Vlad Tarasenko's health will dictate Blues' deadline direction

The St. Louis Blues are the reigning Stanley Cup champions, but their philosophy ahead of Monday’s trade deadline will depend on when they will get Vladimir Tarasenko back in the lineup.

After an awkward collision back in October, Tarasenko was ruled out for at least five months with a shoulder injury that required surgery. With that timeline coming to a close, it’s now a matter of just counting down the weeks and keeping up to date until their key offensive contributor will return.

“We're talking about this daily with doctors,” Armstrong said on Tuesday afternoon. “If we get information that he's not going to be available (in the regular season), then that changes everything.”

As soon as 3 p.m. EST on Monday comes, Armstrong won’t be able to make any key trades to help St. Louis defend their title in the postseason. If Tarasenko is ruled out for the rest of the regular season, that gives the Blues GM a heaping pile of cap space to work with.

“The way he's training now, I've talked to him the last couple of days. He looks great but again, we have to get the doctors to sign off on these things,” Armstrong said.

“I don't want to get the cart too far in front of the horse. It's not like you're going to see him on Thursday or Sunday or anything like that. Just an update that he's doing well and progressing and hopefully whether it's early March, mid-March, end of March, or early April, (Tarasenko) will be our great acquisition for forwards at the deadline.”

No matter when Tarasenko returns, he will provide a significant boost to the Blues’ forwards that have had to do the heavy lifting in his absence. Despite just 10 games with the Russian winger in the lineup, the Blues sit at the top of the Western Conference with a 33-17-10 record.

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