John Gove: Trading Tarasenko is no easy task

So, if I recall his cap hit is 7.5 million for the next 2 years. High, but I think there could be a deal there to be made. The Blues are not going to get a 30 goal scorer, and I am not sure how much power he has on a no trade but he was upset about not being named caption,I agree a change could do him good. Maybe a team like Pittsburgh, who needs a shake up themself would work.

good read John

only option seems is for the BLUES not to protect TANK in the expansion draft!

but...

I don't see him going anywhere... if TANK does gets hurt again this coming season and needs surgery again I would think that is the end and he will probably retire.

I am hoping O'Reilly is made available this off-season. He is EXACTLY what the Rangers need and can offer you a nice return should the Blues look to move him.

He goes to Seattle or he will be with us. He isnt going to take a trade to some bottom tier team and no competitive team will use their cap on him.

If he goes the team has some flexibility with Hoffman, Schwartz, Bozak contracts to possibly go after a bigger UFA name like Landeskog

Looks like leaving Vlad unprotected in the ex-draft is your only option unless he wants to be traded. Retaining some salary will be necessary unless St Louis takes a much lesser player in return. A tough spot to be in for a once elite player.

From a Pens perspective, Taranto would be really interesting. Love the player he was, with where the Pens are at not sure it's a risk they can assume. Of course what I would really be interested in is a Parayko trade.

How about Guentzel and Marino for Tarasenko and Parayko?

Guentzel for Tank and Kyrou?
Zucker & Petterson for Tank and Dunn?

I dont really know, just throwing stuff our there.

Tarasenko needs to be the one to go he's enormously talented, Under 30, And fun to watch, The reality Is he can't stay In the lineup. FYI O'Reilly Is the real tank on the Blues not the soft pretty boy Tarasenko.

I am hoping O'Reilly is made available this off-season. He is EXACTLY what the Rangers need and can offer you a nice return should the Blues look to move him.
- TommyGTrain

I've been saying this for awhile, and most Blues fans don't agree with me, but they need to rebuild. They can compete with some tweaks but they're not good enough to win the cup and won't be until they rebuild.

I'd trade O'Reilly 100%. He's a hell of a player and would improve any team. That's why he would be worth quite a bit.

I would leave Tarasenko unprotected. If he's not taken, you trade him as a rental at the end of his contract and hopefully get a first if he's playing decent enough.

Let Schwartz walk.

Trade Parayko for picks and prospects, he will be too old by the time they're competing for a cup again.

You hang on to Faulk and Krug, exploring trade options but likely keeping them throughout the rebuild. Give Dunn the opportunity for a bigger role.

On the forward group you look to sign Bozak short term, flip him at the deadline. Schenn becomes the main veteran while you let Kyrou and Thomas continue to grow. Give Kostin a shot.

Trade Perron as a rental.

Draft high the next couple of years along with the extra picks from the trades.

No way they win the cup again with this core, they're simply not skilled enough and past their prime.

Rutherford would probably have considered this. No chance Hextall & Burke would.

From a Pens perspective, Taranto would be really interesting. Love the player he was, with where the Pens are at not sure it's a risk they can assume. Of course what I would really be interested in is a Parayko trade.

How about Guentzel and Marino for Tarasenko and Parayko?

Guentzel for Tank and Kyrou?
Zucker & Petterson for Tank and Dunn?

I dont really know, just throwing stuff our there.
- MacPatty

Trade another couple draft picks for him. Pens have plenty to spare

If Vlad is willing to waive his NTC, I'd offer Tarasenko for Jake Voracek.

Philly gets faster and the sniper they desperately need.
Blues get a little bigger, a little more physical, and a playmaker who (for the most part) stays healthy.

Tarasenko's career is alarmingly starting to mirror Marian Gaborik's. I hope he can stay healthy and turn it around no matter where he ends up.

If he goes the team has some flexibility with Hoffman, Schwartz, Bozak contracts to possibly go after a bigger UFA name like Landeskog
- Gerk

LOL, you’re completely delusional if you believe the blues - or any other team for that matter - has a snowball’s chance in hell to sign landeskog. the avs will resign him before the expansion draft, he will not listen to any other offers because joe will get him locked up as soon as the season is over.

I've been saying this for awhile, and most Blues fans don't agree with me, but they need to rebuild. They can compete with some tweaks but they're not good enough to win the cup and won't be until they rebuild.

I'd trade O'Reilly 100%. He's a hell of a player and would improve any team. That's why he would be worth quite a bit.

I would leave Tarasenko unprotected. If he's not taken, you trade him as a rental at the end of his contract and hopefully get a first if he's playing decent enough.

