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Vladimir Tarasenko

St. Louis Blues Name Ryan O’Reilly Captain

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The St. Louis Blues not only lost a Norris-level defenseman but also lost their captain when Alex Pietrangelo decided to sign with the Vegas Golden Knights in free agency. Today, one of those things has been restored, with the Blues’ announcement that Ryan O’Reilly will serve as captain moving forward. O’Reilly will be the 23rd captain in franchise history and is joined by Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn, and Colton Parayko, who will serve as alternates. Blues head coach Craig Berube explained just why O’Reilly was the choice:

Ryan’s work ethic on and off the ice and his commitment day in and day out is second to none. He leads by example with how hard he works during practices and our games and he relays the right message from our coaching staff to our entire team.

O’Reilly, 29, has actually only been in St. Louis for two seasons but is already a franchise icon. The team’s second Conn Smythe winner, he led the Blues to the Stanley Cup in 2019 with a playoff-leading 23 points in 26 games. That followed a 77-point season, a career-high of O’Reilly, but it’s really not even his offense that is so important to the team. The 2019 Selke Trophy winner is one of the very best defensive forwards in the entire world, shutting down the middle of the ice while always among the league leaders in faceoff wins. He has received votes for the Selke in each of the last ten seasons, starting when he was just a 19-year-old for the Colorado Avalanche.

Not only does O’Reilly drive offense and shut down opponents, but he also almost never takes a penalty, recording just 106 PIM over his 804-game career, 46 of those coming in his first three seasons. He won the Lady Byng trophy in 2014 when he took just a single minor penalty, a feat he repeated in 2017-18. Though that lack of penalties isn’t a flashy stat, it’s more important than you might think given that O’Reilly is so important on the penalty kill. When it’s never him serving, he’s always available to take crucial defensive-zone draws for the Blues.

All of that makes O’Reilly one of the best players on the Blues, but his leadership off the ice and camaraderie with teammates also likely made this an easy choice for the coaching staff. With three years left on his contract, St. Louis has found their leader for at least the next few seasons.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Central Notes: Dubnyk, Bishop, Tarasenko

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With free agency approaching quickly, the buyout window opens up on Friday.  One player that has been a speculative candidate to be bought out is Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk.  He’s coming off a tough season that saw him post a 3.35 GAA and a .890 SV% in 30 games, numbers that aren’t good enough to justify his $4.33MM cap hit.  However, Michael Russo of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that at this time, Minnesota isn’t planning to buy the 34-year-old out.  With Alex Stalock outplaying him this season and Kaapo Kahkonen getting closer to being NHL-ready, it’s difficult to see where Dubnyk will fit for them next season but at this point, they’re not prepared to pay him to not play for them.

Elsewhere in the Central Division:

  • Stars goaltender Ben Bishop will not be available when they start the Stanley Cup Final tonight, relays Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). The veteran has had the designation for most of the postseason although he made a surprise start in the fifth game of their series against Colorado though he didn’t make it through a period before being pulled.  Jake Oettinger should remain Anton Khudobin’s backup until Bishop is cleared to return.  Radek Faksa and Stephen Johns remain out as well.
  • Blues GM Doug Armstrong told Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Vladimir Tarasenko’s shoulder surgery went well and that they believe the initial recovery timeline is intact. That would have him being evaluated sometime in February with a return coming after that.  Even if next season is delayed from the planned December 1st start date (a likely scenario at this point), it appears as if the winger will still miss some time.  Armstrong also added that “a couple” of other players underwent minor procedures although he declined to mention who or what needed to be done.

Vladimir Tarasenko Undergoes Third Shoulder Surgery

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Sep 9: Andy Strickland of Fox Sports Midwest reports that Tarasenko has undergone successful surgery with no complications. Now the tough part begins as the Blues sniper will begin his rehab in an attempt to return to action.

Aug 26: The evaluation is complete and it’s not good news for Vladimir Tarasenko. The St. Louis Blues forward will undergo another shoulder surgery next week and will not be re-evaluated for five months.

Tarasenko, 28, missed almost the entire 2019-20 season after suffering a major shoulder injury at the end of October. He played just ten games, but was able to work hard enough to recover in time for the return to play format. Unfortunately, after just four scoreless games in the bubble, Tarasenko returned to St. Louis for examination. This result puts the start of the 2020-21 season into question and may raise even more about his playing future.

There’s no doubt that when healthy, Tarasenko is one of the league’s top goal-scorers. Over a five-year span before this season he tallied 182 goals in 395 games, a total topped by only Alex Ovechkin (236 goals) and John Tavares (183). His pure power and lethal wrist shot have made him one of the most feared players in the league when the puck is on his stick.

Tarasenko has three years remaining on his current contract which carries a $7.5MM cap hit through the end of the 2022-23 season. He has a full no-trade clause.

Vladimir Tarasenko To Leave Bubble

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When Vladimir Tarasenko was cleared to return to action for the St. Louis Blues as the season restarted, it was a huge boost for a club looking to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. After suiting up just four times and being held scoreless, however, there was obviously something wrong with the superstar winger.

