{"id":810111,"date":"2026-08-11T14:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T14:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/810111\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T14:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T14:04:11","slug":"free-agent-profile-vladimir-tarasenko-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/810111\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Agent Profile: Vladimir Tarasenko \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

After achieving the ninth 20-goal season of his career, winger Vladimir Tarasenko<\/a> is still looking for a new home for the 2026-27 season. Although there was some indication that he would sign an extension with the Minnesota Wild, Tarasenko changed<\/a> his representation in late June, indicating that he would test the free agent market instead.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the agency change has not proved fruitful. There\u2019s no argument that his value hasn\u2019t dropped over the past two years, but not nearly enough to warrant the lack of interest in his services. He\u2019s far from the 40-goal scorer he used to be with the St. Louis Blues, but Tarasenko remains a quality secondary contributor and has two Stanley Cup rings to his name.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Two summers ago, Tarasenko signed a two-year, $9.5MM with the Detroit Red Wings. The first year of the deal was a disaster, as Tarasenko didn\u2019t perform well in Detroit\u2019s system. He finished the 2024-25 season with 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games, leading to an offseason trade to the Wild for future considerations. He did much better in Minnesota, scoring 23 goals and 47 points in 75 games.<\/p>\n

Regardless, although he\u2019s far from a defensive stalwart, given that Tarasenko can still register 20 goals despite being on the wrong side of 30, has been largely healthy the past few years, and takes few penalties, it would make a lot of sense for a team to give Tarasenko a call. Depending on his asking price, it would be surprising if he doesn\u2019t find a new home next season.<\/p>\n

Stats<\/p>\n

2025-26:\u00a075 GP, 23 G, 24 A, 47 PTS, -11, 10 PIMS, 148 shots, 14:56 ATOI, 52.0 CF%
Career:\u00a0906 GP, 327 G, 382 A, 709 PTS, 50, 213 PIMS, 2,560 shots, 16:51 ATOI, 56.5 CF%<\/p>\n

Potential Suitors<\/p>\n

Leading up to the preseason, the two best options for Tarasenko are the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks. Both teams could use additional offense, and a short-term deal with Tarasenko would allow them to flip him at the deadline for future assets, assuming they are out of contention at that point.<\/p>\n

There are still a few more teams that could use additional offense on their roster, particularly in the middle-six, but don\u2019t have the cap space to pursue Tarasenko. Obviously, his market didn\u2019t materialize as he had hoped, but there\u2019s not a lot of indication that Tarasenko is headed for a professional tryout agreement. There are still several weeks leading into training camp, so a lot can change over that time.<\/p>\n

Projected Contract<\/p>\n

One of the best comparables to Tarasenko is Max Pacioretty<\/a>. Although Pacioretty suffered a couple of ACL tears near the end of his career with the Carolina Hurricanes, his career trajectory is quite similar to that of Tarasenko\u2019s, as they both offer a comparable skill set. Heading into his age-35 season, Pacioretty signed a one-year, $2MM deal with the Washington Capitals with another $2MM available in performance bonuses. Adjusting for the rising salary cap, that would make for a one-year, $2.5MM contract for Tarasenko, with up to $2.5MM in performance bonuses. If he can register another 20-goal season with close to 50 points, few teams would be upset about potentially committing $5MM to him over the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After achieving the ninth 20-goal season of his career, winger Vladimir Tarasenko is still looking for a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[181502,385,5627,99,153863],"class_list":["post-810111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-2026-free-agency","tag-nhl","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals","tag-sports","tag-vladimir-tarasenko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}