2:34 PM: The trade has been made official.
2:16 PM: A fourth round pick is also going to St. Louis. (Dreger)
2:11 PM: Prospect Hunter Skinner is reportedly going back to St. Louis. (Weekes)
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2:10 PM: The Rangers are also believed to be acquiring 6-4 defenseman Niko Mikkola as part of the deal.
Mikkola, 26, is a left-shot defenseman that has three assists in 50 games this season, 96 hits, 68 blocked shots and averaging 16:39 per game. He is a pending UFA and has a cap hit of $1.9 million.
2:07 PM: The Rangers are trading one of their first-round picks this year, a prospect and Blais for Tarasenko. (Staple)
1:57 PM: It has been confirmed that Tarasenko is heading to the Rangers and Sammy Blais is reportedly going back to St. Louis. (Rutherford, Pagnotta)
1:38 PM: The Rangers are reportedly trading for Vladimir Tarasenko from St. Louis, according to Frank Seravalli.
Tarasenko, 31, is a pending UFA and has 10 goals and 19 assists this season.
Tarasenko has a no-trade clause and it had been reported that he would waive it to join the Rangers.
Tarasenko has played with Artemi Panarin for Russia during the 2016 World Cup, 2015 World Championships and 2011 World Juniors.
He has 41 goals and 19 assists in 90 career playoff games and had 11 goals and 6 assists, with 90 shots on goal, when St. Louis won the Cup in 2019.
1:38 PM Adam Rotter: I will always remember watching the 2010 NHL Draft and hoping that as he fell, because of “The Russian Factor” that the Rangers were going to nab Tarasenko at #10. Instead they took Dylan McIlrath and Tarasenko lasted a few more picks and went to St. Louis. Tarasenko certainly would have added a different element to the 2013-2016 Rangers, but instead he starred for and eventually helped St. Louis win the Stanley Cup.
In Tarasenko the Rangers get a legit top-six offensive forward and one who has also won a Stanley Cup. He hasn’t been as good this year as he was last year, when he was coming off multiple injuries, but he’s also wanted out of St. Louis for quite a while. I imagine that he will most likely jump to the right side of Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, though I guess it’s possible that the Rangers try Panarin and Tarasenko with Vincent Trocheck and Chris Kreider and Jimmy Vesey go with Zibanejad or Panarin, Zibanejad and Jimmy Vesey stay together and Tarasenko bumps Barclay Goodrow down to the fourth line.
It is interesting that they made this deal with three weeks to go before the trade deadline, but I guess Chris Drury wanted to act quickly and not lose out on Tarasenko as they wait for Patrick Kane to make up his mind on what he wants to do.