[FurnaceFace]

This is from LeBrun on the Athletic. You can take or leave his source but it's interesting if the original sticking point was a 5 year deal.

In fact, the Tkachuk negotiation — frigid for so long — got going in earnest in the day and a half leading to Wednesday’s conclusion, according to a well-placed source.

And like Point, it includes a $9-million final year salary, which is huge for these players. It means Tkachuk has some serious leverage if talks on a longer-term deal stall. He can select salary arbitration for a Year 4 salary — which presumably would be at least $9 million a year, and bridge the gap right to UFA status in the summer of 2024. That’s a last resort, of course, the plan would be to sign long term, but the point here is that the structure of this three-year deal by Newport Sports ensures that Tkachuk now has more control over his long-term, contractual path.

The Flames, though, would much rather live with this three-year bridge deal and its ramifications rather than sign him to a five-year deal which would have walked him straight to UFA without any hurdles, the five-year term a real sticking point early in those talks.