With Marcus Johansson headed back to Sweden, Vladimir Tarasenko's path towards a return to the Minnesota Wild may be wide open. After a disappointing year in Detroit in 2024-2025, Tarasenko bounced back last season for the Minnesota Wild. However, the story of Tarasenko’s return to form in 2025-2026 is a bit more complicated than the overall numbers suggest.
Vladimir Tarasenko struggled mightily in his one year with the Detroit Red Wings. He managed only 9 goals and 33 points in 80 games for the Red Wings in the 2024-2025 season. Last summer, Tarasenko was sent to Minnesota for future considerations. The Wild bought low on Tarasenko, and he bounced back; he scored 23 goals, 24 assists, and 47 points in 75 games for the Wild in the 2025-2026 season.
One area Tarasenko saw his numbers improve last season was on the power play. With the Red Wings during the 2024-2025 season, Tarasenko scored only 1 power-play goal and 7 power-play assists. For the Wild last season, Tarasenko improved to 5 power-play goals and 13 power-play points.
Tarasenko also improved his numbers at 5-on-5. According to Moneypuck, Tarasenko recorded 16 goals, 13 assists, and 29 points at 5-on-5 for the Wild last season. He also had an even 50% goals-for percentage. In 2024-2025 with the Red Wings, Tarasenko scored 9 goals and 13 assists for 22 points with a 49.4% goals-for percentage at 5-on-5. That’s a seven-point improvement in 5-on-5 points across the two seasons.
Digging deeper, Tarasenko had identical assist numbers in both seasons: 9 primary assists and 4 secondary assists for 13 total assists. The real difference in 5-on-5 production for Tarasenko came in the goal department. Last season, he scored 16 goals, 7 more than he scored in 2024-2025.
A big reason for the goalscoring improvement was Tarasenko’s shooting percentage. In 2024-2025, Tarasenko took 133 shots and managed only an 8.3% shooting percentage, the second-worst mark of his career. Tarasenko has been an elite shooter for years; he has a 12.8% shooting percentage for his career. Last season, his shooting percentage skyrocketed to 15.5% on 148 shots. Tarasenko's 15.5% shooting percentage was the best of his career, and the third-best on the Wild last season behind only Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy.
It was a great season, but evidence suggests shooting effectiveness tends to decline as players get older. Tarasenko will turn 35 in December, and I wouldn't bet on him posting a shooting percentage over 15% again next season.
Tarasenko’s bounce-back 2025-2026 may have been heavily affected by power-play points and an unusually high shooting percentage, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still be an effective player next season. According to Moneypuck, Tarasenko’s best linemates for an extended period of time (over 60 minutes of ice-time) at 5-on-5 were fellow Russians Danila Yurov and Yakov Trenin. In a third-line role, Tarasenko, Yurov, and Trenin had a 63.2% goals for percentage as a group, scoring 12 goals and allowing 7 in 206.3 minutes of ice-time.
A player like Tarasenko, who can hold his own at 5-on-5 in a third-line role, jump into the top-six in an injury pinch, and be a threat on a second power-play unit, is certainly valuable, even heading into a season where he will turn 35 in December. However, if you're the Wild, do you really want to sink more resources into another player over 30 who's likely in for some offensive regression and whose best fit is a bottom-six role?
If it were me, I'd pass on a Vladimir Tarasenko reunion.
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