ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Blues player Vladimir Tarasenko will have surgery on his injured shoulder next week, the Blues announced on Wednesday.
His shoulder won’t be reevaluated again for five months.
"He had shoulder surgery obviously at the start of the season. He rehabbed, he came back, we had to do another MRI (because) he wasn't feeling good. That surgery [in October] didn't take the way that we had hoped. It wasn't successful,” Blues General Manager Doug Armstrong told NHL.com. “He's going to go back in and have more surgery next week, and it's serious in the sense that he won't be with us and he won't be re-evaluated until five months after the date of the surgery."
Tarasenko missed one round-robin contest and Games 3 and 4 of the Blues' first-round series with Vancouver before returning to St. Louis to meet with a team of doctors.
He was originally injured on Oct. 24, 2019 and missed 61 games after having surgery. He returned to the lineup for the first time in the Blues' exhibition game on July 29 against Chicago.
Prior to his injury, Tarasenko posted 10 points in 10 regular-season games.
"He can score big goals, that's what he does," Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said. "He's a goal scorer, he can score at any time of a game. It's important to have a guy like that, and he's a leader on our team, too. He wears an 'A,' so he's missed for sure. He's a big part of our team, always has been here. He needs to get healthy and we need him back."