Rangers Land Proven Scorer in Tarasenko With Early Shopping

Good morning and happy Friday, February 10th.

Put your hand up if you predicted the Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild game would have the largest margin of victory in yesterday's poll 🙋. The Flames vs. Red Wings and Canucks vs. Islanders were both 1-goal affairs whereas the Golden Knight laid a 5-1 smackdown on the Wild last night.

The New York Rangers filled two holes with one trade Thursday when they acquired Vladimir Tarasenko in a high profile deal with the St. Louis Blues.

New York general manager Chris Drury gave up a first-round pick in 2023, a conditional fourth-round pick, veteran Sammy Blais and prospect Hunter Skinner for Tarasenko and defenseman Niko Mikkola.

Tarasenko fills a need for a right wing scorer to play in the top six and 6-foot-4 shutdown defenseman Mikkola (139 NHL games) gives the Rangers the added depth they sought on the blue line. The Blues retained 50% of Tarasenko’s $7.5 million to help fit the deal under the Rangers’ salary cap.

The Rangers own two first-round picks because they received one by trading Nils Lundkvist to the Dallas Stars. The Blues will get the Rangers’ pick that lands latest in the round.

The trade was completed 10 days after the New York Islanders acquired Bo Horvat and 22 days before the NHL trade deadline.

With two big names already off the trade board, the big question now is whether it might trigger more early shopping by GMs. The Metropolitan Division-leading Carolina Hurricanes continue to explore the trade market.

The Rangers looked at the possibility of acquiring Timo Meier or Patrick Kane, but decided this was their best option in terms of cost and value.

Drury declined to speculate on how New York coach Gerard Gallant will use Tarasenko; It seems logical to try him initially with fellow Russian Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad. Tarasenko has 10 goals and 19 assists for 29 points in 38 games this season. However, he’s a six-time 30+ goal scorer.

Rangers waived Libor Hajek and demoted Will Cuylle to Hartford to create the roster room for Tarasenko and Mikkola.

🚨Canucks' Beauvillier scores late game-winner against his former team. Anthony Beauvillier's first goal as a member of the Canucks was a timely one, scoring on the power play with just 3:02 remaining in regulation to put the Canucks up 6-4 over the Isles. Islanders' forward Noah Dobson scored with 49 seconds remaining to keep things interesting and ensure his old teammate Beauvillier registered the game-winner — what a guy?! Former Canuck Bo Horvat scored his 33rd of the year and added an assist on Dobson's late goal, but neither were enough as the Isles lost 6-5 in their first matchup since the trade.

🛴 Flames' Rasmus Andersson day-to-day after he was hit by a car on a scooter. The 26-year-old Swedish defenseman was on his way to meet teammates for dinner in Detroit Wednesday evening when he was hit by a car as he was going through a crosswalk on a scooter. Andersson was taken to the hospital for testing before being released later that evening. Flames' GM Brad Treliving confirmed no alcohol was involved and Andersson is "doing well and in good spirits" while adding "it certainly could have been a lot worse." Hopefully, next time Andersson will pony up a few extra bucks from his $27.3M contract to pay for an Uber.

In 2011 the Russian World Junior team came back from being down 3-0 to Team Canada in the third period of the championship game to win the gold medal 5-3. Russia's captain, Vladimir Tarasenko, set up what current NHLer for the game-winning goal with less than 5 minutes remaining in regulation?

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Vladimir Tarasenko setup Rangers' teammate Artemi Panarin for the 2011 WJC game-winning goal. Jump to 7:02 of the video below to watch the goal 👇