- Vladimir Tarasenko is the top free agent left on the board with camps six weeks away
- The Hockey News listed Buffalo, Edmonton, Tampa Bay and Utah as fits for the 34-year-old winger
- Read below for the exact number one Oilers insider would pay him
Vladimir Tarasenko is the best free agent left on the board, and it is almost August.
Patrick Kane’s two-year, $16 million return to Chicago cleared the last big name ahead of him. That leaves the 34-year-old winger at the top of a thin market after 23 goals and 47 points in 75 games with Minnesota, plus five points in 11 playoff games.
The Hockey News laid out four fits for him earlier this month: the Sabres, Oilers, Lightning and Mammoth. Buffalo spent weeks chasing Kane and came up empty, so a scoring winger is right back near the top of its list.
Edmonton has been attached to him since the opening week of free agency. Elliotte Friedman wrote on July 3 that teams circled back to Tarasenko once the day-one rush died down:
Not everyone covering the Oilers wants that fit. Jason Gregor was working through what Edmonton should do with its cap space on his radio show when he pushed back on the idea.
“I’m just not sold that Tarasenko, at this stage of his career, is going to be that big of a difference-maker.”
Gregor wants a real finisher instead, someone who can score when games tighten up in the spring. He also gave a number he could live with.
“If I was going to sign him, it’d be a one-year deal, and I probably wouldn’t go more than $3 million at the most,” Gregor said.
The quiet has less to do with demand than with who is doing the talking. Tarasenko fired Pat Brisson and Paul Theofanous in late June and hired Dan Milstein, the agent who got Nikita Kucherov eight years and $76 million out of Tampa Bay.
Milstein does not rush. He waits for a contender to clear room and come to him, which is exactly what a mid-July silence looks like from the outside.
His playoff work is the pitch. Gregor pointed to 51 goals in 132 career playoff games, including the 11 Tarasenko scored during St. Louis’ 2019 Cup run, and he has two rings on his resume.
Take a look at the Forsberg move he pulled out for a Game 1 goal this spring:
That is 327 goals and 709 points in 906 NHL games, still unsigned with training camps opening in September. Somebody is going to decide the Milstein price is worth paying.
