St. Louis Blues secure Top Prospect Vladimir Tarasenko for upcoming season -NHL Update
St. Louis Blues and their top prospect from the 2010 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft, Vladimir Tarasenko, have come to mutual terms and agree on a three-year, entry-level contract on Saturday, June 2, 2012.
This definitely comes as good news for the St. Louis team as they have now got a top-level right winger on board that is said to have great potential in playing the position.
Blues and Tarasenko are yet to officially sign the contract, which is expected to take place on the 1st of July later on this year.
St. Louis’ general manager, Doug Armstrong, made the announcement after he had a conversation with the 20-year-old prospect on the phone.
"I did talk to (Tarasenko) this morning," Armstrong said. "It was just a brief conversation telling him I knew it was a difficult decision he had to make both professionally and personally to come over the North America and how excited we were to have him come and how I'm looking forward to working with him over the summer.”
Tarasenko will certainly have to earn his place on the team during this year’s offseason and training camp, but Armstrong is confident that he will be able to do it and amaze them during the regular season.
"What I said to Vlad was, 'I view you as a St. Louis Blue. We have a roster spot for you. You're going to be told to get an apartment, you've got to get a place to live,'" Armstrong said. "But at the end of the day, the NHL doesn't give jobs away. He's got to come in and maintain it.”
St. Louis Blues picked up Vladimir Tarasenko as the 16th overall player during round-one of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. He has been playing with his Russian club in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) ever since and looks now to be finally ready to come into the North American major league.
He put up 109 points last season with the KHL in 54 games played and having 23 goals, something which definitely excites the Blues club.
It will be interesting to see whether Vladimir Tarasenko can live up to his name this year.
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