Tkachuk on his decision

[kehatch]

At least its a more authentic answer then the PR drivel we got from Gaudreau. "I wanted to be closer to home". Then why didn't you go to a team close to home? The real answer: "I cared more about getting out of a big market then I did about money, winning, or moving home."

Its still a lot of PR baloney though. It was time for a change? Every player that initiates a move is looking for a change. You can't get much more generic then that. Besides, he was planning his exit when he signed his contract. Its why it expires the same seasons as Gaudreau's and its why the salary was structured the way it was.

He is also getting too much credit for 'helping the Flames'. His agreement to sign an 8-year 76 million dollar contract on one of his short list of teams isn't exactly selfless. An offer sheet could be matched and his value could very well have dropped if he waited a year. The only way to get year 8 was via a sign and trade, and that required cooperation. It was in his best interest to do what he did. Just like it was in his best interest to hold out last negotiation to get his exit friendly contract.

[PuckDemon]

Originally Posted by kehatch

At least its a more authentic answer then the PR drivel we got from Gaudreau. "I wanted to be closer to home". Then why didn't you go to a team close to home? The real answer: "I cared more about getting out of a big market then I did about money, winning, or moving home."

So...every time a player asks to be traded to Western Canada to be closer to home (like Hamonic, Keith) they're actually lying? Because if they really wanted to be closer to home, they would need to choose only the city that is closest to home, right?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Philly06Cup

Might as well throw Adam Fox in the conversation too. Scouts knew he was unlikely to play for a small market and was looking to play in NY. What a respectful guy, letting the organization know his intentions from the beginning. Very respectful, giving the Flames so much notice. Apparently around here, giving ample notice is the ultimate sign of respect and honor and dignity and legacy and reputation and blah blah blah.

Your analogy only works if Fox would have been upfront about his intentions before he was drafted. Tkachuck did his duty, signed with the team that drafted him and played great for many years, then when the time came where he could choose his own destination was completely transparent with Flames management and allowed them to completely turn around their horrible summer. And if I put myself in his shoes, I do that exact same thing. Play out your career in a small market with #### weather, or make millions of dollars as a 24-year old and live in Miami. Real tough choice there

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

The Flames and Brad definitely dodged a bullet with Chucky. There is no way we should pay him anything over $8mil/per.

Panthers paying Bennett $4.4 and Tkachuk $9.5..... going to look SO bad moving forward. And Reinhart @$6.5 lol

Reinhart had 82 points in 78 games. Why is 6.5 for that funny?

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by bluck

“I think Tre respected me for talking to him right away about it,” said Tkachuk, who indeed drew praise from the GM earlier in the day. “I could have kept this decision close to me and gone about this a different way, whether it was signing a one-year deal and putting them in a tough spot."

Respect. Thank you Matthew for not doing us dirty like 13 did.

Respectfully, I disagree.

Tkachuk sold high on himself. Period.

Putting the Flames in a bad position of a 1 year contract? Say he plays his best because it is a contract year and gets just 70 points without Gaudreau instead of 100. Who loses there? The Flames, perhaps. But more importantly, Tkachuk? Yes.

And the highest bidder made themselves worse by signing him. He is not better than Huberdeau + Weegar. That team doesn’t have a first round pick for the first half of his contract.

His priority is money, not winning. Good for him. Great hat flipper, great interview. Good riddance

[Yoho]

Allot of whiners in this thread. It’s a business, it goes both ways.

[Poison]

Originally Posted by Philly06Cup

I'm tired of everyone chirping Johnny for 'disrespecting the Flames' for taking his time deciding where to play, and everyone lauding Tkachuk for telling the Flames to beat it so quickly and assuredly (!) as if that is something to be respected.


"F Johnny", he ruined his legacy, screw him, he's a terrible person, boo him, throw his jersey on the ice when he comes back, wish him all the worst in Columbus.. so much toxic garbage on this board because he took his time in deciding where to play. As if that's the most awful thing any hockey player could do. As if his indecision set the franchise back 5 years and cost them 10 first round picks.



Then all the sentiment around Tkachuk is, gosh darn, what a great guy for telling Calgary to beat it so quickly! He wanted out all this time, and didn't hesitate to let us know! How admirable and charming.


Blech.

That sucks youre tired of everyone chirping Johnny.
Both wanted to leave, Johnny did the Flames dirty.
Matthew gave us the chance to recoup assets.
My loyalty is with the flame on the chest, not the name on the back.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Much respect to Matthew for being honest and working together with Brad to get the deal done. Very professional way to go out. I good luck to him in Florida

[Hockey_Ninja]

Also, I don’t hate Johnny or Chucky and think they both shouldn’t get boo’ed when they come back to the Dome. Fox was a way bigger sleazeball than both of them and deserves the boo’s IMO

[PeteMoss]

For the record...

Gaudreau played seasons in Calgary beyond what he was obligated to because of the CBA.

The reason the Flames lost Gaudreau for nothing was because he stayed here longer than he had to. Chucky ran off the first chance he had any ability to control his situation. Gaudreau did not.

[dammage79]

I'm good with both of em leaving. They felt like two pieces of a complete player.

