Speculation: What happens with Tarasenko now?

[Connor McConnor]

that's the million dollar question. and honestly, HE hasn't said anything... it's been all his agent,and what his agent has told JR (his personal mouthpiece at this point)

Do Blues fans even want to keep him at this point, even though he's started off well?

 

[RasmusAndersson]

to say at this time they're "slightly above average" is not correct, and to say they'll only be average is not correct either. at this time, they're very good. I expect them to be "above average" going forward. this is what happens when youngsters like Thomas and Kyrou progress and you add a 30+ goal scorer to your lineup, and swap a schwartz (who has been struggling to score in the reg season) with a Saad and Buchnevich

it's almost like rosters change from year to year

I agree they’ll end up being above average, just not a top-5 offensive team. Saying that it’s not correct to project them to regress to the mean is just ignoring multiple seasons worth of results in favor of a tiny sample size, which is just dumb.

Obviously through the first 5% of the season they’ve performed well above average, but it’s almost like the first 6 games are pretty meaningless?

Buchnevich is a huge addition, and you guys seem improved on paper from previous seasons, but with losing Schwartz and Hoffman (who you seem to forget was 3rd on your team in goals and points) it’s not like you’re suddenly a consensus top-5 (or even top-10) team. And this whole argument was because I said that losing Tarasenko wouldn’t hurt too badly because of all the young guys and additions that you mentioned

 

[RasmusAndersson]

I understand that perception started from a lower spot so will take more evidence to change thinking, but right now to give you an idea, there is an internal discussion by informed Blues observers about whether this will turn out to be the best offense the Blues have ever had in 54 seasons.

I get that and I’m honestly pretty high on the Blues for this year as well, I just think you guys are a solid all-around team with great offensive depth and a strong blue-line/ two-way forwards. But you don’t have the McDavid/Draisitl or Point/Stammer or Mackinnon/Rantanen etc. to be a top offensive team. Still above average though and with an elite matchup 1C in O’Reilly you can compete against those high-scoring teams, but not overpower them with offense

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

Do Blues fans even want to keep him at this point, even though he's started off well?

you'll get the odd fan perspective of "if he doesn't wanna be here..wah.." but most of us DEF want him to stay

doesn't mean it'll happen tho. he's a tremendous talent and FUN to watch. add in that 30+ goal scorers don't exactly grow on trees...

 

[PocketNines]

I agree they’ll end up being above average, just not a top-5 offensive team. Saying that it’s not correct to project them to regress to the mean is just ignoring multiple seasons worth of results in favor of a tiny sample size, which is just dumb.

Obviously through the first 5% of the season they’ve performed well, but it’s almost like the first 6 games are pretty meaningless?

Again I agree Buchnevich is a huge add, and you guys seem improved on paper from previous seasons

I get that and I’m honestly pretty high on the Blues for this year as well, I just think you guys are a solid all-around team with great offensive depth and a strong blue-line/ two-way forwards. But you don’t have the McDavid/Draisitl or Point/Stammer or Mackinnon/Rantanen etc. to be a top offensive team. Still above average though and with an elite matchup 1C in O’Reilly you can compete against those high-scoring teams, but not overpower them with offense

They are built a lot more like the Buffalo teams of the mid 2000s than they are around the traditional 2 top elite player offenses. They have an average defense, defensively, but it can move the puck and QB a PP very effectively. The Blues have one major weakness as currently constructed and that's they don't have enough collective defensive strength to withstand the momentum barrages like they had up until Bouwmeester saw his career dramatically end and Pietrangelo left in free agency. They're smaller and more mobile and more designed to feed an attacking offense than they are to defend against a team like Colorado on an offensive heater. It's this reason our fan base is looking closely at what happens with Lindholm as we see him right now as the #1 plausible acquisition target for what we need. The two main routes are either retain Lindholm and send Scandella back and keep Tarasenko for the playoff run or keep Scandella and create cap space for the acquisition by moving Tarasenko for a quality return which we see as a 1st + a prospect who fits quality-wise in the Neighbors/Bolduc/Kostin/Perunovich tier of players.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

I agree they’ll end up being above average, just not a top-5 offensive team. Saying that it’s not correct to project them to regress to the mean is just ignoring multiple seasons worth of results in favor of a tiny sample size, which is just dumb.

Obviously through the first 5% of the season they’ve performed well above average, but it’s almost like the first 6 games are pretty meaningless?

Buchnevich is a huge addition, and you guys seem improved on paper from previous seasons, but with losing Schwartz and Hoffman (who you seem to forget was 3rd on your team in goals and points) it’s not like you’re suddenly a consensus top-5 (or even top-10) team. And this whole argument was because I said that losing Tarasenko wouldn’t hurt too badly because of all the young guys and additions that you mentioned

traditionally the Blues are built to be a 'heavy' team and not a high scoring one is accurate. losing Hoffman and his scoring is one thing, schwartz has been trending down or a few years now and has not been a scorer for awhile. his value was being a tremendous puck hound. dude could forecheck.
but losing Hoffman and gaining back a healthy Tarasenko, Buch and Saad is an upgrade every day of the week. add in that, for some reason, Perron seems to be getting better as he gets older. dunno what that's about, but I like it!
if Thomas, Kyrou and Kostin keep progressing, all the better.

I agree that this team prolly won't be a top 5 point team, but they're much better than 'average'

 

[sfvega]

I do think it's kinda unfair that he's been professional and showed up, not had an attitude, played well, fallen in line, and our fanbase is basically like "Hey, he got over it." Like, he's doing what he should be doing and improving his trade value and we should still be shopping him because he made his intentions clear on wanting out. Unless his agent just went rogue and somehow didn't get put in his place or fired.

