And . . . the great Retooling of 2023 is underway for the Blues.
General manager Doug Armstrong sent Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola to the New York Rangers for our old friend Sammy Blais, a first-round pick (likely in 2023), a fourth-round pick likely to upgrade to a third-round pick in ‘24, and fringe defensive prospect Hunter Skinner.
Tarasenko and Mikkola are playing with expiring contracts. Neither seemed likely to re-sign in St. Louis, so the sinking Blues traded them as rentals while starting to gather as many long-term assets as possible.
The Rangers have two first-round picks in 2023, theirs and the Dallas Stars’ pick. The Blues will get the later of the two. If the Stars' pick falls in the Top 10 pick this year – which is highly unlikely – then it moves to 2024.
In that case, the Blues would get the later of the two Rangers first-round picks in ‘24.
And if the Rangers qualify for the playoffs, which is highly likely, then the 2024 fourth-round pick bumps up to a third-rounder. Got all of that?
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Let’s break this down:
— This was a sad day for Blues fans. Tarasenko is one of the franchise’s all-time greats. Had he finished his career here while adding to his impressive career point totals, he surely would have gained his own statue outside Enterprise Center. His No. 91 would have surely hung from the rafters. Who could forget the shear joy he and his family exuded in the Stanley Cup parade? Alas, another stalwart from the Cup-winning team is gone and fans know that more painful subtractions are coming. Such is the cost of failure.
— Friction between Tarasenko and the team build as he struggled with shoulder injuries which took years to fix. His camp made some “trade me” noises two summers back, but nothing materialized until Thursday. To his vast credit, Tarasenko did not let lingering discontent impact his play. He produced a career season in 2021-22 and he kept firing pucks this year. He handled a difficult scenario quite professionally.
— This is a great short-term move for Tarasenko. He goes to New York to play for team with Stanley Cup hopes. He gets to play with his buddy Artemi Panarin, an elite playmaking winger. Tarasenko gets to boost his stock ahead of his unrestricted free agency this summer. The Blues are retaining 50 percent of his salary for the rest of this year to make the deal work. Creating the salary cap space to keep Tarasenko beyond this year would be difficult for the Rangers. But we’re guessing Vladdy will land in a good spot if the Rangers let him walk.
— The Rangers should be ecstatic about adding Tarasenko, who will improve their chances of making a deep run. And trading away Blais will help Rangers fans forget the disastrous trade that sent Pavel Buchnevich to the Blues for Blais and a second-round pick. Buchnevich quickly became the best all-around Blues forward while Blais blew out his knee.
— The standard return on this sort of rental trade is a first-round pick, a good prospect plus a guy who can play in the NHL. The Blues got two of those three elements while throwing in Mikkola, who is a middling asset at best. In a buyer’s market, with lots of talent for sale, that is a pretty good return. Timo Meier is up for sale and he is a superior asset. Patrick Kane could hit the market too. The first-round pick the Blues gained will almost certainly come in this deep 2023 draft. Between his many injuries, Blais has been a physical Bottom 6 winger with some scoring touch. He plays the style the Blues want to play and he should be a good cultural fit. Skinner is just a fringe prospect, a rangy right-shot defenseman who has split time between the AHL and the ECHL this season. But the Blues were nearly bereft of defensive prospects with pro experience.
— With Tarasenko and Mikkola off the board, forward Ryan O'Reilly and Ivan Barbashev are next up on the Blues' auction block. Both have expiring contracts. And it would not be stunning to see Armstrong move a player or two under contract beyond this season. The Blues aren't starting over from scratch, but they will undergo big, big changes after going in the tank this season.
