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Originally Posted by The Cobra
I am not sure I would call someone a mercenary LOL simply because they want to maximize their income being paid by a group of owners who are billionaires.
You mention the Flames may have to hand out "an extremely high, possibly unrealistic 8 year contract", or he'll go UFA and get the same money elsewhere. I guess it's not that unrealistic then if other teams will pay it.
I doubt that Calgary is Tkachuk's dream place to play. I expect that Calgary would need to pay through the nose to get him to commit to staying here. And by that, I means an 8 years contract at more than the Blues would want to pay him.
To some degree, Johnny is in the same boat. If Calgary doesn't commit to an 8 year contract at an amount that would likely make us gag, he can go tom UFA and Calgary gets nothing. Sure they can try and move him at the trade deadline, but that's unlikely if they are vying for a playoff spot (which in their division is almost assured), plus we have no idea if he puts 5 teams on his Can Trade List that would have any interest in him.
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I think fans sometimes think players should have the same passion for the team that they do, teams are their employers. It's a business, players know this, teams know this, fans think players owe the city something and should have some sort of loyalty.
Maybe Keith had some loyalty but once he was traded I'm sure it reminded him that teams aren't as loyal as they seem either, if the team can better the themselves by trading a player they will do it every time, why should a player not have their best interest at heart. I'm sure his kids learned this message early.