The St. Louis Blues will want to forget the 2019/20 NHL season as soon as possible. After being eliminated by the Vancouver Canucks in Stanley Cup playoffs last week, the team now found out that their star Vladimir Tarasenko will be out for a significant period of time.
Tarasenko played only 10 games for the Blues in the regular season, having to undergo shoulder surgery in October. The 28-year-old winger returned for the playoffs but managed to play only four games in which he visibly struggled.
As it turns out, Tarasenko’s shoulder never healed properly, and now he will require another procedure. This was confirmed by Blues’ general manager Doug Armstrong during a press conference on Wednesday.
“He’s going to go back in and have more surgery next week,” Armstrong told reporters. “It’s serious in the sense that he won’t be with us, and [will] be re-evaluated after five months after the day of the surgery.”
Vladimir Tarasenko has been a key player for the Blues for almost a decade and team’s go-to-guy for scoring. Since making his NHL debut in the 2012/13 season, Tarasenko scored 214 regular-season goals and provided the same number of assists.
Tarasenko has three All-Star appearances and has won Stanley Cup with Blues last season.