Let Schwartz walk.

Trade Parayko for picks and prospects, he will be too old by the time they're competing for a cup again.

You hang on to Faulk and Krug, exploring trade options but likely keeping them throughout the rebuild. Give Dunn the opportunity for a bigger role.

On the forward group you look to sign Bozak short term, flip him at the deadline. Schenn becomes the main veteran while you let Kyrou and Thomas continue to grow. Give Kostin a shot.

Trade Perron as a rental.

Draft high the next couple of years along with the extra picks from the trades.

No way they win the cup again with this core, they're simply not skilled enough and past their prime.
- charlest

I don't understand blowing it up? One bad year? I think a few prudent moves and you are right there in the mix.

If you are trading O'Reilly or Parayko though, I guarantee you that the Pens would be all in. They are the exact type of players that the Pens will be looking for.

LOL, you’re completely delusional if you believe the blues - or any other team for that matter - has a snowball’s chance in hell to sign landeskog. the avs will resign him before the expansion draft, he will not listen to any other offers because joe will get him locked up as soon as the season is over.
- avsgrinder

Have you seen your cap situation? You probably can swing that if your bottom 6 forwards and bottom 3 dmen / goalie make close to minimum.

Landeskog is getting a raise, Makar is getting a huge raise and MacKinnon will be due a sizable raise in 2 years.

He goes to Seattle or he will be with us. He isnt going to take a trade to some bottom tier team and no competitive team will use their cap on him.

If he goes the team has some flexibility with Hoffman, Schwartz, Bozak contracts to possibly go after a bigger UFA name like Landeskog
- Gerk

Well after the 2 quick exits from the playoffs, maybe he wants off the bottom tier team.

Have you seen your cap situation? You probably can swing that if your bottom 6 forwards and bottom 3 dmen / goalie make close to minimum.

Landeskog is getting a raise, Makar is getting a huge raise and MacKinnon will be due a sizable raise in 2 years.
- Gerk

Cap situation is totally fine. Coming off the books this year:

Renouf ($700,000)
Burroughs ($700,000)
Nemeth ($1,500,000)
Tynan ($800,000)
Soderberg ($1,000,000)
Bellemare ($1,800,000)
Saad ($5,000,000)
Dubnyk ($2,1667,667)
Johansson ($700,000)
Calvert ($2,850,000)

*** Grubauer ($3,333,333) ***

*** Landeskog ($5,571,429) ***

[Erik Johnson = $6,000,000]

discounting EJ (who i believe we’re going to buy out or attempt to trade, though that’s conjecture atm), we have over $26 million coming off the books. take a look at that list of guys we’re “losing”; with the exception of landy and grubauer, not much in the way of essential core players. bellemare is an awesome role guy but can be replaced no problem if need be. saad always looked to be more of a rental for this season; guy’s still got it, but we fared fine without him.

$26 mil to work with, three players need to be paid.

Landy- 6 or 7 years at $8 to $8.25mil
Gruby - 3 to 4 years at $6 to $6.5mil
Makar- ??? (but still have between $10.5 and $11 million leftover after gruby and landy)

…additional space towards the cap is added when seattle takes someone like graves or donskoi or kadri, or even if it’s JT compher — unsure who’s going to be protected beyond a very obvious bunch (mackinnon, landeskog, rantanen, makar, girard, toews, grubauer).

soooo where’s the cap problem? and by the time mackinnon’s last two years are up, we have multiple supplementary guys coming off the books — will fit him no problem, too.

I don't understand blowing it up? One bad year? I think a few prudent moves and you are right there in the mix.

If you are trading O'Reilly or Parayko though, I guarantee you that the Pens would be all in. They are the exact type of players that the Pens will be looking for.
- MacPatty

The prospect pool is too shallow to keep it going. O'Reilly is almost 30. Parayko is late 20s. Tarasenko is done. Schenn is past his prime and Schwartz will be gone. Perron is getting old and keep this going. The team is missing a lot since the cup run and prolonging the pain to finish as a fringe team is a huge mistake IMO.

Cap situation is totally fine. Coming off the books this year:

Renouf ($700,000)
Burroughs ($700,000)
Nemeth ($1,500,000)
Tynan ($800,000)
Soderberg ($1,000,000)
Bellemare ($1,800,000)
Saad ($5,000,000)
Dubnyk ($2,1667,667)
Johansson ($700,000)
Calvert ($2,850,000)

*** Grubauer ($3,333,333) ***

*** Landeskog ($5,571,429) ***


- avsgrinder[Erik Johnson = $6,000,000]

discounting EJ (who i believe we’re going to buy out or attempt to trade, though that’s conjecture atm), we have over $26 million coming off the books. take a look at that list of guys we’re “losing”; with the exception of landy and grubauer, not much in the way of essential core players. bellemare is an awesome role guy but can be replaced no problem if need be. saad always looked to be more of a rental for this season; guy’s still got it, but we fared fine without him.

