The Wild have acquired winger Vladimir Tarasenko from the Red Wings in exchange for future considerations, Detroit announced on X. It does not appear the Red Wings are retaining any of Tarasenko’s $4.75MM cap hit for the final season of his contract.
Tarasenko had an eight-team approved trade list as part of the two-year, $9.5MM deal he signed with the Wings in free agency last summer. It’s not clear if Minnesota was on it – he may have waived the clause to facilitate a trade after an incredibly trying lone season in Hockeytown. The two-time Stanley Cup champion and All-Star couldn’t hang onto a consistent top-six role with the Wings, and his 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games amounted to the worst scoring pace of his 13-year NHL career.
The Wild are betting on a rebound and will essentially complete this deal in lieu of making a free-agent addition on the wing tomorrow, preferring to land a more conservative short-term commitment from Tarasenko instead of making a long-term splash on the open market.
Tarasenko will return to the league’s Central Division, where he previously spent 11 seasons and won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues. Tarasenko was perhaps the Blues’ best prospect in the 2010s. He joined the team via a draft-day trade in 2010 that sent high-end selection David Rundblad to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for the 16th-overall pick. St. Louis used that to reel in the top Russian prospect that year, kicking off a decade of close attention surrounding Tarasenko.
The bulky right-winger continued on in Russia’s KHL for three seasons following his draft year. He reached point-per-game scoring in the latter two years, with 70 points in 70 games, before making a move to the NHL partway through the 2012-13 season. Tarasenko’s travel to the United States was closely followed, and fan excitement was vindicated when he scored two goals in his NHL debut. Tarasenko went on to pot 10 points through his first eight NHL games, en route to a season-long total of 19 points in 38 games.
Tarasenko immediately carved out his role in the NHL with that hot start. He’d be promoted to the Blues’ top-six in 2013-14 and began a long streak of routinely rivaling the team’s scoring title. Tarasenko scored at least 30 goals and 60 points in six of his first nine years in the NHL, with his only misses coming on the back of inexperience or long-term injury. His career peaked with 40 goals and 74 points in the 2015-16 season, then again in 2021-22 when he scored 34 goals and 82 points in 75 games.
Tarasenko moved on from the Blues partway through the 2022-23 season. He’s appeared with four different clubs in the three seasons since, and struggled to find the same flashy scoring he boasted in a Blues jersey. Twenty-three goals and 55 points scored in 76 games last season stand as the most Tarasenko has scored away from St. Louis, though he tumbled all the way down to 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games this year.
It is on the heels of that down year — the lowest-scoring season in Tarasenko’s career, excluding injury-riddled years — that the flashy Russian will move to the Minnesota Wild. He shot at an abysmal 8.3 shooting percentage last year, over four percent lower than his career-long average of 12.6 percent. That mark should give Wild fans some hope that Tarasenko can find his way back to the scoresheet with a change of scenery. He’ll slot into a comfortable role on the team’s third line behind Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy, though a hot hand could push him back into the Wild’s top six. That upside, and Tarasenko’s career-long average of 30 goals and 65 points a season, will make him an exciting upside bet. And with only future considerations headed the other way, and a manageable $4.75MM cap hit, Minnesota will take on that upside bet with little risk.
As for the Red Wings, they free up that space and now have over $23MM in cap space heading into free agency tomorrow, per PuckPedia. With Patrick Kane as their only pending free agent expected to command a significant payday, they’ll have the flexibility to match the highest offers for their desired targets. They’ll presumably be looking to add at least one high-profile defender to pair with Simon Edvinsson or Moritz Seider. The Wild, meanwhile, still have $13MM to spend this summer.
PHR’s Gabriel Foley contributed significantly to this article.
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports.
Guerin should be focusing on the blueline, After Faber, And Brodin It’s thin.
Bro he literally just got a Top 6 forward for free, what glue are you sniffing?
If last year is any indication the Tarasenko is no longer a top 6 forward.
Surgeon, Brodin, Faber, Middleton, Buium, and Jiricek. Looks like a pretty solid 6 at the Blue line to me.
The Wild don’t need an aging forward, That plays well only when the mood strikes him, It’s not a need, The blueline needs the most attention right now for Minnesota, Especially when competing in the best division in hockey, Climb out of the vodka bottle, And maybe try to find gainful employment this afternoon.
Very true.
Stupid auto correct. I meant Spurgeon not surgeon.
Middleton is a depth defender at best, Jiricek can’t crack the line, And Buium is a year or so from being in the lineup everyday, Spurgeon can’t stay healthy, And he’s criminally overpaid.
saying Middleton is a depth defender proves you have no clue what you are talking about about
@Pyramid – Tarasenko isn’t a top 6 forward LOL! He hasn’t been one in the past few years.
The question should be what glue you’re sniffing because you’re clearly on something if you think Tarasenko is still a top 6 forward haha?
Wilf, you recently stated that the worst thing an NHL team can do is win. After setting the bar so high with that world class beauty, you will be hard pressed to reach the top of the mountain again but, based on the quantity of your posts just on this forum, it is good to see that you are going to make the effort.
Now I am going to be hearing Weird Al singing “like a Spurgeon”.
It’s interesting how Tarasenko has been passed around like a hot potato in recent years, he used to be amazing.
22/23 – Blues
22/23 -> Rangers
23/24 -> Ottawa
23/24 -> Florida
24-25 -> Detroit
25-26 -> Minnesota
Very true, He’s lazy, And plays well when he feels like it. He’s like an NBA player.
#accidentallyracist
Only if you think all the NBA players are Black! In that case, you would be #Purposelyracist!
Considering Luka Doncic was basically a poster child for laziness after being traded last year ‘cuz the guy couldn’t lay off the Budwesier and Cheetos…I think being so quick to point fingers at someone while reaching pretty far to infer racism says more about the person pointing said finger
The idea of NBA players being only about $ without the “work” or playing through injury has been around ever since black Larry Bird was hooping
That said
It is rare you find a hockey player openly discussed as being lazy or “me-first”, the culture of the sport and locker rooms doesn’t create too many of the sort or allow it to go unchecked. Tarasenko has had that reputation ever since he broke into the league, and his Team Log represents it quite well the last half dozen years
Watching him with the Wings, he is very slow getting off his shots. Add that to his no defensive contribution and good luck!
I don’t think it’s accidental.
Spurgeon is good and buium and jiricek are two solid d prospects.
Spurgeon is good, just undersized; That gets exposed in the playoffs when the game slows down and becomes more physical (and his injury history is starting to reflect that). Brodin is very good, but is not a ‘physical’defenseman; he really avoids contact, again, something that shows up in the playoffs. He will be missing the start of the year after recent “upper body” surgery. Back, neck, shoulder, who knows, but he obviously won’t be at “peak” form at the start of the year.