It's been almost silent on the Vladimir Tarasenko issue, as he has not been claimed by the Seattle Kraken and still has not found a new niche somewhere in the NHL. Doug Armstrong seems unable to pass his Russian forward to anyone... Tarasenko's desire really seems to be to leave the Blues, but so far he's still firmly entrenched in Missouri.
A reader wrote to me this morning asking if any news about Tarasenko had leaked out and if the possibility of him landing in the KHL was plausible. First, I answered the first question in the introduction, and then, as for the second, you should know that it is not possible for Tarasenko to join a KHL organization for the next two seasons.
The explanation is simple, the NHL and KHL respect each other's contracts... At the time of composing this post, there are two years left, at 7.5 million on average, on the deal that Tarasenko signed on July 7, 2015. That's a big average salary certainly for a player who has played just 34 games in the last two years.
On the other hand, he had 10 points in 10 games in 2019-20, then flashed the red light 33 times during the 2018-19 schedule. The 29-year-old remains a formidable scorer, scoring 218 goals in 531 games so far. If he's fully healthy, he can certainly help a team, especially since the Blues seem willing to retain some salary.
