Quote:
Originally Posted by 2macinnis2
Look, that line wasn’t very good defensively in either series. Further, the offense was primarily driven by Gaudreau, not Tkachuk. I get that Tkachuk had a great regular season… I’m talking about playoffs. That line can be a better playoff line with a replacement IMO. And whatever his metrics may be, I just personally have never found him noticeable making good defensive plays, again particularly not in the playoffs.
Tkachuk is a really good player no doubt. But as others have mentioned, you simply cannot pay him and Gaudreau their market value. Gaudreau is far more important to keep, and Tkachuk could actually net you some return.
It’s a pretty straightforward decision, and you have be able to find a silver lining once you arrive at it.
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After watching Tkachuk in both playoff series, I'm kind of leaning towards the same thought process. Tkachuk really held back the top line from getting to their game throughout the playoffs.
As I've stated before, Tkachuk is too slow to keep up with the speedier teams and isn't big enough to play a power forward game in the playoffs. In the regular season, he can hide those flaws, but with how much speed and size is magnified in the playoffs, he can't hide his weaknesses.
The fear of Tkachuk eating up $10M is very real. That's the biggest factor of all I think. I don't necessarily care if the Flames get a king's ransom or not based on his UFA status in one year. But the mistake of overcommitting and overpaying an exclusive regular season performer would be a big mistake. If there was a way to keep Johnny and find a suitable Tkachuk replacement/comparable, then that should definitely be explored.
Although, if Johnny re-signing is contingent on Tkachuk coming back, then the Flames may just have to bite the bullet and find value elsewhere. At the very least, the current top line can get the team to the dance and I suppose we can just hope that they figure it out along the way at some point.