I'm still in shock Tree landed Huberdeau. Like that's a guy I thought was a one player team for his whole career.

Tree replaced Gaudreau with Hubey using Chucky to get him. Seems less challenging to replace Chucky in my mind.

I built up my own theme for the Flames offseason using Gandalf and how we needed Gandalf the white , boy did he deliver.

[Gaudfather]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

full article:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article...ft-the-flames/

Also interesting is that Tkachuk says he narrowed his list of teams down to 3

Tkachuk does give a parting shot to the No Goods, at the end of the article - so there’s that!

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I’m not going to dig up the posts to shame people, but when it was mentioned several times before that Tkachuk negotiated a contract that would make him a UFA at 25, something practically unheard of, Treliving apologists would try to paint it as something Treliving wanted. It never made sense.

I don’t recall any such argument. I think the argument was (in response to “why wasn’t he signed for 7-8 years”) that Treliving likely wanted a longer term, but Tkachuk would have wanted way more money for the UFA years being given up than the cap situation allowed, and that the only contract that he’d sign at the price the team could afford would be either a 3 or 4 year term, to get close to or right up to UFA.

[devo22]

whoever throws Fox into the Gaudreau/Tkachuk conversation needs to give their head a shake. Gaudreau was here for 9 years and over 600 games, Tkachuk was here for 6 years and over 400 games. Both of them signed and ELC and then another contract with the Flames. Whatever people think about their departures, but they were at least here. They don't deserve credit for simply signing with and playing for the team that drafted them, it's what pretty much every player in this league does - but they don't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the pretentious weasel who snubbed two NHL teams while being a college prospect because it was NY or bust. Fox can go do one.

Me having fewer problems with Tkachuks departure than Gaudreaus probably boils down to the fact that we got a nice package for him while Gaudreau left for nothing. I take a guy being upfront and getting traded as a result over a guy who dithers and ultimately leaves for nothing every time, simply because that benefits the Calgary Flames and at the end of the day, that's all that matters to me. Gaudreau maybe caring more about Calgary and being closer to re-signing ultimately does jack#### for this organization, so why should I care?

[rhino]

Originally Posted by Poison

All the power to him but to say he knew pretty recently it was time for a change makes me go hmmmm.
In any case he gave the team time to turn him into (mega) assets.

He knew recently it was time for a change but 3 years ago he could have signed for longer but wanted to put himself in a better position to assess his life after 3 years…. Hmmm

[rhino]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

For the record...

Gaudreau played seasons in Calgary beyond what he was obligated to because of the CBA.

The reason the Flames lost Gaudreau for nothing was because he stayed here longer than he had to. Chucky ran off the first chance he had any ability to control his situation. Gaudreau did not.

He only stayed 1 year into UFA to raise the amount on the contract. The Flames offered him 8x8 at that time. My guess is Johnny wanted a 4 year taking him to RFA or 5 year to UFA. Flames likely offered less $ for those options.

[GioforPM]

Johnny didn’t set out to harm the Flames, obviously. It’s just that indecision and messaging around that did hurt Calgary. OTOH, Tkachuk obviously wanted out for a long time, constructed his contract that way, and while he also talked a good game about staying at some points, when it came down to it, he made a decision which allowed Calgary to make a trade.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by devo22

whoever throws Fox into the Gaudreau/Tkachuk conversation needs to give their head a shake. Gaudreau was here for 9 years and over 600 games, Tkachuk was here for 6 years and over 400 games. Both of them signed and ELC and then another contract with the Flames. Whatever people think about their departures, but they were at least here. They don't deserve credit for simply signing with and playing for the team that drafted them, it's what pretty much every player in this league does - but they don't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as the pretentious weasel who snubbed two NHL teams while being a college prospect because it was NY or bust. Fox can go do one.

Me having fewer problems with Tkachuks departure than Gaudreaus probably boils down to the fact that we got a nice package for him while Gaudreau left for nothing. I take a guy being upfront and getting traded as a result over a guy who dithers and ultimately leaves for nothing every time, simply because that benefits the Calgary Flames and at the end of the day, that's all that matters to me. Gaudreau maybe caring more about Calgary and being closer to re-signing ultimately does jack#### for this organization, so why should I care?

You shouldn’t care, but Tkachuk all doesn’t deserve any credit for Treliving being able to get assets for him.

And you know, if that’s an important thing to you, Fox allowed us to do that as well.

[Bonded]

Gaudreau and Huberdeau on the same team would have been interesting. I do wonder of Gaudreau stayed and Tkachuk wanted out if the return would have been different

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by Philly06Cup

Might as well throw Adam Fox in the conversation too. Scouts knew he was unlikely to play for a small market and was looking to play in NY. What a respectful guy, letting the organization know his intentions from the beginning. Very respectful, giving the Flames so much notice. Apparently around here, giving ample notice is the ultimate sign of respect and honor and dignity and legacy and reputation and blah blah blah.

I’m with you. He comes across as an entitled brat. Not the first time he has either. Glad we were able to get some assets for him but honestly, couldn’t be happier to move on from Tkachuk the individual.