Wild acquire veteran winger Vladimir Tarasenko from Red Wings

Tarasenko, 33, is a four-time All-Star and two-time Stanley Cup champion. He's heading into his 14th NHL season. Last year with Detroit, Tarasenko scored 33 points (11 goals and 22 assists) in 80 games.

The Wild are taking on the remaining one year and $4.75 million left on Tarasenko's contract, according to Michael Russo. That cuts their cap space down from close to $18 million to around $13 million for the start of free agency, when they're expected to target a center. This is the first year that GM Bill Guerin and the Wild have had significant cap space to use since buying out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

A native of Russia, Tarasenko was drafted in the first round in 2010 by the St. Louis Blues. He debuted in the 2012-13 season and spent parts of 11 seasons with the Blues, scoring at least 33 goals and 66 points in six consecutive healthy seasons from 2014-15 through 2021-22. In total, he recorded 262 goals and 553 points in 644 regular season games with St. Louis. Tarasenko won the Cup with the Blues in 2019.

Over the last few seasons, Tarasenko has bounced around quite a bit, spending time with the Rangers, Senators, Panthers, and Red Wings. He won a second Cup with Florida in 2024. The left-shot winger will look to have a resurgent season with Minnesota in 2025-26. He'll presumably be in a top-six role, though it'll be interesting to see what other moves the Wild make and how their lines end up shaking out.

This move gives the Wild a third Russian player on their roster, along with superstar Kirill Kaprizov and Yakov Trenin. 21-year-old Danila Yurov could be a fourth Russian in Minnesota's forward group.