit longer, so guys are coming to me for advice. And I’m like, ‘I don’t have the answers.’ So it’s kind of funny.”
But ultimately, the decision to fine-tune his defense has everything to do with success on the ice. As Armstrong said, Thomas is competing against some of the most elite offensive centers in hockey on a nightly basis. He has been tasked with outplaying them. Thomas takes that role seriously, even when the challenge is daunting.
“We had McDavid a couple of days after he had six points against Detroit. And I was like, ‘Try and stop that?'” recalled Thomas, who watched McDavid post three assists against the Blues. “But those guys were big parts of [my motivation]. I definitely need to get a lot better in order to compete with those guys.”
Thomas would love to compete against them in the postseason, but those hopes are fading. Entering Wednesday night, the Blues trailed for the final wild-card slot by six points and had just a 5% chance of making the playoffs, per Stathletes. The Blues have won a single playoff round since winning the Cup and missed the playoffs last season.
“Last year, we weren’t in the hunt at all, and it sucked. So I’m really happy this year just being in these pressure situations,” Thomas said. “There’s definitely emotional swings. That’s why we play the game. We love pressure, we love to compete.”
Few are competing harder, in both ends of the rink, than Robert Thomas this season.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.
Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.
“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”
Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”
He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.
“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”
While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.
Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.
Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.
“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”
Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.
“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.
“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”
As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.
“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”
Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.
It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.
“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”
In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.
“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”
The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.
“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”
Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.
“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”
Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.
The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.
Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.
Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.
Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).
The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.
Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.
Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.
Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.