With Tarasenko, Mikkola shuttled off, who’s next for the Blues?
Tarasenko #Tarasenko
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — Now that Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola are off the board and gone for the Blues, there’s one imminent, looming question.
What’s next?
After general manager Doug Armstrong dealt the forward and defenseman, respectively, to the New York Rangers on Thursday for forward and former Blue Sammy Blais, defensive prospect Hunter Skinner, a conditional 2023 first-round pick and a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick that can become a third if the Rangers make it to the playoffs this season, now the focus falls on the Blues’ remaining unrestricted free agents, or anyone else Armstrong and the management group deems expendable leading up to the March 3 trade deadline.
The Blues (23-25-3), who are nine points behind the second wildcard in the Western Conference and nine points behind third place in the Central Division, could now shift focus to players such as Ryan O’Reilly, whose contract expires at season’s end, or perhaps Ivan Barbashev, who at 26 certainly draws interest around the league, and/or veteran Noel Acciari or perhaps veteran goalie Thomas Greiss.
Those would be the logical players to be mentioned. But could there be someone else nobody’s even talking about? Don’t discount it.
Unlike Tarasenko, who asked to be traded in 2021 after events that led to him having a total of three shoulder surgeries that forced him to miss much of 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, O’Reilly has expressed his desire to remain in St. Louis beyond this season. But O’Reilly has a matching average annual value like Tarasenko at $7.5 million, and at 32, the Blues’ captain, unlike Tarasenko, has had open dialogue with his representatives at Newport Sports along with Armstrong.
But until then and if something does come to fruition, O’Reilly, who is coming off a broken foot that has seen him sidelined since Dec. 31, isn’t paying attention to the outside noise.
“There’s a lot of speculation, a lot of rumors, but honestly, I pay no attention to that,” O’Reilly said. “My focus is here. That’s stuff that we talked about this morning is we’re here, we’re trying to get back in the fight. Let’s control what we can control and that’s preparing for Saturday’s game and that’s kind of where it’s at right now. That’s what it is.
“It’s kind of in one ear and out the other. There’s always noise and rumors that fly around. I don’t have social media or anything like that, so it’s kind of nice, it’s people texting me stuff. I’m like, ‘I don’t know where you’re hearing this.’ I’m completely focused on getting us back into the fight. It was tough not being able to be with the guys and be there to help. I’m hoping I can be back soon and help contribute.
“I’d rather not share. I know you guys got to ask that stuff, but for me, I just want to focus on getting back, getting healthy and getting us back into the mix right now. I know you guys got to ask about that, but that’s my focus right now and I appreciate it.”
At the moment, that fight seems like a losing battle for the Blues, who have 10 games before the trade deadline. And no matter what the players or coaches say about focusing on the here and the now, the outside chatter is there and magnifies due to the team’s lackluster and underwhelming play this season.
“Yeah, all the time, you’re obviously concerned,” defenseman Colton Parayko said. “You want to keep a close-knit group and a group together. Kind of like we talked about, it’s part of the game, but I think that you never want to lose teammates and guys that become friends and things like that. It’s always fun being on a team with a lot of great guys. That’s what we have here for a long time.
“… Sometimes there’s always things, there’s always rumblings. It’s on every team, but it’s definitely there. It’s one of those things where we’ve just got to make sure that we come ready and come prepared. No matter when we throw that Bluenote on, we just got to make sure that we’re playing for each other. I think that’s the biggest thing to come to every game prepared and every game expecting to win. I think that’s the biggest thing, they throw the Bluenote on and they come prepared to win.”
The Blues have lost five in a row at the most inopportune time, which makes this last push to the deadline all the more obvious. Armstrong is no fool and has been down this rodeo before, and he will not allow assets to walk with no return, especially with the team floundering on a season where the postseason looks bleak, at best.
“It’s always a possibility with the situation we’re in,” center Robert Thomas said. “For us, we’ve got a chance before the deadline to prove that we’re still right there and we still got it. That’s the focus.
“(The noise is) part of it. You hate seeing it, but it’s a situation we’ve put ourselves in. We’ve got a chance to keep on pushing and that’s our focus.”
“It’s just noise,” center Brayden Schenn said. “That’s why we’re the players and not the GM, right? You come to the rink each day and put our gear on and go to work and worry about yourself, worry about the team and not worry about the coulda, shoulda’s. I’ve been on the trade block lots, kind of the times where I got traded when I wasn’t. You never know when it’s going to happen. It’s outside noise from speculation and media and people with rumors and all that. At the end of the day, we’ve got 10 games before the deadline to go out there and win hockey games. That’s all we can focus on.”
And the Armstrong has three weeks to decide if he is to keep O’Reilly now and in the future.
“Ryan’s our captain. I’m a big fan of Ryan,” Armstrong said. “He and I have talked behind closed doors and I’m going to keep it there. He knows how I feel about him.”
O’Reilly knows how his teammates feel, too.
“He’s obviously our leader and a guy that he doesn’t want to leave,” Schenn said. “That’s a guy that we love to have here as players and everyone knows that. That’s obviously no surprise. That’s between Doug and Ryan and his agents. These are obviously questions we’re going to face for the next little while. At the end of the day, you put on your gear and you go out and play and win hockey games. That’s all that matters. The rest usually takes care of itself. Obviously Factor’s a guy we’d like to have. He’s a huge piece to our team and moving forward.”