Quoting: tm0000
What is it that you think an injured rental Tarasenko is worth? I can see the Blues not wanting Bailey (although they're most likely going to have to take back some salary to make it a trade work), but a 2nd plus a close to NHL ready 23-year old defensemen seems in the ballpark of fair value.
Well, for starters, I have no idea how you figure Tarasenko is injured - he's been back for a week now, so he's all rested up. Secondly, taking back Bailey could be fine if he was a UFA - taking back cap that remains on the books for next season is a no-go unless its realllly worth it, and this ain't. Salo is 24, so gosh he better be NHL ready. Meanwhile, he's a minus skater, play small, sheltered 3rd pairing, offensive-leaning D-man, which ticks pretty much every box for what the Blues are not looking for. All Blues D-men are plus skaters, which is not an accident. He's simply not going to interest them much, they already have far too many LDs like him as is. Finally, Tarasenko is easily worth a 23 1st, and if a bunch of teams start calling, another something. Nobody is going to nickel and dime their way to him. With Kane hobbling, he's probably the most desirable winger on the market by a decent margin because he's a true playoff sniper (6th among active players in playoff g/gp) and especially at 5v5 (9th among active players even strength g/60, but half of those higher than him have only played around 20-ish career playoff games - he's played 90).