Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
We are talking about one of the more business oriented players in the league here. Everything had been carefully calculated by his family and agent. If the offer from the Panthers was similar to the Blues offer I get the feeling that Treliving would have simply held on to Tkachuk until next season's trade deadline, if not flat out keep him if they were in a playoff position. The Flames still held the card of the 8th season and if Tkachuk played the 22/23 season in Calgary without Gaudreau his numbers would be a lot lower going into free agency. It was in Tkachuk's best interest to give the Flames ample opportunity to trade him this offseason coming off a peak season where he could ensure an 8 year contract. Helping out the Flames in any capacity was likely very, very low on his list of priorities.
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Intent or not the end result has flames fans far more excited for next season. UFA/RFA none of that really matters to the fans who just want to see a good flames team on the ice. Treliving deserves the praise because he turned a player who wanted out with a limited set of teams he would go to into potentially 2 long term core pieces, and 2 young assets.
Perception is key and most fans perceive Tkachuk leaving and our team obtaining a franchise winger and top pairing D in return extremely favorably. Johnny leaving the way he did and equally importantly where he did doesn’t sit well with a large portion of the fans.
I fully agree Tkachuk has a better PR team around him and has come across looking great where Johnny was a deer the the headlights saying “just thought it was time for a change”. Tkachuk has a thank you video the next day, Johnny writes an article over a week later. Chucky handled this better because he was more prepared to move on. I do believe Johnny wasn’t sure until the last minute and he looks worse for it.