4 hours. It took 4 for Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman to make my last article moot. Cause the Detroit Red Wings Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year $4.75 Million contract, solidifying the teams top-6 and bringing more star goal scoring to a team that desperately needs goals.
HEADED TO THE TARASENK-SHOW!
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 3, 2024
The #RedWings today signed forward Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract with an AAV of $4.75M. pic.twitter.com/ZLR93snIdW
Tarasenko last season played for the Ottawa Senators before being traded to the Florida Panthers at the trade deadline in march. Notching a stat line of 23G 32A for 55Pts in 76 Games played as well as being a +13 overall. He's also a 2x Stanley Cup Winner with the St. Louis Blues in 2019 and most recently the Florida Panthers.
This signing comes with a bit of a shock, as there was little to no word on the Red wings being around Tarasenko or even being interested, but i don't think that anybody is going to complain after what was fairly quiet start to free agency from Detroit.
What Does Tarasenko bring to the Detroit Red Wings?
Running a top-6 where your second line would have Robby Fabbri or Michael Rassmussen on your wing isn't a top-6 that will take you very far in the regular season, let alone the playoffs. So bringing Tarasenko into the fold immediately adds another 25-30 goals to the top 6.
Looking at Detroit's potential lineup this upcoming season, this teams top 6 will consist of Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane, J.T. Compher and Vladimir Tarasenko. Based off of last season's performances, the Red Wings top-6 has the potential to score a total of 150 goals. That's a lot of goals.
Tarasenko is pretty much guaranteed to replace the production that David Perron brought the last 2 seasons, only he'll do it younger, while also being a more effective and reliable goal scorer. However, Perron was a much better puck protector.
It seems appropriate to note that this contract came right before Robby Fabbri was traded to the Anaheim Ducks, meaning that the Detroit Red Wings really only spent $750K on Tarasenko. This is a fairly low risk signing in a sense that the team is really no worse off cap-wise than they were before the signing. Leave it to Steve to drop this after being pretty heavily criticized for not making any big moves on Day 1.