The Panthers acquired Vladimir Tarasenko on Wednesday. This Archive story from October 2015 spotlighted Tarasenko from his childhood to adapting to the NHL with the Blues.
Vol. 69, No. 5, Oct. 20, 2015The NHL’s trade deadline is two days away, and early on Wednesday, the Ottawa Senators dealt veteran winger Vladimir Tarasenko to the Florida Panthers. And in this story from THN’s Oct. 20, 2015 edition (Vol. 69, Issue 5), THN contributor Jeremy Rutherford profiled Tarasenko as he raised his game to elite-winger levels.
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From the moment the St. Louis Blues drafted him 16th overall in 2010, Tarasenko was a highly valued asset. His father was a Russian league star, and Tarasenko also made his mark at home in front of Russian fans. And even when he did go through dry patches as a scorer, his family stuck by him and promised days would be better.
“I had a point every game for like five or six years,” Tarasenko told Rutherford. “I did not make a point one game – one game! – and my grandpa tell me, ‘You’re going to quit hockey, you’re a bad player.’ Once in five years, no points. I tell him, ‘Listen, other guys didn’t score for like two months, and they’re still happy.’ He told me, ‘You’re not going to be like other guys. Ten years later when other guys are going to stop playing hockey, you’re still going to play.’ ”
Tarasenko adapted to the NHL game very quickly, posting 21 goals in his first full regular season and ratcheting his scoring talents up to a 37-goal plateau in the following season. Like most players, his family meant everything to him, and he did them proud in the KHL and NHL.
“More than anything, he seems to be really humbled by his father and his grandfather,” said Blues teammate Kevin Shattenkirk. “Having those examples, for him, of how to act around a rink, how to respect the guys who work for the team…he had that right away. He wasn’t a guy who we had to teach that. It goes a long way to the type of player your teammates view you as, and the type of person they view you as. For that reason, he’s fit in well.”
BORN AND BRED TO BE A WINNER
Vol. 69, No. 5, Oct. 20, 2015
By Jeremy Rutherford
Moments after trading up to No. 16 overall in the 2010 draft and taking Vladimir Tarasenko, then St. Louis Blues’ director of amateur scouting Jarmo Kekalainen made his way to reporters at Staples Center. The Blues had already selected Jaden Schwartz No. 14 overall and surprised many by jumping up and double dipping in the first round. Schwartz was a tenacious, skilled forward and Tarasenko a thick-bodied goal scorer.
But one, Schwartz, was a Canadian kid who dreamt of playing in the NHL. The other, Tarasenko, had all the potential in the world, but with him living on the other side of the planet in Siberia, there were concerns about whether he would ever set foot in St. Louis. “If his name was Walt Smith,” Kekalainen said at the draft, “he would have been long gone at 16.”
The Blues, whom Tarasenko had told in broken English he too yearned to play in the NHL, weren’t worried. And anyone who knew anything about his upbringing – from watching his father play pro to living with his grandparents – wouldn’t have been worried either. Before he scored arguably the top goal of 2014-15 and before he signed an eight-year, $60-million contract with the Blues this summer, Tarasenko humbly learned how to play the game, vigorously approaching the hard work it took to become successful and graciously accepting the accolades once they came.
His father, Andrei, was on the road a lot, enjoying a 21-year career in the Russian Superleague, in which he won a scoring title in 1997-98. But it wasn’t until late in Andrei’s playing days that his son would see him play in person. “I didn’t realize a lot because I’d never seen how he played,” said Tarasenko, 23. “I remember I was watching the tapes with his goals. But when he came back to Novosibirsk (in 2002) and he played in my hometown, I was at every hockey game.”
Tarasenko recalled one particular game that had the city in a fever pitch. If Novosibirsk won, the club would be placed in the Superleague. In front of a full house, Novosibirsk triumphed 7-2 as the city celebrated its promotion to the RHL. After the game, Tarasenko remembers weaving his way to the dressing room to soak up the atmosphere. “I just go down and tell security, ‘Hey, can I come in?’ They’re like, ‘No,’ ” he said. “I’m like, ‘Uh, my father is playing there.’ They’re like, ‘Who’s your father?’ I say, ‘Tarasenko, Andrei.’ They look at me like, ‘Get out.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, it’s my father.’ But I find one guy who knows me and he’s like, ‘Let him go.’ ”
If you were thinking Tarasenko wanted to be just like his dad, however, you’d be wrong. His grandpa always told him he needed to be better than his parents. Tarasenko moved in with his grandfather, also named Vladimir, and grandmother, Valentina, before the age of three, following his parents’ divorce. His grandpa was the director of a local soccer school in Novosibirsk but gave up that job to spend more time with his grandson. Tarasenko played soccer but remembers the field being “too big” and felt there was “too much running.”
