Red Wings Dilemma: What to do With a Problem Named Tarasenko?

As they move into the final stretch of the regular season, there’s a hue and cry rising from amidst the Detroit Red Wings faithful.

Bench Vladimir Tarasenko is their plaintive cry.

I Expected A Lot More Out Of Tarasenko This Season Tbh#LGRW

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It’s certainly understandable and hardly unreasonable sentiment.

Yet, the Red Wings continue to play the veteran winger game after game. And the thing is, this decision is also certainly understandable and hardly unreasonable.

Do the Red Wings have a problem in Tarasenko?

Absolutely they do.

Would sitting him out solve that dilemma?

Not really. And in fact, by doing so, it might be creating another issue for the team.

In case you haven’t noticed, the Red Wings aren’t the most forceful of teams when it comes to physical play. They aren’t what hockey people classify as a team that plays a heavy game.

One of the few guys who does play a consistent, heavy game is Tarasenko. He’s hard on the puck. He’ll make use of his 6-foot-1, 219-pound frame to keep the puck and to get the puck back.

“Vladi Tarasenko has actually played better and had more chances than his numbers reflect,” Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman said.

Ah yes. Tarasenko’s numbers. Ultimately, that’s the issue in play here.

The 33-year-old Russian, a six-time 30-goal scorer as an NHLer, has scored a meager nine goals in 66 games. All those heavy plays he makes around the rink, that’s not why the Red Wings were giving him a two-year deal with an AAV of $4.75 million last summer.

It was the outcome of that heavy work that got Tarasenko his Detroit contract. He’s supposed to be finishing off plays with goals.

Has Red Wings Tarasenko Lost His Scoring Touch?

“He has had the puck on his tape a fair amount, and he has had looks at the net,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said of Tarasenko.

Vladimir Tarasenko spins around the net and snipes home a beauty, putting Detroit up by 2!#LGRW pic.twitter.com/9T78QjFNhY

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That he does. Scoring opportunities come to Tarasenko with regularity. Scoring finishes do not. He displays a knack of missing the net from just about any scoring area.

Could it be as simple as he’s yet another scorer whose hands have deserted him? Certainly there was evidence of diminishing returns over the past two seasons. Tarasenko scored 23 goals last season. He was good for 18 goals during the 2022-23 campaign.

Who Would Replace Tarasenko?

Veteran Red Wings watchers will remember Tomas Sandstrom’s role with the 1996-97 Detroit Cup winner. A trade acquisition, the veteran winger also played a heavy game. He gave the team every ounce he had every night in a third-line role. But try as he might, Sandstrom simply couldn’t finish any longer.

If you’re calling out Tarasenko as a malingerer, suggesting he doesn’t give an honest effort, you’re being disingenuous. However, if your problem with him is a lack of finish, you’ll get no argument here.

However, if the Wings were to bench Tarasenko, it creates anothe issue. Who goes in for him that’s going to make a difference?

Dominik Shine isn’t going to score goals. Neither is Austin Watson, if the club was to reach down to the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins. Nate Danielson simply isn’t NHL ready. Carter Mazur might’ve been a solution, but his quick season-ending injury during his NHL debut rendered that debate moot.

Yzerman rolled the dice that Tarasenko still had some life in those once supple hands.

“I’m hoping that he keeps shooting it, that some of these will start to go in for him,” Yzerman said.

To paraphrase Bad Santa, wish and hope in one hand. You know what in the other. See which hand fills up first.