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Originally Posted by Strange Brew
You said he will only sign an offer sheet that he is sure the Flames will match. How is that logical?
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It is perfectly logical if he is primarily motivated for now to sign an extension to play hockey in Calgary, and has no interest in playing elsewhere. Maybe that changes, but based on all reports so far it seems that Tkachuk is for now only negotiating with the Flames, and also appears only interested in re-signing with Calgary.
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Faced with two offer sheets, one for $8 million x 5 years, one for $9 million x 5 years. And he believes Flames will match the former and not the latter.
Please support your argument that he will only sign the first offer sheet.
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It's a hunch, of course, but I don't see why it should be considered even controversial that Tkachuk would carefully factor into consideration his playing destination for the next multiple years when signing an extension. Will Tkachuk sign just the highest offer from any team? What if he has absolutely no interest in playing for that team?
If, say, Buffalo is the team offering $45 m, and Nashville is offering $40 m, maybe Tkachuk declines the higher offer and signs the lower one because he would rather not risk the chance of playing for a team he does not want to play for. Is it really that unbelievable to imagine that this could happen? (Please note that these are hypothetical examples to illustrate my point; I have no idea how he would feel about one team over another.)
I actually think the Sebastian Aho contract provides some pretty good conjectural evidence that a player would use an offer sheet from another team to get the deal he wants from his rights-holding team. It seems like a pretty good bet that if the entire rest of the hockey world knew Carolina would match the offer, Aho and his agent were equally aware of this. I think it is entirely plausible that a player (maybe a player like Tkachuk) is having a difficult time coming to terms with his rights-holding team that he REALLY wants to play for, but then receives an offer from another team covering what he wants while also being confident it is an offer his rights-holding team will match.