$26 mil to work with, three players need to be paid.

Landy- 6 or 7 years at $8 to $8.25mil
Gruby - 3 to 4 years at $6 to $6.5mil
Makar- ??? (but still have between $10.5 and $11 million leftover after gruby and landy)

…additional space towards the cap is added when seattle takes someone like graves or donskoi or kadri, or even if it’s JT compher — unsure who’s going to be protected beyond a very obvious bunch (mackinnon, landeskog, rantanen, makar, girard, toews, grubauer).

soooo where’s the cap problem? and by the time mackinnon’s last two years are up, we have multiple supplementary guys coming off the books — will fit him no problem, too.

Enough to sign those 3 but not field a full roster then.

If Vlad is willing to waive his NTC, I'd offer Tarasenko for Jake Voracek.

Philly gets faster and the sniper they desperately need.
Blues get a little bigger, a little more physical, and a playmaker who (for the most part) stays healthy.
- Nh_kong

I'd take it from a Philly perspective. Both teams need a shake-up. Both players need a change of scenery. Philly takes the risks on injuries - Blues take the cap hit/extra years.

Cap situation is totally fine. Coming off the books this year:

Renouf ($700,000)
Burroughs ($700,000)
Nemeth ($1,500,000)
Tynan ($800,000)
Soderberg ($1,000,000)
Bellemare ($1,800,000)
Saad ($5,000,000)
Dubnyk ($2,1667,667)
Johansson ($700,000)
Calvert ($2,850,000)

*** Grubauer ($3,333,333) ***

*** Landeskog ($5,571,429) ***


- avsgrinder[Erik Johnson = $6,000,000]

discounting EJ (who i believe we’re going to buy out or attempt to trade, though that’s conjecture atm), we have over $26 million coming off the books. take a look at that list of guys we’re “losing”; with the exception of landy and grubauer, not much in the way of essential core players. bellemare is an awesome role guy but can be replaced no problem if need be. saad always looked to be more of a rental for this season; guy’s still got it, but we fared fine without him.

$26 mil to work with, three players need to be paid.

Landy- 6 or 7 years at $8 to $8.25mil
Gruby - 3 to 4 years at $6 to $6.5mil
Makar- ??? (but still have between $10.5 and $11 million leftover after gruby and landy)

…additional space towards the cap is added when seattle takes someone like graves or donskoi or kadri, or even if it’s JT compher — unsure who’s going to be protected beyond a very obvious bunch (mackinnon, landeskog, rantanen, makar, girard, toews, grubauer).

soooo where’s the cap problem? and by the time mackinnon’s last two years are up, we have multiple supplementary guys coming off the books — will fit him no problem, too.

This paints an inaccurate picture of Avs cap situation. Example of Avs roster next year:

Rantanen 9.25
MacKinnon 6.3
Burakovsky 4.9
Kadri 4.5
Donskoi 3.9
Compher 3.5
Nichuskin 2.5
Ranta .925
Newhook .9
Kaut .86
Rookie/Vet Minimum .7
Rookie/Vet Minimum .7
Rookie/Vet Minimum .7


Johnson 6
Girard 5
Toews 4.1
Graves 3.1
Byram .89
Middleton .75

Francouz 2

That's a total of 61.5m, for a roster short of 1 forward, 1 defenseman, and 1 goalie. (Some of the younger players will likely be replaced by resigned guys like Jost, but Jost would make as much or more as the people on 2 way contracts he could bump off the list.) So Avs have 20m to sign Grubauer, Landeskog, and Makar given their current contract commitments and need to ice an entire roster.


Grubauer's going to be around 6m. Let's say Landeskog gets 8m. That means 6m to sign Makar.

So Avs choice this summer will really be to either keep Landeskog and give Makar a bridge contract in the 5-6m range that will result in him being up for a big raise around the same time as MacKinnon; paying someone draft picks to take some contracts off their hands; or letting Landeskog walk.
Their cap situation is not nearly as dire as say, the Lightning. But it is certainly not "fine" either. They have some tough decisions to make, and it is possible Landeskog will become a cap casualty this summer, with Avs choosing to prioritize depth over a few highly paid players, aka the Canadian One Round Roster model. (Sorry Toronto & Edmonton.)