Tarasenko will now leave the bubble in Edmonton to return to St. Louis and consult with team doctors on his surgically-repaired shoulder. An update will be given next Monday, meaning he will not be available for the rest of their first-round series against the Vancouver Canucks.

The 28-year old winger missed games three and four against the Canucks, despite playing nearly 22 minutes in a game two overtime loss. Before the restart, he had last played on October 24, 2019, missing almost the entire 2019-20 season due to his shoulder surgery.

Snapshots: Kubalik, Gostisbehere, Tarasenko, Clutterbuck

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The Blackhawks have started preliminary talks about a new contract for winger Dominik Kubalik, reports Scott Powers of The Athletic (subscription required).  GM Stan Bowman recently met with Kubalik’s agent while in Prague and the expectation is that they will meet again before the season comes to an end.  The 24-year-old rookie has been a pleasant surprise in Chicago this year as he leads the team in goals with 29 and has certainly been worth the fifth-round pick they sent Los Angeles to get his rights last season.  Even though he’s only in his rookie season, Kubalik is arbitration-eligible this summer which will only make things that much more complicated.  A short-term deal given Chicago’s salary structure is the likely outcome here.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • Although Shayne Gostisbehere had been out with recurring knee issues, the Flyers still received some interest in the defenseman leading up to the trade deadline, reports Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post. However, GM Chuck Fletcher opted to hold onto the 26-year-old who has seen his offensive numbers fall off considerably this season as he has just a dozen points in 41 games which isn’t a great return on a $4.5MM AAV.  Gostisbehere is now healthy but is currently serving as Philadelphia’s seventh defender.  However, despite being out of the lineup for now, he indicated that he is happy to remain with the Flyers, the only NHL team he has played for.
  • Blues winger Vladimir Tarasenko will begin participating in contact drills on their upcoming road trip, notes Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. That’s a big development for the veteran who has been out since late October with a shoulder injury.  The expectation that he’d return late in the year played a big role in a quiet trade deadline for St. Louis but if he’ll be starting contact drills next week, he could be back a bit earlier than expected which would be a big boost for a team that’s already in the top ten in goals scored this season.
  • The Islanders announced (via Twitter) that they’ve activated Cal Clutterbuck off LTIR in advance of today’s game against Boston. The winger has missed more than two months due to a wrist injury sustained just before the holiday break.  While he won’t make a big difference offensively, the physical dimension he brings will certainly be welcomed for the stretch run.

Blues’ Armstrong Speaks On Chris Kreider Interest

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St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong met with the media today to discuss the quiet trade deadline, and eventually got to the subject of Chris Kreider. The Blues had showed interest in the New York Rangers winger, but Armstrong explained that they really couldn’t go down that path once they learned that Vladimir Tarasenko would be back this season:

The interest level waned quite honestly when we knew Vladdy was coming back. In a different world if I was managing the St. Louis Blues in the late-90s, yeah we would have been really interested. It’s only the owner’s money and I wouldn’t care about it.

But there’s a salary cap situation that is in place now. Knowing that to bring Krieder in knowing Vladdy is coming back we would have had to remove X amount of millions of dollars of contract to do that. We weren’t willing to go deep into our core group, upsetting the chemistry that we had for a potential short-term thing.

Armstrong would go on to explain that he’s not surprised Kreider would eventually sign a seven-year, $45.5MM to stay in New York. The speedy winger will be a core piece to build around for the Rangers as they look to jump into their next real competitive window.

For the Blues, Tarasenko’s return would have a huge impact on the team’s chances at defending their Stanley Cup championship. Armstrong is hoping the Russian star will be back for more than three or four games before the start of the playoffs, even saying “closer to twenty [games] than three, I’d be happy.”

The Blues were one of the only teams that were quiet at the deadline, and the executive explained that a big factor in that was not wanting to upset the chemistry the team has built. A “room full of champions” now, St. Louis is in first place in the Western Conference with a 36-17-10 record. While Kreider may have given them another weapon, they are already good enough to compete and contend for another title.

St. Louis Blues Sign Troy Brouwer

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The St. Louis Blues brought in two veteran forwards on professional tryouts last week in Jamie McGinn and Troy Brouwer. While McGinn was released from his PTO this morning, Brouwer has had better luck. The Blues have revealed that forward Sammy Blais will undergo surgery on his right wrist and is set to miss at least ten weeks. Taking his spot on the roster will be Brouwer, who the team announced has signed a one-year, two-way contract worth a pro-rated $750K.

While Brouwer unofficially began his second stint with the Blues last week, the team had to decide by Thursday whether or not to sign the gritty forward. Given the absence of Blais, as well as Vladimir Tarasenko and Alex Steen, the Blues clearly felt they could use the depth up front. Brouwer brings familiarity with the organization, having suited up for St. Louis back in 2015-16. In fact, that was the last season in which Brouwer cracked 25 points and was one of the more complete campaigns of his long career. A 13-year NHL veteran, Brouwer has developed a hard-nosed, two-way game that has proved dangerous in recent years with the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers, even as his overall offense dropped off slightly. Brouwer will be a nice depth piece for the Blues, who will take advantage of his experience and toughness in the bottom six.

