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Should Seattle Circle Back On Vladamir Tarasenko?

August 18, 2021, 2:04 PM ET [13 Comments]
Sean Maloughney
Seattle Kraken Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The hockey world has been fairly quiet over the past couple of weeks with nothing but some RFA signings and smaller UFA moves being made. Most of the big trades and deals have come and gone and GM's are getting their golf games in now before getting ready to start right back up in early September.

The Kraken have all of their RFA's signed now with the exception of left defenseman Dennis Cholowski but expect that to happen soon. The roster appears set for Seattle. The defense and goaltending look strong and have the ability to perform at a playoff calibre but the forward group is still lacking proven scoring talent. As mentioned before, Vegas also lacked much talent with their roster with only three or four proven guys at the time; the rest of the development happened from players cashing in on elevated ice time. Still, if Seattle wanted to make one last big splash, they may want to circle back on Vladamir Tarasenko.

Tarasenko has two years remaining on his deal with an AAV of 7.5 million. Over the past two years Tarasenko has played a total of 34 games, putting up 7 goals in those games. Prior to that Tarasenko was a regular 30+ goal scorer and one time 40 goal scorer. His injuries have derailed his career but to make matters worse it has been according to Tarasenko, the way the Blues handled his injuries that have caused his biggest concerns.

Right now Blues GM Doug Armstrong has stated that he does see a scenario where Tarasenko does put on a Blues jersey again. It could happen but if Tarasenko is that disgruntled and refuses, it puts St. Louis in an even worse position. Teams might be interested in Tarasenko but not at that cap hit and certainly not without seeing him in game form again.

So back to the matter at hand, should Seattle circle back on the once prolific goal scoring winger? At expansion Seattle had the opportunity to select Tarasenko but instead went with the young Vince Dunn, a good move in my opinion. Dunn is far younger and currently tracks as a legitimate top four defender.

Right now the Blues have just over 1.5 million in cap space with one RFA left to sign in Robert Thomas. That should be enough to get the job done unless they want to try and go long term with the forward who had a down season in 20/21. The Blues don't need immediate cap relief from getting rid of Tarasenko.

From the Seattle perspective, it looks like the Kraken don't have any desire to trade draft picks or prospects right now. Ron Francis needs to wait and see what this team looks like on the ice for 15-20 games before making any new evaluations on whether they should be trying to add now or continue to draft and develop through the draft and smart free agency signings. I don't see the two parties as trade partners right now. The only way I see a Seattle/St Louis connection on Tarasenko is if the Blues and Doug Armstrong feel they need to have him out before the season begins. If the rest of the league is balking and won't offer up more than a second round pick for Tarasenko, Seattle could come in and offer a 2nd round pick and be willing to retain most if not all of his contract in the deal.

While a right wing, Tarasenko does shoot left which could give Seattle the option of running a forward core like below:

Schwartz-Gourde-Eberle
Tarasenko-Wennberg-Donskoi
Jarnkrok-McCann-Appleton
Tanev-Geekie-Blackwell
Bastian

I see this overall as fairly unlikely but as the season draws closer it will be interesting to see what is coming out of the Blues and Tarasenko's camp to see where their levels of desperation are at. Ultimately my bet is on Tarasenko playing for St. Louis to try and raise his value so he can move on.
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