Tarasenko, the trade deadline and how they impact each other

Whether St. Louis Blues General Manager Doug Armstrong is able to make a splash at the NHL Trade Deadline - which is Monday at 2 p.m. CT - depends almost entirely on Vladimir Tarasenko and when he can return to the lineup after having shoulder surgery in October.
Because all NHL teams must remain under the League-imposed salary cap in the regular season, Armstrong won't be able to add salary to his roster if Tarasenko is available to return before the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If, however, Tarasenko won't be ready until after the postseason begins, Armstrong could have some salary cap space to work with and could potentially add an asset before Monday's deadline.

"We're talking about this daily with doctors," Armstrong said on Tuesday afternoon. "If we get information that he's not going to be available (in the regular season), then that changes everything."
Tarasenko has been skating for weeks and has recently joined his teammates for team practices and gameday morning skates. The original recovery timeline for his injury was five to six months after surgery, which would put him on schedule to return sometime in March or April.

"The way he's training now, I've talked to him the last couple of days. He looks great but again, we have to get the doctors to sign off on these things," Armstrong said. "I don't want to get the cart too far in front of the horse. It's not like you're going to see him on Thursday or Sunday or anything like that. Just an update that he's doing well and progressing and hopefully whether it's early March, mid-March, end of March, or early April, (Tarasenko) will be our great acquisition for forwards at the deadline."
Armstrong did make one move already,
acquiring defenseman Marco Scandella from the Montreal Canadiens
in exchange for a second-round draft pick in 2020 and a conditional fourth-round draft pick in 2021. Armstrong said the move was made due to the cardiac episode with Jay Bouwmeester last week. Bouwmeester has been placed on long-term injured reserve, and the team needed to fill the gap left by his absence.
But whether Armstrong will add to his group of forwards hinges on Tarasenko's health.
"I would say we're going to assess the trade market between now and Monday," Armstrong said of the upcoming deadline. "But with the cap situation (and the long-term injured reserve for Bouwmeester), with a lot of the math equation that goes in, any deal I would say going forward is going to be strictly a hockey trade, which are very rare this time of year."