NHL Rumors: Chris Johnston on where things are at with Vladimir Tarasenko
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sdpn sports: Chris Johnston and Julian McKenzie on the Vladimir Tarasenko situation with the Carolina Hurricanes and changing agents.

McKenzie: “There’s a few names still looking for new homes. One name that I’m very intrigued about. Basically, call him the best available free agent out there right now in Vladimir Tarasenko.

It looked as if a couple of days ago he was being linked to the Carolina Hurricanes. Somewhere within all of that, whether it’s before or after, he ends up firing his previous representation and he’s now joined CAA with JP Barry and Pat Brisson, and he still does not have a home.

Let’s talk about Vladimir, Vladimir Tarasenko first. What can you tell us about that situation?

Johnston: “Well, I think what’s interesting about the agent change is that it basically reset the clock on what he was thinking in free agency. And so I don’t know that that necessarily takes any particular teams out of the running that were there before, whether it’s a team like Carolina or Ottawa, which had had conversations with Tarasenko’s previous agent when the market opened.

You know, I do think that the CAA agents are going in there kind of with a clean slate, not really aware. You know, what the offers exactly were, where the interest was, if that interest is still there because even though, you know, it’s only five or six days elapsing, obviously teams have committed some cap space that maybe has rendered some of their previous conversations, you know, not completely up to date.

And so, you know, it’s an interest one and I’m with you. I think it’s fair to call them the best available free agent. I mean, there’s still some younger players like Filip Zadina out there. Matt Dumba hasn’t signed as of this recording, but, you know,

Tarasenko while he’s certainly getting to a stage in his career, we’ve seen, you know, production drop off. He didn’t score as much as he would have liked after that trade to the Rangers last season. I mean, this is someone who’s consistently put the puck in the net, which, you know, is a much valued commodity in the NHL. It’s usually those types of players get paid. And even though he’s in his thirties, I would expect when this contract started, it’s not going to be you know, we’re not talking about a league minimum type of guy here. This is probably going to be a fairly significant commitment.

And so, we’ll have to see how long it takes now for a new agent to get on the file and get up to speed and, you know, help the player navigate it, but this will be one I would think they’ll probably try to get done relatively quickly if they can just because no player likes to be out of work, even if they’re pretty confident they won’t be come September.”