Expansion and Tarasenko for the Blues
Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The St. Louis Blues will go the 7-3-1 route for expansion.
Five forwards for sure will be Ryan O’Reilly, David Perron, Brayden Schenn, Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou.
Vladimir Tarasenko‘s trade request throws a little wrinkle. Do you protect a player you are going to trade or do you expose him and potentially lose his cap hit and gain nothing else?
Trading Tarasenko before the July 17th expansion list deadline is possible but the acquiring team may not be interested in doing so as they would then have to add him to their protected list. If he’s not traded before, the Blues will protect as they’d want some return for him.
On the blue line they will protect Torey Krug and Colton Parayko. Justin Faulk will most likely be protected over Vince Dunn.
Until his injuries, Tarasenko was a threat to shoot and score anywhere below the top of the circles, using his size and speed to get to dangerous areas.
This season he wasn’t nearly as dangerous. Should teams bet on a return to form? pic.twitter.com/n5PxTfOYCZ
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) July 8, 2021
Islanders, Rangers and Bruins may have interest in Tarasenko
Dave Lazar of the New York Post: Vladimir Tarasenko has requested a trade. He has two years left on his deal at a $7.5 million salary cap hit, to go along with a full no-trade clause. It’s not going to be an easy deal for the Blues to pull off given his past should issues.
The New York Islanders have been mentioned as one potential landing spot but they have just over $5 million in salary cap salary and a list of free agents they may be interested in re-signing.
The New York Rangers are another option. Tarasenko and Artemi Panarin are friends and share the same agent.
Joe Haggerty of Boston Hockey Now: The Boston Bruins are trying to re-sign pending UFAs David Krejci, Taylor Hall and Tuukka Rask.
Could the Boston Bruins be interested Blues winger Vladimir Tarasenko? Imagine a second line of Hall-Krejci-Tarasenko.
Being able to fit in Tarasenko’s $7.5 million salary wouldn’t be easy and they may not be on his trade list that he may have submitted to the Blues.
Given his salary and shoulder issues over the past few seasons, it will lower his trade value. There are several other star players on the trade market this offseason as well which may also lessen the acquiring cost. He still may not come cheap though.
Would it take a first-round pick, Jake DeBrusk, and maybe St. Louis native Trent Frederic to land Tarasenko?
What if the Bruins also tried to get left-handed Vince Dunn in the deal? He’s been linked to the Bruins before.