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Panthers sign Matthew Tkachuk for 8 years, $76 million extension


The Florida Panthers and the Calgary Flames have completed a big, blockbuster deal.

Teams yes every announced swap: Matthew Tkachuk and the conditional fourth round selection goes to the Florida Panthers, while Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt and a lottery-protected 2025 first round pick will go to Calgary.

When the transaction is complete, the Panthers announced that Tkachuk had agreed to an 8-year extension with an average annual value of $9.5 million. That settled Tkachuk’s contract situation and ended any talk of him joining St. Louis Blues, which was heavily rumored in the days leading up to the deal.

In general, this is a type of trading that we don’t see very often. It involves three superstar players, two wingers who crossed the 100-point threshold last season and a late-blooming defender who has developed into a true top pair that eats up any situation. . Transactions involving the three stars do not happen very often, making this swap all the more interesting to unpack.

For Flames, the rationale for making the deal was quite simple. The team barely had time to recover from the loss Johnny Gaudreau to Columbus Blue Jackets before Tkachuk informed them about intent for a free agency test for a period of one year. GM Brad Treliving has been pushed into a corner, and he needs to find a way to revive his team’s competitive prospects despite his diminishing leverage and dwindling net worth. The deal is Treliving’s way of sparking the Flames’ hopes for next season after a dismal start to their season.

One could easily argue that, on a player-to-player basis, Flames get significantly better through this trade. That’s right, Tkachuk is a superstar, combining incredible skill with physicality and dexterity to provide a tool pack few players can match. On the line with Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm, Tkachuk surpassed the peak of his career in 2021-22, scoring 42 goals and 104 points. But in exchange for Tkachuk, Flames is gaining a player also has passed the peak of his career and reached new heights in production – Huberdeau. In 80 games, Huberdeau scored 30 goals and 115 points, helping to strengthen a Panthers attack that could score at will. And it’s not just an insult to him, Huberdeau has nearly two minutes of short-hand kicks per game and has made huge strides in improving his 200-foot game.

But that’s not all the Flames are getting. They also get Mackenzie Weegar, a 28-year-old former player who has quickly become one of the most trusted, impactful and underrated two-way defenders in hockey. Weegar has scored 44 points this season and is averaging 2:46 in short ice time per game. When Aaron Ekblad struggling to stay in the squad, Weegar became a true No. 1 defender on the most regular hockey team of the season, a real feat. It’s fair to call Weegar the number 1 guard, and he would be immediately expected to take on that role on an already talented Flames team.

In addition to Weegar, Flame is receiving center potential customer Schwindt. Schwindt is 21 years old and was selected in 81st place in the 2019 draft. The former Mississauga Steelheads star has adapted well to professional hockey and has 40 points in 70 games as a rookie of the team. AHL. Schwindt represents the future-oriented return, along with the lottery-protected 2025 first-round pick that the Flames also received from the Panthers.

So for Flame, this trade works on two levels. On one level, it helps them recover from their loss to Gaudreau and compete for a Stanley Cup next season. They are adding an MVP-level 100-point winger to replace their lost 100-point winger. They are also adding a number 1 defender in all situations. Instantly, their team is better. They also get a solid outlook for growth at their new Calgary-based AHL branch and also a good first-round pick.

However, the real beauty of this deal for Calgary is on the second level. See, this transaction gives Treliving something all too rare in today’s flat-cap world: flexibility. Suppose, for whatever reason, Huberdeau and Weegar don’t fit very well. The team may have difficulty getting through the gate, and it is clear that the expectation of 2022-23 Flames to compete for the Stanley Cup is unrealistic. Well, if that happens, Treliving will have Huberdeau and Weegar’s contract expiring. He will be able to immediately turn around his plan to rebuild the club and start it with two players who will likely be the most coveted assets in the trading term market.

Essentially, Treliving will be able to hold an auction for Huberdeau and Weegar’s services over the next season and amass a substantial stockpile of draft picks and prospects in the process. When added to the lead and draft selection received in this deal, it’s not a bad way to start resetting the organization, especially when it comes at the expense of a player who has announced his intention to leave the company for free. So for Treliving, this transaction gives him and the entire Flames organization the flexibility to be able to effectively pursue a competitive window of outage or bankruptcy or re-orientate in the future.

Yes, there is some risk to the Flame, no doubt about that. In fact, if rebuilding is off the table, adding two players with just one year of team control each as the main profit for Tkachuk is a gamble. If Weegar and Huberdeau both leave as free agents the following summer, and the Flames fail to win the Stanley Cup, the initial good feelings generated from the deal may disappear. But for a Flames team in dire need of optimism and direction after such a bad month, this was the kind of gamble they were prepared to take.

From the aspect of the Panthers equation, the motive behind this trade execution is a little less clear right away. This is a team that just won the Presidents Cup, so swapping a superstar winger for another superstar winger at the expense of being a top defender doesn’t seem like an option. wisest, especially when they need to give up a talented prospect and a first for their trouble. But a look at the Panthers cover might provide a little more insight into why GM Bill Zito and the Panthers made this swap.

With huge limited hits for Alexander Barkov, Sergei BobrovskyEkblad and Sam Reinhart already on the books, the Panthers are considering a very realistic scenario that Huberdeau, Weegar, or even both will leave as free agents next summer. Of course, that was considered a necessary risk for a team intent on winning the Stanley Cup, but Zito seemed to decide that the risk was too much to bear. So he decided to trade both Huberdeau and Weegar at a time when they were still extremely valuable assets for a younger superstar winger, with whom he could sign a long-term contract.

With Weegar gone and Tkachuk swapping places for Huberdeau, it’s hard to say that the Panthers are an improved team for next season. But if this exchange – as well as the departure of the interim head coach Andrew Brunettetell us anything, it’s that the Panthers were extremely unhappy with their second round loss at the hands of Tampa Bay Lightning. The Panthers clearly believe they need to change the way the group plays, to play with more physicality, fire and passion. There are few 100-point wingers that offer those three attributes more abundantly than Tkachuk can, and even at this high price, it’s easy to see why Zito would want him at Sunrise. If his presence in the squad and dressing room can help strengthen their team’s identity, it will be a well-spent asset.

This deal will be an extremely interesting one to follow, and the storyline it creates could dominate hockey headlines for months to come. Tkachuk is currently in the same department as his brother, Brady, who captains the Ottawa Senators. The Flames have recently faced questions about their ability to retain star players and they have now added two star players who, in just a year, will become free agents. Can the Flame keep them? Will the new-look Flames be as good as last year’s club? Will Zito’s hunt for superstar talent, at the expense of the team’s first-round picks for the next three seasons, lead to a Stanley Cup win for the Panthers?

Those are certainly questions to ponder, and it will be extremely interesting to see how they are answered.

Sportsnet’s Eric Francis was the first on trade.





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