Daily Faceoff Live: What is Vladimir Tarasenko’s future in St. Louis?
On the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Mike McKenna and Frank Seravalli had a discussion with The Athletic writer Jeremy Rutherford about the current state of the St. Louis Blues. They talked about the hot starts from Vladimir Tarasenko and Jordan Binnington as well as early season struggles from the Blues’ captain Ryan O’Reilly.
Frank Seravalli: Pleased to welcome back to Daily Faceoff Live Jeremy Rutherford, who covers the St. Louis Blues for The Athletic. He comes to us from, what a great setup this is, from Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg. JR how are you doing?
Jeremy Rutherford: Doing great boys, how are you guys doing?
Frank Seravalli: Awesome, really great to have you. I want to start here with a 3-0 start for the St. Louis Blues. You know, I think one of the most interesting facets has been watching Jordan Binnington get off to a solid start. You think about the departure of Ville Husso and how that sort of created a little bit of a question mark for this team. Can Jordan Binnington be the guy to carry this team back to the playoffs? Can he carry the ball for as long as the Blues need it? And again, short sample size but so far JR the answer seems to be yes.
Jeremy Rutherford: Yeah, I told you last year when he was a sub .900 as the backup goaltender that he would have a .940 in the first couple weeks of the NHL season, you remember that. He’s played terrific, you know, the Blues had to have him play this way, that 6×6 contract and Ville Husso went on to Detroit as you guys touched on just a little bit ago. They didn’t have many options, they weren’t going to be able to move Jordan Binnington, and they needed him to rediscover himself and he has. Now again, you mentioned, a small sample size, we’re just talking three games, but his .940 save percentage is the fourth-best in the NHL right now among goaltenders that have played three or more games. That’s the thing, the Blues just haven’t played a lot yet, they were the last of the 32 teams to get underway, just three games, and No. 4 is underway tonight in Winnipeg.
Mike McKenna: JR, I think your sweater is amazing. Knowing you were coming on today to talk some St. Louis hockey I wore my Kirkwood Hockey shirt, thought you might like that. My question though is Vladdy Tarasenko looks like he’s still at the top of his game, he’s got six points in three games, two goals, dominating on the power play, but he’s in the final year of his contract and you’ve previously reported that there was a trade request, now dating back several years ago. When this season’s done or even towards the end of it does GM Doug Armstrong look at Vladdy Tarasenko and say thank you for your service and just let him walk? What happens here?
Jeremy Rutherford: Yeah Mike, it’s a situation that might end up like that, you know the trade request a year and a half ago is moot at this point, the Blues couldn’t find takers, at least to Doug Armstrong’s liking. Then you get into a situation where the guy puts up 82 points. Where are you going to get that kind of production from a guy making, I say only $7.5 million, but with guys making 9/10/11 in the league now. It’s a great season, he’s off to a great start, six points in the first three games. The Blues have scored I think 11 goals now and Tarasenko’s been a part of six of them. He’s off to another great start so you know, what happens at the end of this year? It remains to be seen because the Blues are tight against the cap, they need to re-sign Ryan O’Reilly as well, you could be talking about as little as $15 million left in salary cap space with 13 players under contract. That’s a lot to sign, so if you’re trying to bring back O’Reilly and Tarasenko that’s going to be tough for Doug Armstrong unless the salary cap does go up that $4.5 million that some people hope for. We’ll see, if it just goes up $1 million there’s no way they bring back O’Reilly and Tarasenko. At that point, you’re picking between your captain and the guy who has led the team in points a couple of years in a row.
Frank Seravalli: Yeah JR, I wanted to ask about Ryan O’Reilly because you mentioned all the goals the Blues have scored and at least officially on the scoresheet O’Reilly has factored into exactly none of them. No points in the first three games, of course, his game is about a lot more than just points but when you watch through the first three games, is there any chance that this contract could weigh on him being in that contract year? Everyone handles it differently, not everyone goes out and has a Johnny Gaudreau-type contract season where he blows it out of the water. Or do you think this is something that he’s not focusing on at all, it just happens to be he’s off to a slower start.
Jeremy Rutherford: Yeah, a couple of things Frank, good questions, I don’t think the contract necessarily bothers him, he said that early in camp they had some dialogue there’s no rush. It sounds like they are going to circle back, the two camps, his agent and the Blues in January. But you have a situation with Ryan O’Reilly, his offense has declined the past few couple of years, but he is still a player that brings those other intangibles that you talked about. Let’s just go back one game for example, the Edmonton Oilers, they shut out Connor McDavid that was O’Reilly’s line up against McDavid’s most of the game. McDavid finishes with just two shots on goal, they did a great job against him so I think that’s more his game. The other part through three games, he’s played on a line with Brandon Saad and Jordan Kyrou, Jordan Kyrou is not going to win the Selke Award defensively, O’Reilly’s gotta help there and Saad in a perfect world I think plays third-line with the Blues. Right now with the way they’re set up he’s got to play first-line. I don’t think there’s any chemistry going with that third line in St. Louis with Ryan O’Reilly.
You can watch the full episode here…