{"id":132166,"date":"2022-09-14T11:00:55","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=132166"},"modified":"2022-09-13T23:50:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T03:50:03","slug":"vladimir-tarasenko-and-his-last-year-on-the-st-louis-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/09\/14\/vladimir-tarasenko-and-his-last-year-on-the-st-louis-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Vladimir Tarasenko and His Last Year on the St. Louis Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last summer when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/tarasvl01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vladimir Tarasenko<\/a> requested a trade from the St. Louis Blues, it felt like the world was crumbling. He\u2019d been a fan favourite for his whole career. He had helped lead the Blues to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2019. But now he wanted to leave? But after his third shoulder surgery, no one knew if he would bounce back or if he could be the same player he was. So, he stayed, and he put up the best offensive season of his career in the process. So, what\u2019s next for Vladimir Tarasenko in 2022-23 with the Blues?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"UpC9eqPDRrR1w-ROfePdgQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1398235768\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'UpC9eqPDRrR1w-ROfePdgQ',sig:'UtbbAgT0oguB-6EBpFWBxFELTmDqC1Mc6fZNaJJ5DWM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1398235768',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Vladimir Tarasenko 2022-23 Season: Last Dance in St. Louis<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It seems there\u2019s only one thing for Blues fans to do. That&#8217;s enjoy every moment with Tarasenko because it could be the last. Now that teams have seen him put up 82 points in 75 games, he could still be traded. The Blues could decide to wait until closer to the trade deadline, trying to get something for him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent next offseason. Or, he could walk for nothing next offseason. Not to mention with the recent <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/09\/13\/st-louis-blues-sign-star-forward-to-extension\/\" target=\"_self\">extensions<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomaro01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Robert Thomas<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kyroujo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Kyrou<\/a>, it\u2019s not likely the Blues will have the money to give him a similar or more expensive contract than his $5.5 million base salary and $7.5 million cap hit this season. Any way you spin it, he hasn\u2019t publicly rescinded his trade request so it doesn\u2019t look like there\u2019s much of a chance of him resigning with the Blues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it\u2019s picturesque to imagine him going out in style in his potential last season as a Blue, it doesn\u2019t seem likely just looking at the players that are likely to make the roster. The Blues seem worse in the goaltending department, losing backup <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hussovi01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ville Husso<\/a> and signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/greisth01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thomas Greiss<\/a>. They also seem worse in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/08\/16\/david-perron-st-louis-blues\/\" target=\"_self\">forward department<\/a>, losing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/perroda01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Perron<\/a> and signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/a\/acciano01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Noel Acciari<\/a>. They also stayed stagnant at defence, which is the area they needed the most improvement out of.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>What to Expect from Tarasenko This Season<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, what\u2019s realistic to expect out of Tarasenko this year? Knowing that it\u2019s a contract year for him will likely boost his play even more. He could top his career-best 82 points from last season, especially if he gets to play with Thomas and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/buchnpa01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pavel Buchnevich<\/a> again, who also put up career highs in points last season. He\u2019s 30 years old, so some would say he\u2019s out of his prime. But because he missed so much time after his shoulder surgeries, only playing a total of 34 games in the 2019-20 and 20-21 seasons, he could still have a successful NHL career for years to come. As long as he can stay healthy, Tarasenko might put on a show in St. Louis once again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, yes, it seems like the Blues didn\u2019t improve this offseason. But if their top forwards continue to get better, there could still be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/09\/26\/2019-20-st-louis-blues\/\" target=\"_self\">fun things<\/a> happening this season. And if Tarasenko ultimately goes on another tear, don\u2019t take a second of it for granted.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Report: Tarasenko asks Blues for trade.<\/p>\n<p>MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8kOqi0YsZA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/8kOqi0YsZA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wcyYXL43mb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/wcyYXL43mb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TSN (@TSN_Sports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TSN_Sports\/status\/1412954344123740160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 8, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last summer when Vladimir Tarasenko requested a trade from the St. Louis Blues, it felt like the world was crumbling. He\u2019d been a fan favourite for his whole career. He had helped lead the Blues to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2019. But now he wanted to leave? But after his third shoulder surgery, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2202,"featured_media":132194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,4547,4548],"tags":[2344,2366,1310,5865,716],"class_list":["post-132166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-jordan-kyrou","tag-pavel-buchnevich","tag-robert-thomas","tag-st-louis-blues-analysis","tag-vladimir-tarasenko"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}