 

[RasmusAndersson]

They are built a lot more like the Buffalo teams of the mid 2000s than they are around the traditional 2 top elite player offenses. They have an average defense, defensively, but it can move the puck and QB a PP very effectively. The Blues have one major weakness as currently constructed and that's they don't have enough collective defensive strength to withstand the momentum barrages like they had up until Bouwmeester saw his career dramatically end and Pietrangelo left in free agency. They're smaller and more mobile and more designed to feed an attacking offense than they are to defend against a team like Colorado on an offensive heater. It's this reason our fan base is looking closely at what happens with Lindholm as we see him right now as the #1 plausible acquisition target for what we need. The two main routes are either retain Lindholm and send Scandella back and keep Tarasenko for the playoff run or keep Scandella and create cap space for the acquisition by moving Tarasenko for a quality return which we see as a 1st + a prospect who fits quality-wise in the Neighbors/Bolduc/Kostin/Perunovich tier of players.

traditionally the Blues are built to be a 'heavy' team and not a high scoring one is accurate. losing Hoffman and his scoring is one thing, schwartz has been trending down or a few years now and has not been a scorer for awhile. his value was being a tremendous puck hound. dude could forecheck.
but losing Hoffman and gaining back a healthy Tarasenko, Buch and Saad is an upgrade every day of the week. add in that, for some reason, Perron seems to be getting better as he gets older. dunno what that's about, but I like it!
if Thomas, Kyrou and Kostin keep progressing, all the better.

I agree that this team prolly won't be a top 5 point team, but they're much better than 'average'

Ya totally understandable. Agreed you guys are improved and better offensively, probably a top-10 team even. I also love Tarasenko and see him as a 30 goal scorer in the right setting, but if he wants out it may eventually force Armstrong's hand. Even though I agree I'd probably keep him for the time being and hold off on selling until a team offers up good value or a similar player swap with someone who doesn't want out. I doubt that you guys would get 1st+that level prospect back without taking back some significant cap tho

 

[PocketNines]

Ya totally understandable. Agreed you guys are improved and better offensively, probably a top-10 team even. I also love Tarasenko and see him as a 30 goal scorer in the right setting, but if he wants out it may eventually force Armstrong's hand. Even though I agree I'd probably keep him for the time being and hold off on selling until a team offers up good value or a similar player swap with someone who doesn't want out. I doubt that you guys would get 1st+that level prospect back without taking back some significant cap tho

It's very possible they'll have to take some salary back but I would also expect that player to be serviceable in the lineup and there to be enough $ difference to spend the savings on defense. If the serviceable player is a defender then they can ship Scandella when they acquire the LHD they'll be targeting. It's overall fluid enough to be workable however it actually shakes out.

 

[TK 421]

Doug Armstrong has pulled off some trades that you didn't think were possible until they happened. I'm not suggesting maneuvering this particular piece of business will be child's play or that Tarasenko has high value.

What I'm suggesting is that he's pulled a rabbit out of a hat dealing without leverage before and its resulted in huge adds to the Blues core group like Bouwmeester, ROR and most recently Buchnevich. Do not underestimate his ability to leverage assets like Tarasenko, Neighbours, Bolduc and the Blues 2022 1st. He has one critical lineup hole to fill and admittedly it's a big one, but he has the assets to get it done.

If Anaheim won't part with Lindholm then certainly he can turn his attention elsewhere and find at the very least a suitable target that would meet the minimum requirements (heavy D zone starts, play 20+ minutes a night, strong defensively, can play a shut down role with Parayko bumping Scandella to 3rd pair).

If/when he finds that LD the Blues instantly vault back into the serious contender group but obviously for the cap to work the Tarasenko situation has to be resolved first. Exciting time to be a Blues fan in any case.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

Ya totally understandable. Agreed you guys are improved and better offensively, probably a top-10 team even. I also love Tarasenko and see him as a 30 goal scorer in the right setting, but if he wants out it may eventually force Armstrong's hand. Even though I agree I'd probably keep him for the time being and hold off on selling until a team offers up good value or a similar player swap with someone who doesn't want out. I doubt that you guys would get 1st+that level prospect back without taking back some significant cap tho

will def be interesting to see what the return for Vladi is. If I had to guess, the return from a cap tight team (NYI for instance) would be different than one that has cap (NJD)
honestly, I don't even know what that would look like

 

[jjniner]

4 g’s and 4 helpers in 6 games!

 

[Linkens Mastery]

4 g’s and 4 helpers in 6 games!

I've always found it amazing that even tho he's a "sniper" he's always had an almost 1:1 goal to assist ratio.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

I've always found it amazing that even tho he's a "sniper" he's always had an almost 1:1 goal to assist ratio.

what's even crazier is our fan base watches the guy a ton, but doesn't recognize how good of a passer he is

and backchecks more than folks give him credit for as well

 

[Falco Lombardi]

Do Blues fans even want to keep him at this point, even though he's started off well?

Yes

 

[Matty Sundin]

I understand teams passing him. It’s a risk with his injury concerns past few years. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.

 

[samsagat]

Sooo funny we thought we had depth at wings here in Mtl.

Looking at STL, THAT is serious depth, WOW!!!

And we thought we had a good prospect pool. STL amateur scouts are putting Timmins gang in their back pocket... anyway everybody's putting Timmins in their back pocket.

As for Tarasenko, he'll stay put.

The guy's sooo talented. At 7,5 mil, healthy, it's a joke...

 

[ViD]

Tarasenko has got to join Washington

Ovechkin - Kuznetsov - Tarasenko

make it happen

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Gets traded to the best team that needs the most firepower.