Cap situation is totally fine. Coming off the books this year:

Renouf ($700,000)
Burroughs ($700,000)
Nemeth ($1,500,000)
Tynan ($800,000)
Soderberg ($1,000,000)
Bellemare ($1,800,000)
Saad ($5,000,000)
Dubnyk ($2,1667,667)
Johansson ($700,000)
Calvert ($2,850,000)

*** Grubauer ($3,333,333) ***

*** Landeskog ($5,571,429) ***


- avsgrinder[Erik Johnson = $6,000,000]

discounting EJ (who i believe we’re going to buy out or attempt to trade, though that’s conjecture atm), we have over $26 million coming off the books. take a look at that list of guys we’re “losing”; with the exception of landy and grubauer, not much in the way of essential core players. bellemare is an awesome role guy but can be replaced no problem if need be. saad always looked to be more of a rental for this season; guy’s still got it, but we fared fine without him.

$26 mil to work with, three players need to be paid.

Landy- 6 or 7 years at $8 to $8.25mil
Gruby - 3 to 4 years at $6 to $6.5mil
Makar- ??? (but still have between $10.5 and $11 million leftover after gruby and landy)

…additional space towards the cap is added when seattle takes someone like graves or donskoi or kadri, or even if it’s JT compher — unsure who’s going to be protected beyond a very obvious bunch (mackinnon, landeskog, rantanen, makar, girard, toews, grubauer).

soooo where’s the cap problem? and by the time mackinnon’s last two years are up, we have multiple supplementary guys coming off the books — will fit him no problem, too.

6 of those players that are coming off the books are making less than $2M, 3 of which are under $1M. Unless you are going to play 6 players short you need to replace them with similar salaries so there's really no savings. And buying out Johnson needs to be factored in as well.

So, if I recall his cap hit is 7.5 million for the next 2 years. High, but I think there could be a deal there to be made. The Blues are not going to get a 30 goal scorer, and I am not sure how much power he has on a no trade but he was upset about not being named caption,I agree a change could do him good. Maybe a team like Pittsburgh, who needs a shake up themself would work.
- BluesStrong

How do you know he won't be a 30 goal guy again? He hasn't had the chance yet to prove whether or not he will regain his scoring ability, and to give up on him now after he will finally have a healthy offseason and full year next season to get back to 100% isn't smart at all. There really isn't anyone too exciting in free agency either, you have landeskog, Ryan Nugent Hopkins and that's about it, so where are you spending that money? Also, we would be selling vladdy, a guy who was THIRD in ALL of the NHL in goal scoring over a 5 year period, and he was only one goal behind taveras for second, at an all time low in terms of value and what he can accomplish.. He's only 29, so in middle of his prime, only has two years left on contract, and we havent yet seen him with full healthy offseason and full year of games to make that determination of whether or not he's done being 30 plus goal guy. Also, people seem to forget how streaky he is and was, so let's see what he can do with a full 82 games first, and if it goes bad, he'd only have one year left on contract and wouldn't be that difficult then to dump him if it came to that, but I'll guarantee you right now, that if he can stay healthy next year, he'll put up 25 plus goals. We will revisit this next year, and I can tell you I told you so, given he stays healthy obviously, which you can say about every single player in nhl.

I've been saying this for awhile, and most Blues fans don't agree with me, but they need to rebuild. They can compete with some tweaks but they're not good enough to win the cup and won't be until they rebuild.

I'd trade O'Reilly 100%. He's a hell of a player and would improve any team. That's why he would be worth quite a bit.

I would leave Tarasenko unprotected. If he's not taken, you trade him as a rental at the end of his contract and hopefully get a first if he's playing decent enough.

Let Schwartz walk.

Trade Parayko for picks and prospects, he will be too old by the time they're competing for a cup again.

You hang on to Faulk and Krug, exploring trade options but likely keeping them throughout the rebuild. Give Dunn the opportunity for a bigger role.

On the forward group you look to sign Bozak short term, flip him at the deadline. Schenn becomes the main veteran while you let Kyrou and Thomas continue to grow. Give Kostin a shot.

Trade Perron as a rental.

Draft high the next couple of years along with the extra picks from the trades.

No way they win the cup again with this core, they're simply not skilled enough and past their prime.
- charlest

Who's past their prime?? Schenn, ror, vladdy, krug, Faulk, Schwartz, parayko, binnington, are all 30 or under and in their prime years NOW, only one over 31 is perron, and he just had career year who is member of our core. Parayko is what 27? That's a number of years where he's still in his prime. Lol this team was FIRST in the West before the bubble, and then injuries, covid, etc have affected us ever since. We have yet to really gain any traction and put same lineup consistently on ice since bubble. Can't believe people are giving up this easy already on this core and suggesting a full freaking rebuild. Lmao.