Why not just pull a Kotkaniemi and offer sheet the guy. Would come much, much cheaper for you in terms of value.

The Leafs don't have the cap space to make an offersheet STL won't match

Leafs don't have the cap and will have to massively overpay for St. Louis not to match

Not enough cap space.

Edit: I see that everyone beat me.

Then just leave it. No point targetting and potentially overpay a player you can't afford imo.

Leafs need Robertson to be good and he is cost efficient. Really don't see the purpose of acquiring a 3rd line centre. Lots of centres available for 2.8m without giving up 3 assets.

Thomas is not a center at the NHL level, he wasnt even a full time center in Jr

I don't know what his deployment was like for Hamilton but Thomas centered Kyrou and Hoffman for about 10 games at the end of the season. Before that he was centering Hoff and Blais, and at times pushing Bozak to the wing to center him and Hoff, even if he wasn't taking every draw. The Blues are already using him as a center, and it's definitely his long-term projection.