‘He really wanted to be here’: How and why Vladimir Tarasenko chose the Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers’ morning skate on Thursday was a little more upbeat than a usual morning skate.

“It’s the new guy,” coach Paul Maurice said.

That “new guy:” Vladimir Tarasenko, the four-time NHL All-Star the Panthers acquired from the Ottawa Senators for a pair of draft picks ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline at 3 p.m. Friday.

Tarasenko’s arrival only bolsters an already deep Florida Panthers team leading the NHL standings with 20 regular-season games left to play. The Panthers enter Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers having won 16 of their past 18 games and picking up points in 27 of their past 31 games.

At 43-16-4 entering play Thursday, the Panthers’ 90 points are three ahead of both the Vancouver Canucks (40-17-7, 87 points) and Boston Bruins (36-13-15, 87 points), both of whom have played one more game than Florida.

“This team plays with emotion,” Tarasenko said. “It’s a hard-working team with a lot of skill and they’re usually the hardest game to play against. I’m very excited to be on this side now and do everything to help the team.”

And Tarasenko will jump right into a key role Thursday, with Maurice putting him on the left wing of Florida’s top line with Aleksander Barkov at center and Sam Reinhart at right wing. Tarasenko will also presumably get looks on the power play.

“Wherever you [play] on this team, it’s exciting right now,” Tarasenko said. “I talked to [Barkov and Reinhart] a little bit this morning. They’re very smart players. I look forward to playing with them tonight.”

Added Barkov: “He’s an unbelievable player. I heard a lot of good things about him as a person as well. It’s great to have him here — and he really wanted to be here.”

Just how much did Tarasenko want to be with the Panthers? The 12-year NHL veteran had a no-trade clause in his contract. He said he would only waive it for one team — the Panthers.

“This was the only place I thought about,” Tarasenko said.

A few factors played into that.

On the hockey side, the Panthers give Tarasenko one of the best chances to win another Stanley Cup. He won his first in 2019 with the St. Louis Blues.

On the personal side, he already has a connection to South Florida. His family lives in Weston, and he practices here in the offseason too.

He has connections with several players on the Panthers’ roster as well, including fellow Russians Dmitry Kulikov and Sergei Bobrovsky as well as defenseman Niko Mikkola, with whom he played in St. Louis before they were both dealt to the New York Rangers at the 2023 trade deadline.

“We decided this would be the best possibility for us,” Tarasenko said.

The Florida Panthers hope that works to their benefit.

Tarasenko gives them another legitimate scoring threat in addition to the likes of Reinhart, Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe.

He has 615 career points (287 goals, 328 assists) through 732 games. He has 17 goals and 41 points this season, and scored at least 30 goals in six of his past seven full seasons (he only played 34 combined games in the 2019-2020 and 2020-21 seasons).

Maurice’s main objective, however, is to get Tarasenko as acclimated to the team’s defensive-first style of play as quickly as possible.

“Our leading scorer is going to backcheck just as hard as the guy who’s the lowest scorer,” Maurice said. “Just come in and pay with the rest of them. If you score a bunch, good for you. If you don’t but we’re winning, good for us. Everybody’s happy. ... He can shoot the puck. He can pass the puck. What I want to do is get him to a comfort level where he’s not thinking about what I want — he’s doing what he wants.”

And what Tarasenko wants is to help the Panthers win their first Stanley Cup, something he did with the Blues six years ago.

“It takes time to get experience in the playoffs, which I feel like this team got last year,” Tarasenko said. “Usually when you go this deep, you know what it takes. There’s no other way. Everybody just needs to work hard and everybody needs to do their part.”

He’s ready to do his part.