WJAC Experience: Russia – 2008 | 5th Place
WJAC Statistics: 4 GP 2G 7A 9P

NHL Entry Draft: St. Louis Blues – 2010 (1st round, 16th overall)
NHL Statistics (as of Dec. 12): 207 GP 82G 80A 162P

Other International Experience:
2009 IIHF World U18 Championship (silver medal)
2010 IIHF World Junior Championship (6th place)
2011 IIHF World Junior Championship (gold medal)
2011 IIHF World Championship (4th place)
2014 Olympic Winter Games (5th place)
2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship (silver medal)

At the WJAC: Russia’s fifth-place finish in Camrose, Alta., was its worst ever at the World Junior A Challenge, but that was certainly no fault of Tarasenko, who put his name in the tournament record book with his play-making ability; the future St. Louis first-rounder set up seven of the 22 goals Russia scored, setting a record for assists in a single tournament that stood until 2012.

Tarasenko started strong, racking up four assists in a 10-4 rout of Belarus before scoring in a loss to Canada West. He added one helper in the quarter-finals as the Russians were the first medal round victims of the eventual gold medallists from the United States, and capped his team-leading nine-point performance with a goal and two assists in a fifth-place game win over Germany.

After the WJAC: The 16th-overall selection in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft (two spots after fellow Blues pick, and fellow 2008 WJAC alumnus, Jaden Schwartz), Tarasenko spent the next two-and-a-half seasons in the KHL with Sibir Novosibirsk and SKA St. Peterburg, captaining Russia to world juniors gold in 2011 before joining the Blues line-up when the NHL lockout ended in January 2013.

Tarasenko has matured into one of the game’s best players in St. Louis; after putting up a combined 62 points in his first two NHL seasons (102 games), he posted career-highs in every category in 2014-15, finishing tied for 10th in NHL scoring with 73 points (37 goals, 36 assists) in 77 games and earning a spot on the Russian roster at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games on home ice in Sochi.