During the decade-plus he spent with the Blues, fans at Xcel Energy Center didn’t care much for Vladimir Tarasenko. The crafty Russian forward was a thorn in the Wild’s side during countless Central Division meetings, and in a few trips to the playoffs when Minnesota and St. Louis met head-to-head.

It’s likely that Wild fans at the newly-renamed Grand Casino Arena will take more of a liking to Tarasenko, when he arrives wearing green and red. On Monday, the Wild acquired Tarasenko, 33, from Detroit for future considerations.

“He’s a bigger body, he’s got a lot of experience. I think he’s a player that is in need of a fresh start,” Wild general manager Bill Guerin said. “The contract and the money and everything just kind of fits, I think. We’re a place where Vladdy can come in and and hopefully get back to the form he’s had in past years. I know he’s excited about it. We’re excited to have him.”

Since leaving the Blues — with whom he won a Stanley Cup in 2019 — Tarasenko has bounced from the Rangers to the Senators to the Panthers to the Red Wings, and has a season remaining on a two-year pact he signed in Detroit last summer. He won his second Stanley Cup in Florida in 2024.

“What he was offensively, or what he’s been over his career, is fantastic, but to me, the experience of winning Stanley Cups is more important than that,” Guerin said.

Last season with the Red Wings, Tarasenko played 80 games with 11 goals and 22 assists. After starting the season in Russia because of the NHL lockout, he made his North American pro debut in St. Louis in 2013 and had his best regular season in 2015-16, scoring 40 goals as the Blues advanced to the Western Conference Final.

Asked about the idea of making star forward Kirill Kaprizov more comfortable in the locker room with fellow Russians Tarasenko and Danila Yurov joining the team for next season, Guerin downplayed that factor.

“Honestly, I think Kirill’s pretty comfortable,” Guerin said. “I don’t think it hurts, but I know in my past meetings with Kirill, he doesn’t care if you’re Russian, Swedish, American, Canadian, whatever. He just wants guys that are gonna help us win.”

Guerin also indicated that Wild coach John Hynes is looking into meeting with Tarasenko at the player’s summer home in Florida to begin to get acquainted before the September start of training camp.

With the addition of Tarasenko’s $4.75 million salary cap hit, the Wild are left with a little under $13 million in cap space heading into Tuesday’s opening day of free agency, which may limit their pursuit of a few of the higher-priced players available on the open market.

Qualifying offers extended

The Wild have extended qualifying offers to forwards Marco Rossi and Michael Milne, which gives the team exclusive negotiating rights for the restricted free agents for the coming year.

Rossi, who will be 24 at the start of next season, is coming off his best career season offensively. He has played all 82 games for the Wild in each of the last two seasons, putting up 40 points and 60 points, respectively.

Milne, 22, has played the bulk of the past three seasons for the Iowa Wild. He got into one NHL game for Minnesota last November.

The Wild did not make qualifying offers to forwards Graeme Clarke, Adam Raska and Luke Toporowski, or defenseman Ryan O’Rourke, making them unrestricted free agents.