However, Brouwer is not a seamless replacement for Blais. While the 23-year-old forward has a large frame and a physical style himself, Blais’ skating and offensive skill are superior to Brouwer’s at this point in their respective careers. In fact, Blais was enjoying a breakout season to this point, recording five goals and eight points through 20 games. That mark makes him a top-six scoring forward for St. Louis this season, a role than he has actually been playing more often since Tarasenko and Steen suffered injuries. The Blues will not expect Brouwer to jump in and play with the pace and scoring efficiency of Blais, but it is a convenient time for the team to be able to add a capable option to their forward corps.

Snapshots: Brannstrom, Komarov, Tarasenko

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The Ottawa Senators aren’t competing for the playoffs this season, even if a recent hot streak brought them a little more respectability—the team had won four of their last six before getting pummeled by the Carolina Hurricanes last night. No, this season is entirely about development as they look to turn the page on the old guard and install a new identity under rookie head coach D.J. Smith.

Because development should be their primary concern, Wayne Scanlan of Sportsnet examines how the team is using one of their top defensive prospects and suggests that Erik Brannstrom could benefit from a little more time in the AHL. The Senators are back in action tomorrow night against the New Jersey Devils, in a battle for the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

  • Leo Komarov has been activated from injured reserve by the New York Islanders, giving them another one of their veteran forward options for their game tomorrow. That game is against Komarov’s former team as the Islanders welcome in the Toronto Maple Leafs for the first time this season. The 32-year old forward is a versatile player and registered 26 points for the Islanders last season, but will be playing just his eighth game this year after dealing with injury for the last several weeks.
  • Speaking of forwards missing time to injury, St. Louis Blues sniper Vladimir Tarasenko spoke for the first time today and explained to reporters including Lou Korac of NHL.com that he’s not sure if he’ll be able to play again this season. Tarasenko underwent shoulder surgery on October 29th and will be re-evaluated in five months, but hopes he can come back sooner than expected like he has from previous injuries.

Vladimir Tarasenko To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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The St. Louis Blues have announced that star forward Vladimir Tarasenko needs shoulder surgery and will be out for at least five months. He will be re-evaluated at that time, though it means he will miss the vast majority of the remainder of the regular season. Tarasenko will be placed on long-term injured reserve.

This news is absolutely disastrous for the Blues, who are trying to defend their Stanley Cup championship but have already struggled with some inconsistency early on. The team is off to a 6-3-3 start, but will now have to continue without one of their best offensive weapons for much of the season.

Tarasenko, 27, was off to a great start with ten points in nine games before he was forced out of his tenth early on. The sniper had potted at least 33 goals in each of the last five seasons and was a huge part of the Blues’ powerplay. All of that production will now have to be replaced somehow, though if anyone has the depth to accomplish that it might be the Blues.

Not only does the team already have names like Alex Steen and Tyler Bozak playing smaller roles than they have in the past, but young forwards like Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Klim Kostin could be ready to make bigger impacts. Though Kyrou has dealt with his own injury troubles, he was recently loaned back to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves and should be approaching a return at some point soon.

There’s obviously no one player that can replace Tarasenko immediately, but given that he’ll be out for almost the entire season the Blues will actually gain the ability to acquire someone if they decide to go down that route. Placing his $7.5MM cap hit on long-term injured reserve will open up some financial flexibility that could lead to them being trade deadline shoppers. That is of course if they decide to try and add instead of sell, given that captain Alex Pietrangelo is still scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year.

Hopefully the team will be able to stay afloat during Tarasenko’s absence and still look like Stanley Cup contenders when he is able to return, which could be just in time for the playoffs given this early timeline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Vladimir Tarasenko Undergoes Arthroscopic Knee Surgery

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The St. Louis Blues have announced another surgical procedure, this time indicating that Vladimir Tarasenko underwent arthroscopic knee surgery today. He will be re-evaluated in four weeks. He joins Robert Thomas on the shelf with an injury, though both have not been ruled out for the start of training camp in September.

Tarasenko, 27, looked like his stay as one of the top snipers in the NHL was finished when he scored just 12 goals through the first half of the 2018-19 season, but like the rest of the Blues turned it around in the second half. Finishing with 33 goals—the fifth consecutive season he has cracked the 30-goal mark—Tarasenko rode a hot stick into the playoffs and posted another 11 postseason tallies, only trailing Jaden Schwartz’ 12 for the team lead. That silenced any trade talks that may have popped up in the first part of the year, and put him back on line to be a huge contributor for the Blues going forward.

In fact, Tarasenko represents one of only two players in the entire St. Louis organization that is signed for at least four more seasons, making him and Ryan O’Reilly the core the team must continue to build around. This summer will be a very interesting one for the Stanley Cup champions, who are looking at several restricted free agent negotiations—including rookie phenom Jordan Binnington—as well as potential extension talks with Alex Pietrangelo and Brayden Schenn. If the team wants to keep this group together they have some serious work to do, once of course the partying stops.

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