We are officially turning the page and looking ahead to the 2019-20 season with our St. Louis Blues player preview series, and we will start with Russian superstar Vladimir Tarasenko.
St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko has been nothing short of spectacular throughout his seven-year career with the Blues. After another impressive season last year, look for him to continue his great play.
In Tarasenko’s seven seasons playing in the NHL, he has netted 30 or more goals in five of those years. If the Russian plays in more than 70 games in a year, then you can bank on him netting a high number of goals.
The 27-year-old forward has registered 30 goals in five straight seasons and has tallied exactly 33 goals in each of the last two. What stood apart from his scoring ability last season, was his all-around playmaking abilities.
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Tarasenko did not set any new career-highs offensively, but his overall contributions up and down the ice raised eyebrows from Blues fans and media last season. He, among others, seemed to feed off newly-acquired Ryan O’Reilly‘s 200-foot playmaking ability.
Let’s go over his numbers from last season. The young forward only missed six games for the Blues in 2018-19 and was counted on heavily during the playoffs despite playing through an injury.
In the 76 games Tarasenko played for St. Louis, he netted 33 goals and 35 assists en route to a 68-point season, his most since the 2016-17 season.
It was clear early on in the season that Tarasenko was still lingering from a shoulder injury sustained at the end of the 2017-18 season against the Colorado Avalanche.
Even though he did not miss any games due to the injury, Tarasenko still took a while to get into a groove offensively. He had a two-goal game against the Chicago Blackhawks on October 6 but failed to score a goal in the following six games.
Like many of his teammates, he fell victim to a slow start to the season. However, once the calendar turned to 2019, Tarasenko finally started to show his true form.
So what can fans expect from the 27-year-old heading into the 2019-20 season? He has shown the capability to score at least 40 goals in a season, reaching the milestone during the 2015-16 campaign.
The big question for Tarasenko this offseason has been his recovery from knee surgery he underwent after the Stanley Cup Finals. All reports point to him being ready for the regular season, so we will project into the future assuming he good to go for the season-opener on October 2.
Tarasenko is a streaky player. At times, he makes fans question whether or not he is dealing with an injury that is prohibiting his shooting ability, then next thing you know he has scored 15 goals in his last ten games.
If he can stay healthy for all 82 games, expect Tarasenko to have a monster season. He has only missed more than six games twice in his career, so based on everything mentioned above, here are our final projections.
Tarasenko finishes the year with 38 goals, 35 assists, and leads the team in scoring with 73 points overall.