Also thought this was an interesting tidbit I heard this weekend.
The rumor is that in 2019 the Tkachuk camp and the Flames has agreed on the construct of 2 deals, and that 8 years wasn't really on the table from the Tkachuk camp.
3 year: 3 x $21 M ($7M AAV)
6 year: 6 x $50M ($8.5M AAV)
What I heard was in the end Treliving preferred the cap flexibility of the 3 year deal, as well as the opportunity to re-sign him longer which could have kept him here 8 years after the initial 3 year deal.
He thought getting Tkachuk to re-sign long term again after year 6 would have been tough, and he thought that having 2 years to re-sign or trade Tkachuk before his UFA status kicked in (July 1st 2021 - July 1st 2023), would be better than only buying two years of UFA and walking him to UFA at 27.
Honestly I have a hard time faulting that logic even with the benefit of hindsight. I think if it wasn't for COVID (and a bunch of other things...Sutter, Muzzin incident, etc) it might have worked out too.
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