Yes the contract negotiations are two ways, but the chance of losing Tkachuk in four years is a hill that Treliving should die on avoiding. If that means a higher cap hit for five or six years, or a bridge deal for one or two, so be it. Losing a 25 year old Tkachuk to UFA is worst case scenario that far overshadows signing him to a contract with a bit more money than they would have liked.
So one or two, five to eight, are the terms that should be discussed unless Tkachuk's camp is willing to give up pretty much everything else to be a UFA at 25, and a 6.75M cap hit isn't that.
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