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Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
Yup it's easy to say with hindsight on both of those things, especially knowing what we know post COVID and how that partially changed these players wanting to play in Canada.
Really most people wanted Gaudreau traded after the 20-21 season, not extended. And if Treliving gave him the 8 x $9M (i've heard that was the ask at the time) then he would have been roasted for that too.
If anything the history shows now that he should have just traded him...because he's likely not living up to a $9 or $10.5M contract right now anyways. (This is what we should remember before signing Andersson to a contract extension when he's 30).
And in terms of Tkachuk the longest high profile RFA signing that year was 6 years and it was Rantanen / Marner that got $9.25M and $10.9M respectively and I've heard that Tkachuk also wanted within that same range as Rantanen for a 6 year deal.
In the end if either guy wanted to stay there was a more than generous offer on the table for both of them to stay, and both decided they wanted to leave to actually take less money.
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It wouldn't have been from me. I was more than willing to pay up for the franchise players of the team, even if I had to go slightly above what I'd be comfortable with. These are the franchise players of the team who lead your team in scoring every year; you pay and find the savings elsewhere.
Even dating back to 2021, all we heard was that Gaudreau wanted to finish his contract and sign with Philly. Well, in his final season press conference, he mentioned for the first time, that he'd be open to re-signing if Brad and ownership was happy with him. For me personally, that was all I needed to hear to get the ball moving. Then I remember feeling quite anxious by the summer when it hadn't been announced yet as Gaudreau's wedding was coming up. It always left me feeling uneasy that Johnny was marrying a Philly girl especially with the Chris Pronger's wife hating Edmonton fiasco.