With three weeks until the trade deadline, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury wasted no time in addressing the club’s greatest needs. 

In doing more business with the Blues, this time as buyers, the Blueshirts acquired forward Vladimir Tarasenko and defenseman Niko Mikkola in exchange for a conditional 2023 first-round pick, a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick, Sammy Blais and prospect Hunter Skinner, the team announced Thursday afternoon. 

The deal fills the Rangers’ holes at right wing in the top-six and on the left side of bottom defensive pair. Drury was able to swipe one of the top trade chips on the market in Tarasenko, while also preserving key players who are currently in the lineup and squeezing an added bonus of more defensive depth in the process. 

“It’s something we’ve been looking at for a while,” Drury said on a Zoom call with reporters. “When the pieces started to come together, I didn’t really see any reason to wait. It certainly gives the two new players a little more time to acclimate to our group.” 

The Blues retained 50 percent of the last year of Tarasenko’s contract, which carries a $7.5 million cap hit. Between St. Louis’ salary retention on Tarasenko, the Rangers waiving Libor Hajek and sending Will Cuylle back to AHL Hartford, the club was able to accommodate the additions of the Russian winger and Mikkola’s $1.9 million cap hit. 

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The first-round pick will be the later of the Rangers’ two in the 2023 NHL Draft, either their own or the one they received from the Stars in exchange for Nils Lundkvist earlier this season. If Dallas finishes with a top-10 pick, it will shift to next year and be the later of those two. The fourth-rounder in 2024 will become a third-round pick if the Rangers make the playoffs this season. 

It was a strategic haul for Drury to send to the Blues in order to secure Tarasenko, who may be in a down year in terms of offensive production, but that’s likely a testament to his now former team’s overall struggles. With 10 goals and 19 assists in 38 games, the 31-year-old was still among the Blues’ top five point producers. 

In 2021-22, coming off of a slew of shoulder surgeries, Tarasenko posted a career high of 82 points with 34 goals and 48 assists. He is also a proven playoff contributor, having scored 41 goals in 90 postseason games over his nine seasons in St. Louis. 

If the Rangers couldn’t get Patrick Kane, Artemi Panarin’s pal in Chicago, Tarasenko was the next best option. Drury said he had a quick conversation with Panarin about the prospect of bringing in Tarasenko. Panarin and Tarasenko have represented Russia together a few times dating to the 2011 World Juniors. 

Though the two Russians haven’t skated on the same line much, the thought is that Tarasenko will slot onto the right wing of Panarin and Mika Zibanejad to make up the Rangers’ top unit. Drury was noncommittal when asked where Tarasenko will play, or if he’ll see time on the top power-play unit, citing the fact that it’s head coach Gerard Gallant’s decision. 

The Rangers felt the asking price for Kane and the Sharks’ Timo Meier was too high for their cap situation, according to a source. Plus, management didn’t want to wait on Kane, whose hip concerns also played a factor into the Rangers’ decision to target Tarasenko. 

Acquiring Mikkola to play alongside Braden Schneider and pad the defense only sweetened the deal. 

“This was a piece that I really wanted in there and to have it in there now and not wait on it,” Drury said of Mikkola, who comes to New York with 139 games of NHL experience over four seasons in St. Louis. “He’s a real good shutdown defenseman. Obviously, he’s got size and reach, like K’Andre [Miller] does.” 

Blais, who the Rangers acquired from the Blues in the July 2021 trade that sent Pavel Buchnevich to St. Louis, ends his New York tenure at 54 games. Over his two seasons with the Rangers, Blais had just nine points, all assists. He only skated in 14 games in his first campaign on Broadway due to a season-ending ACL tear, and the 26-year-old winger has struggled to bounce back this season. 

The Rangers were able to finesse sending Blais back to St. Louis, where he started his NHL career. 

“Probably didn’t go as well as he or we wanted this season,” Drury said. “Certainly wasn’t for lack of off-ice effort, rehabbing and getting ready. Going back to a familiar place could help him.”