NHL Trades and Rumors
Will Tarasenko be Traded Before July 17 Expansion Draft Lists are Due?
The St. Louis Blues might be trying to trade Vladimir Tarasenko before expansion draft lists are due July 17th. That’s going to be challenging.
Reports surfaced Thursday that forward Vladimir Tarasenko has informed the St. Louis Blues that he would like to be traded. It’s not a new request, but it’s new information to the public, many of whom figured the Blues might shop the former 30-goal man. Now that’s it’s become well known Tarasenko is spearheading a trade, does it change the optics of a deal or put pressure on the Blues to get something done?
Related: Vladimir Tarasenko Requests Trade From Blues, Where He Might Wind Up
Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Blues Dispatch believes Blues GM Doug Armstrong may try and put a rush on this deal. He suggests the Blues will try to move Tarasenko before the July 17 expansion draft trade freeze (July 17-21) so as not to complicate his own expansion draft protection list.
This won’t come without challenges. First, interested clubs might prefer waiting until after the expansion draft to acquire him. Other teams don’t want to complicate their own lists either and any team that acquires Tarasenko would certainly need to protect him. Second, the haste in which a deal would need to be done removes any and all leverage the Blues might have.
It’s bad enough that the winger is coming off three shoulder surgeries in two years and carries a $7.5 million annual average value for the next two seasons. So too, that he makes $9.5 million in actual salary for 2021-22 doesn’t help. If you then add the fact Tarasenko creates expansion draft issues and a team would need to put the pieces of a deal together in the next seven days, this trade goes from difficult to near impossible.
Could a One-For-One Deal Work?
These types of trades are rare in the NHL now, but the Blues best bet might be trying to ship Tarasenko off in a one-for-one type trade (maybe with a couple of draft picks included as well) to another team where St. Louis would be taking back their own forward. The math is much more simple that way. Whatever team the Blues would be dealing with are sending a forward they’d have protected in the draft. No lists change, other than to say that each team would be protecting a different name.
Some examples could be Evgeny Kuznetsov in Washington ($7.8 million) Johnny Gaudreau or Matthew Tkachuk in Calgary ($6.75 million and $7 million respectively), Phil Kessel in Arizona ($6.8 million), or Jakub Voracek in Philadelphia ($8.25 million).
These are the types of deals the Blues might have the easiest time making. All are scenarios where the player in question was rumored as potentially on the move this offseason and are situations where the team was likely to protect the player from the Seattle Kraken. These aren’t necessarily fair one-for-one swaps in a few cases, but the draft picks or salary retention can even things out a little.
Next: Maple Leafs Possible Interest in Taylor Hall a Distraction for the Bruins?
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