St. Louis Blues: 4 best landing spots for Vladimir Tarasenko

2. New York Rangers

If this was a year ago, I would have dismissed any reports liking the New York Rangers with Vladimir Tarasenko given where this franchise was in its rebuild.

However, that opinion can now be thrown out of the window in the wake of Owner James Dolan firing President John Davidson and General Manager Jeff Gorton out of the blue.

And, with Chris Drury taking over both roles and appointing Gerard Gallant as his Head Coach, it is clear the Rangers are in win-now mode and that could be reflected in what moves they make this offseason.

While they are already flush with uber-talented forwards, Tarasenko would give them a legit goalscoring threat and he would provide a deadly one-two punch with Artemi Panarin, with the two players already sharing a relationship.

That could be key to the Blueshirts coming out on top in the Tarasenko sweepstakes given that the player will have a say over where he is traded to, and New York also boasts an abundance of prospects and picks they can use to make this deal work.

Plus, with around $22 million (per CapFriendly) in projected cap space and the St. Louis Blues almost certainly going to need to retain some of Tarasenko’s $7,500,000 cap hit, the Rangers are in prime position to make this trade work and it would be quite the statement by the team on Broadway.

The kind of statement that would make it abundantly clear that the New York Rangers are ready to seriously compete for the Stanley Cup right now.