His grandpa took him to a rink for the first time when he was five, and he fell while taking his first steps. But Tarasenko fell in love with the speed of hockey and joined his first club. It would come with more lumps, however, as Tarasenko’s teams early on lost games by scores of 34-2 and 19-0.
But Tarasenko, who continued going to the practice rink with his grandpa and spending hours in sub-zero temperatures, would eventually help turn those outcomes around. “I had a point every game for like five or six years,” Tarasenko said. “I did not make a point one game – one game! – and my grandpa tell me, ‘You’re going to quit hockey, you’re a bad player.’ Once in five years, no points. I tell him, ‘Listen, other guys didn’t score for like two months, and they’re still happy.’ He told me, ‘You’re not going to be like other guys. Ten years later when other guys are going to stop playing hockey, you’re still going to play.’ ”
Tarasenko’s dedication grew. And by his early teens, he was taking train trips to games by himself, some as long as two-and-a-half days. At 15, and still in school, Tarasenko began playing for Novosibirsk’s second team. One game he scored seven goals, helping earn him an invitation the following preseason to play with the first team. That squad was coached by his father, whose playing career had already ended. Tarasenko made the roster, and at 16, playing in his first pro game, scored on his first shift.
Speculation at the time was centering on the fact Tarasenko got his opportunity for one reason. “Some people said my father paid for me, or I’m on the team because of my father… this is all stupid talk,” he said. “People, even fans, they don’t recognize how much you need to work, how many practices you have, how much time you spend on the ice, in the gym, how hard it is.”
As time went on, it was clear the genetics Tarasenko got from his father had more to do with it. “His dad is one of the most skilled guys I ever saw,” said Blues center Jori Lehtera, who was linemates with Tarasenko on Andrei’s team in Sibir. “We had penalty shot competitions with (Andrei), and I think he scored every time. ‘Vladi’ is the same type of player. He makes some moves like nobody else.”
Playing for his father wasn’t easy for Tarasenko. Even if he had a good shift, his dad would often come to the son and say, “It was good, but…” and then bench him. There were even fights between the two on the bench. “They were always punching each other, screaming at each other,” Lehtera said. “They had more like a player/coach relationship. It was different when they were home, Vladi respected his dad, but at the arena they were playercoach.”
Tarasenko, who by then had moved back in with his dad, said he and his father have the same character and both hate losing. Never was that more evident in the younger Tarasenko than in 2011, when Tarasenko captained Russia to a gold at the world juniors in Buffalo. Trailing Canada 3-0 after two periods, Russia scored five third period goals for a 5-3 victory, the largest comeback in WJC history. Tarasenko sustained a rib injury and was helped off the ice with 4:29 left in the second period. But he returned in the third, scoring the tying goal and adding an assist on the go-ahead goal. “I know what pressure means, and if you’re captain and your team is down by three goals and you say before the third period, ‘Listen guys, I don’t want to go there,’ what’s going to happen?” he said. “They’re going to follow you if you’re captain. You need to show them. You need to go. So we go there and win the game.”
The next step for Tarasenko, already property of the Blues at that time, was the NHL. He played one more season in Russia before committing to North America. His arrival was delayed by the lockout in 2012-13, but in three seasons since, he has racked up 66 goals and 135 points in 179 games. Tarasenko’s highlight-reel goal against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden last November left the hockey world in awe, as he dangled through the Rangers’ penalty killing unit and deked goalie Cam Talbot with a one-handed effort.
Fans may be in awe over Tarasenko’s creativity, but it doesn’t surprise his teammates. They’re in awe of his modesty. “More than anything, he seems to be really humbled by his father and his grandfather,” said teammate and good friend Kevin Shattenkirk. “Having those examples, for him, of how to act around a rink, how to respect the guys who work for the team…he had that right away. He wasn’t a guy who we had to teach that. It goes a long way to the type of player your teammates view you as, and the type of person they view you as. For that reason, he’s fit in well.”
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