The bulky right-winger continued in Russia’s KHL for three seasons following his draft year. He reached point-per-game scoring in the latter two years, with 70 points in 70 games, before making a move to the NHL partway through the 2012-13 season.
Tarasenko’s travel to the United States was closely followed, and fan excitement was vindicated when he scored two goals in his NHL debut. Tarasenko went on to pot 10 points through his first eight NHL games, en route to a season-long total of 19 points in 38 games.
Tarasenko immediately carved out his role in the NHL with that hot start. He’d be promoted to the Blues top-six in 2013-14 and began a long streak of routinely rivaling the team’s scoring title. Tarasenko scored at least 30 goals and 60 points in six of his first nine years in the NHL, with his only misses coming on the back of inexperience or long-term injury. His career peaked with 40 goals and 74 points in the 2015-16 season, then again in 2021-22 when he scored 34 goals and 82 points in 75 games.
Tarasenko moved on from the Blues partway through the 2022-23 season. He’s appeared with four different clubs in the three seasons since, and struggled to find the same flashy scoring he boasted in a Blues jersey. Twenty-three goals and 55 points scored in 76 games last season stand as the most Tarasenko has scored away from St. Louis, though he tumbled down to 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games this year.
It is on the heels of that down year — the lowest-scoring season in Tarasenko’s career, excluding injury-riddled years — that the flashy Russian will move to the Minnesota Wild. He shot at an abysmal 8.3 shooting percentage last year, over 4 percent lower than his career-long average of 12.6 percent. That mark should give Wild fans some hope that Tarasenko can find his way back to the scoresheet with a change of scenery.
He’ll slot into a comfortable role on the team’s third line behind Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy, though a hot hand could push him back into the Wild’s top six. That upside, and Tarasenko’s career-long average of 30 goals and 65 points a season, will make him an exciting upside bet. And with only future considerations headed the other way and a manageable $4.75M cap hit, Minnesota will take on that upside bet with little risk.
As for the Red Wings, they free up that space and now have over $23M in cap space heading into free agency Tuesday, per PuckPedia. With Patrick Kane as their only pending free agent expected to command a significant payday, they’ll have the flexibility to match the highest offers for their desired targets.
They’ll presumably be looking to add at least one high-profile defender to pair with Simon Edvinsson or Moritz Seider. The Wild, meanwhile, still have $13M to spend this summer.
PHR’s Gabriel Foley contributed significantly to this article.
