September 18: Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that general manager Doug Armstrong expects Tarasenko to be a member of the team when the puck drops on the NHL regular season. Trade options will continue to be explored to honor Tarasenko’s original request, but he’ll be expected to be a contributing member of the squad for now.
September 8: The St. Louis Blues are still one of the most interesting teams to watch this offseason. Despite a public trade request and a hot stove that was on fire earlier this summer, Vladimir Tarasenko still hasn’t been dealt. Training camp opens in just a few weeks and members of the team, including head coach Craig Berube, are now starting to have to explain how they’ll treat him like any other player should the season open with him on the roster. This isn’t how it was expected to go, but a trade involving the oft-injured sniper was always going to be difficult.
One of the biggest hurdles in any transaction is Tarasenko’s contract, which carries a cap hit of $7.5MM this season and next. It also includes a full no-trade clause, and though the 29-year-old winger is obviously willing to waive that for the right situation, contending teams would be hard-pressed to find enough cap space to fit him in. That’s where a middle man comes in, as reports had previously surfaced about teams–including the Seattle Kraken, up to the expansion draft–that would be willing to retain some of the salary as a go-between for a Tarasenko trade. We saw plenty of transactions like that at the deadline this season as teams struggled to deal with the flat salary cap.
At least one team is still willing to do just that for the Blues and whoever is interested in Tarasenko, according to Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest. He believes that a third team would be involved if a Tarasenko deal does eventually happen, though gives no indication of which teams would be involved.
There are already 15 teams that have at least $80MM committed to this season, and though some of them will have more flexibility than that implies thanks to long-term injured reserve, none of them really could add Tarasenko at his full $7.5MM cap hit without moving out some other salary. Without a third team taking on some of the cap hit, that doesn’t leave a huge market for a player that has played just 34 games over the last two seasons.
At this point, Tarasenko is a member of the Blues, and unless something changes in the next few weeks, it will be on him to report to camp and prepare for a tenth season in St. Louis.
It’s really too bad the Blues and Vlady can’t kiss and make up. It would be great to see a healthy Tarasenko play for us rather than against us. If he must be traded, please to the east.
I would feel the same way – IF, I were convinced that he is healthy.
Get over it. He IS healthy. Shoulder is FINALLY fixed. He is going to score somewhere between 25-35 goals for the next 5 years or so
He is Tarasenko after all. It’s not like he is a heavy hitter at all. He relies on his quick wrist Easy opponent to minimize I would think
Tarasenko to Buffalo makes sense. They need cap to reach floor. Barring cost that is.
F him. Called out the coach. Called out the trainers. F that guy. Called out teammates. Wants to be Captain somehow
Captaincy is earned and RoR did just that. Earned it and won the damn Conn Smythe! I like tarasenko and what he brings, but I want him off of my team as of yesterday dammit
When a player makes a trade request the GM’s response should be to talk to the coach and to look for an internal solution. If a solution cannot be found, then the GM should turn around and tell the player that he needs to prove his market value on the ice.
Tarasenko should return to the lineup and prove he is able to play, then the team can decide at the trade deadline whether they want to trade him.
@W H Twittle I think that is what army is doing right now Vladimir’s stock is low and his list doesn’t help, if he really wants out of stl then he needs to stfu lace up them skates and go out and play like the player he think he is. If he does that it will make army’s job a lot harder (if he’s producing at that level come deadline and we’re in the thick of it can’t really trade him then) but if he has a good year this year he won’t be a blue come the start of the 22 season