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Originally Posted by FanIn80

I disagree with their notion that Tkachuk never lived up to being a franchise player here. We never gave him the keys. We never allowed him to become a franchise player. We told him to change his game and tone down his personality, while refusing to let him take over.

Florida welcomed him and all that he is. They opened the door and Barkov himself gave him a copy of his own keys to the kingdom. They allowed the team to be remolded around Tkachuk's style of play. The back to back Finals Panthers are not Huberdeau's perimeter Panthers... they're Tkachuk's in-your-face, drive the net and fight you at center ice Panthers.

Barky and co. welcomed him in and welcomed the change he brought. In turn, he adapted his game and matured with the newly acquired responsibility that being a real leader brings.

You listen to Barkov talk about Tkachuk, and he says things like "Chucky's a real leader on this team. In the room and on the ice, his impact has been huge for us."

Listen to Tkachuk talk about why they've been successful, and he says "100% buy-in from everyone on this team. The way we play is very hard to play, but we like to think it's even harder to play against."

We didn't get that Tkachuk here because we didn't want that Tkachuk here, and that's why Tkachuk didn't want to be here. Florida was willing to become a villain-esque team that no one wants to play against, and they brought in a Darth Vader to make it happen.


All that aside, though, the real answer to the question in the article is 100% Florida, because "f### Edmonton" supercedes literally anything else. I don't care what the parameters are, the answer is always anyone but Edmonton.

It's not a Flames fan thing it's a aging Gio and a aging Lucic that didn't want that chucky. A bunch of past their prime vets that use to but couldn't handle that kind of play game in and out told him to tone it down. Brady plays a similar style and early on his team has always had his back. The fact for almost a decade Calgary has started to become a team to get your last or second last contract has not been helping.