Senators winger Vladimir Tarasenko is widely expected to be on the move in the next few days with Ottawa well out of playoff contention. It appears there are several suitors for his services as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the Panthers, Hurricanes, Bruins, Rangers, Golden Knights, and Oilers are among the teams who have inquired about him with Florida being high on Tarasenko’s preferred list of options.
The 32-year-old has had a solid season with Ottawa, his first with them after signing a one-year, $5M deal in free agency. Tarasenko has 17 goals and 24 assists in 57 games so far, good for fifth on the team in scoring. Notably, he’s putting up those numbers with a bit less playing time than usual; his 16:03 is his lowest ATOI since his sophomore campaign back in 2013-14. Assuming Ottawa is willing to pay the contract down by the maximum of 50%, they’ll be well-positioned to land a quality return.
According to Garrioch, the return Sens GM Steve Staios is looking for a two-piece return in exchange for Tarasenko. One is a second-round pick and the other is a prospect.
There are two things worth noting on Tarasenko’s side. First is that he has full trade protection which means he has to sign off on wherever he’s going. The second is that he recently switched agents for the second time in less than a year, leading to speculation that he might want a contract extension as part of any swap to avoid what happened back in July when teams didn’t meet his initial asking price which is how he landed with Ottawa on a one-year fall-back deal.
Some of the above potential suitors would be hard-pressed to fit an extension for Tarasenko onto their books with their cap flexibility being limited to the final six weeks of this season, not next. If that’s the case, that could certainly whittle down the list of potential suitors in a hurry unless some of those teams decide to do that now and figure out how to make the fit work on the cap down the road.
A year ago, Tarasenko was viewed as one of the big fish heading into the deadline, resulting in the Rangers giving up a first-round pick to add him (and Niko Mikkola) for the stretch run. He isn’t quite in that territory this time around but for a team looking to add some secondary scoring, Tarasenko, a veteran of 97 career playoff appearances, could certainly be an impactful addition for a postseason contender.
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