Here's the situation with the Tarasenko trade folks.

He's played okay, but much worse than last year.
He's been hurt.
He had complete control over his destination.

I've been saying this for weeks- the range of Tarasenko trades was vast and varied and much depended on him, but it was unlikely to ever be a top prospect and a 2023 1st. I was expected an okay prospect and a 2nd. We got a 1st and (almost certainly) a 3rd.

And to be clear- that is all we got. You can talk yourself into Hunter Skinner as much as you want, but it's not rooted in reality. He played in the AHL two years, got demoted to the ECHL this year. He's 21 years old. Best case scenario is he might be a call up guy. But even that is unlikely.

However, I don't agree with everyone saying "The Blues got screwed" or "The Blues should have traded him last year".

The Blues thought they would be good this year. Maybe they shouldn't have thought that, but they did. You don't trade assets for futures if you're think you're going to be good. He made 7.5 million dollars. No one had any cap space. And he still had a NTC. The Rangers could not have made this trade in the summer, and neither could most other people. The notion that he definitely would have fetched more in the summer is murky at best.

A 2023 1st is good. I think they played their cards about as well as they could have. Hope to see some more trades. Best to the Rangers and good luck to the most fun Blues player I ever watched.

Well said. I am of the belief that St Louis could've done maybe a little better, but it was really inevitable that he got moved. The players coming back are whatever for the Blues and I don't really consider them as integral in the return, but having the condition to take the lower of two already late 1st round picks sucks.

The amount of revisionist history with the Blues this year is hilarious. I thought for sure the Blues were going to have a good year, there was zero chance the Blues should've traded Senko any earlier