Adam Oates watches a lot of hockey. Perhaps, he even watches the most hockey.
“I don’t think anybody watches more hockey than me,†Oates said with a laugh. “It’s impossible.â€
The former Blue and Hall of Fame forward turned personal skills coach counts more than 30 clients in the NHL currently, and Oates said he watches every game throughout the season for all of his clients. Among them are Blues forwards Brayden Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich.
And of course, Robert Thomas, who is heading to his first career All-Star Game this weekend in Toronto as the Blues’ lone representative. Through the first 49 games of the season, Thomas had 17 goals and 35 assists to lead the Blues in both categories.
As Thomas has racked up numbers at a career-best pace, Oates has been watching.
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Thomas is a relatively recent Oates protege, and Oates said he wasn’t sure how Thomas ended up in his grasp — outside of Schenn and Buchnevich, Matthew Tkachuk also uses Oates. It’s also almost certain that this season’s Hart Trophy winner is an Oates client, as he serves Nathan MacKinnon, Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid.
“Guys that I work with, they’re just looking for 1% more,†Oates said. “How can I get a little better, right? I really enjoy that myself because that’s all I ever wanted when I played. Someone make me better, that’s it. We’re all pretty dedicated. We want to stay in this game. We want to win. We want to have success. That’s what I’ve always done is try and make them a hair better.â€
Oates isn’t there to overhaul a player’s game so much as he’s there to highlight the best parts of what they do and clean up tiny areas. When he takes on a new client like Thomas, Oates will watch a few games on video and look for habits.
“I like to think I know the game pretty good and I know what everybody wants on a particular time of play, a particular decision,†Oates said. “Whether the coach wants the guy to get the puck out, you’re going to battle the (defenseman) net-front, win a faceoff, shoot a puck, pass a puck, all the things that happen every single shift.â€
It also just so happens Thomas is cut from the same cloth as Oates was when he was a player.
Oates, as you’ll remember, was part of the dynamic Hull and Oates tandem in ºüÀêÊÓƵ with Brett Hull. Hull scored the goals. Oates set him up. Thomas is a similarly gifted passer with elite vision, puck protection skills and passing ability.
“Those are my favorite players,†Oates said with a laugh.
Thomas’ DNA will always be as a pass-first guy. It’s why the Blues drafted him in the first round of the 2017 draft. It’s why he had a decorated junior career. It’s why he made the NHL as a teenager. It’s why the Blues committed to an eight-year contract worth $65 million with him.
But this season, Thomas has developed into a threat shooting the puck. Before this season, his career high for goals was 20 during the 2021-22 season, and he’s certain to pass that in the final 33 games of the season, perhaps even before February ends.
Asked whether getting Thomas to shoot the puck more was a topic of conversation, Oates said, “Not so much that, but what I’ll tell you is that if you run good routes, you’ll get more opportunities to shoot.â€
“What I like to watch with guys is: Do they run the right routes?†Oates said. “It’s funny how when guys do — which is not as easy as people would think, it’s not — guys who run the right routes seem to touch the puck the most. When you touch the puck the most, good things happen to you.â€
For the right-handed Thomas, one of his most common routes is entering the offensive zone on his offside, pulling up at the hash marks on the boards and then swiveling to find a teammate in the middle of the ice. It’s a variation of how he picked up a secondary assist Sunday against the Kings, when he found Scott Perunovich entering the zone, and he touched it to Jordan Kyrou for a Blues goal.
“I think he had (that route), I think we’ve talked about it and tried to accentuate it,†Oates said. “His assist (Sunday) was basically what you’re talking about, right?
“He’s coming in off his offside, and when you think about a lot of players in our league, a Nikita Kucherov, a (Artemi) Panarin, a Patrick Kane, (Leon) Draisaitl, they come in on their offsides a lot, which me personally, I like because you have a lot of options and then you have to make the right decision at the right time. He got the puck, saw the guy coming late, put it on his tape. Beautiful.â€
To Oates, vision isn’t so much a God-given talent but more a product of other skills leading to seeing the ice well. It’s about puck protection. It’s about puck control. It’s about creating time for yourself. Then he delivers an analogy most will be familiar with.
“Everyone drives the car now with a cellphone in their right hand, don’t they?†Oates said. “Everybody looks down at their phone, and every single day, everywhere you go, you see accidents. Everywhere. Why? Because it breaks their concentration of driving. They thought they had more time than they did.
“So the No. 1 principle for me is you have to learn how to control the puck faster than that guy. If you do, you have more time. When you have more time, you’re a little bit more relaxed and you see more plays. That creates vision.â€
Thomas does that well.
“If you’re moving and you’re moving fast, there’s only a certain split-second of time that the puck needs to be delivered, something Robby’s really good at,†Oates said.
Thomas’ emergence as a true No. 1 center this season has been one of the biggest storylines this season for the Blues, who are counting on Thomas becoming a star in order to lead the franchise into its next iteration.
For now, he can enjoy the weekend as an All-Star for the first time in his career.