How the Vladimir Tarasenko trade impacts the Rangers and Blues organizational outlooks
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Vladimir Tarasenko is headed to MSG to link up with Artemi Panarin. We’re breaking down how this trade impacts the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers’ organizational outlooks.
New York Rangers
It’s been just over five years since Glen Sather and Jeff Gorton penned a letter to the Rangers faithful about the decision to take an asset-harvesting direction.
It’s paid off in spades - the Rangers have a top-five asset pipeline in quantity and quality, highlighted by a first and second-overall selection in back-to-back drafts. Last season was the first they operated in a draft pick deficit and this season, they will be doing the same having traded away one of their two first-round picks.
This is a team with a deep asset pipeline and is now beginning to monetize it, buying win-now talent with highly liquid assets.
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If we compare this move to the Tampa Bay Lightning model, it’s interesting as the Lightning continued to build up their asset pipeline to draft and develop a second core following their Stanley Cup Final defeat in 2015.
No two situations are the same but I’m usually a little cautious of rentals for teams I consider still in the building stage like the Rangers.
Looking at the Rangers’ cap flexibility, they have already committed 58.1% of their 2026 salary cap. Adding a player like Timo Meier doesn’t exactly make sense but I wonder if trying to find a guy like Owen Tippett who is still young, team-controlled, and one of the most liquid assets in the league could be another target.
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Conversely, I do think that this season is a good year for the Rangers to take the risk of splurging on a deadline rental. When looking at their contract makeup, they are in the last year of Alexis Lafreniere and K’Andre Miller’s entry-level deals. Filip Chytil is also expiring as an RFA this season. From this perspective, maximizing the surplus value of those contracts by bolstering the forward group for this year makes sense.
Tarasenko immediately gives them a bonafide threat on the right wing, an area of weakness for the Rangers without putting more stress on their future cap situation. And they didn’t dip too heavily into their asset pipeline so I am not too worried about the long-term effects of acquiring a rental that is a clear top-six scorer with built-in chemistry with their star player.
But make no mistake, the Rangers will likely have to dig into their asset pipeline even further to reposition their asset mix as contract decisions loom.
St. Louis Blues
Being one of the best teams in the NHL and winning a Stanley Cup has finally caught up to the St. Louis Blues. They are nine points out of a playoff spot with a 26th-ranked asset pipeline. Unable to uncover enough gems from the draft and free agency to keep the party rolling, the Blues are signaling to the league that, at least for this season, they are in asset-harvesting mode.
I say, at least for this year because I don’t see this as a full teardown for the Blues. They have 61.7% of their 2026 salary cap committed but $16.3 million is to foundational players that are still young and will likely exceed the value of their contracts in Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou.
What’s needed is an aggressive restocking of the asset pipeline for a couple of years so that they have the liquid assets to aid in moving on from some of their illiquid ones. From there, they hopefully have enough left in the asset pipeline to pair some drafting success with the acquisition of some key players to meet Thomas and Kyrou for their 26-year-old seasons.
It will take a ton of discipline and creativity to liquidate some assets and create cap flexibility. The Tarasenko and Mikkola trade is only the beginning.
In terms of the value they received, I think they did well to juice the return by retaining salary and adding Niko Mikkola. The flat salary cap headwinds have made it an unforgiving market for wingers and the fact the Blues were able to get a first-round pick is huge. The conditional 4th that turns into a 3rd if the Rangers make the playoffs is nothing to scoff at either. Hunter Skinner doesn’t push the needle too much but enters the asset pipeline as a young right-shot defender.
The Blues give themselves three chances at creating an asset that they can monetize. I don’t know if they could have gotten much more but the return is not disappointing. Compound enough of these moves and the Blues may be able to find themselves buying at the deadline like the Rangers in the not-so-distant future.