News: Flames file for club-elected arbitration with Matthew Tkachuk

[Divine]

They did it so he can't drag this out to December.

How does that benefit him? If he doesn't sign, he pushes back his UFA year.

 

[Fig]

Can someone explain to me like you are telling a 8 year old , the reasoning behind Flames doing this .
From what I gather it’s :
Prevent Tkachuck from accepting his QO where the deadline was Friday .
The Flames did this to 1. Prevent off sheets being able to be made 2. Buys the Flames more time past the Friday deadline to work something out ?
Am I wrong ? ( probably ) or am I missing other parts to it ?
Would / could Tkachuk see what the Flames did as a negative or no big deal ?
Will this move piss off Tkachuk ?
So the Flames wanted to remove offer sheet
eligibility, gain more time to negotiate , prevent Tkachuk from just accepting QO and would be 1 year away from UFA for sure ?

I think it's simpler than that. Flames are cornering the Tkachuk camp to a quick resolution and removing their leverage in holding out. Happy, sad. Who cares. They lock down a short term or long term position with Tkachuk (likely lock down a short contract and trade if he's not interested long term) then focus on the other half dozen extensions and trades needing to be urgently looked at, rather than keep kicking the can down the road on those guys and stringing them along without an idea what will happen. This move is to keep a bad and getting worse scenario dominoes wise from spiraling completely out of control.

It sucks to watch as a Flames fan... But from the other end of the table, after the Gaudreau situation, I don't know how else you can do things as the Flames management group without letting the situation go from worse to completely spiraling out of control. They have to figure out how to lock down remaining moving parts to figure out how to sort out the mess vs allowing parts to keep moving and not being able to operate at all.

With Gaudreau out, it seems Tkachuk is another likely to want out. Speculation on Hanifin, Mangiapane and Kylington is also rife with the latter two still moving parts to be settled before knowing the short term and long term considerations for those players.

Overhauls are usually kinda fun and slightly interesting to contemplate NHL video game style. But I'm looking at this scenario and I'm basically like, "I want off this ride until I know we ain't going down the roller coaster again without a safety harness." It's not fun. It's scary and already a bit sad to contemplate.

 

[Kranix]

How does that benefit him? If he doesn't sign, he pushes back his UFA year.

They didn't do it to benefit him.

 

[Off Sides]

Most of the people here dont seem to understand this. Its pretty overblown. Calgary is avoiding the QO, an offer sheet, and setting a deadline for negotiations so there's no hold out. Besides that the only thing thats changed is if it still ends up being a 1 year deal (via arbitration hearing), it may be a bit higher than 9M

A bit higher?

This is a 104 point player where his agent can bring up other RFA contracts that paid them in total more than 9M. Salary arbitration, not cap hit.

On Toronto alone both Matthews and Marner were paid ~16M in their first RFA year. Marner had a 94 point season, Matthew 73 point seasons at that point. Even if they go with base salary in lieu of bonuses, Eichel as an RFA received 10M base salary after a 64 point season.

Offer sheets, they should have welcomed them, they could have either matched or took the compensation. No team was going to give up 4 1sts (10.5M contract) to sign him to a 1 year deal, nor would any team offer less than that on a multi year deal.

Hold out, fair enough it may have hurt the start of their season, yet even if he did, he still needed a accrued year to make UFA, if he held out he would not get it and Calgary would have held leverage,

Trade, now that he is headed to arbitration, any team who trades for him, he's still headed there unless they sign him to something else prior, and as we see he has the leverage to go and get one year and then be a UFA after

Like I said, I don't get it.

 

[Double Dion]

I've just done some reading on what exactly this does. I've come to the conclusion that it means Tkachuk will be traded. Given that I doubt the return in futures would be more than 2 1sts a 2nd and a 3rd I think it means the Flames would like to make a hockey trade. The only thing the move really gains them is an assurance of a 1 year contract and no offer sheet.

So we will lose Gaudreau for nothing, Tkachuk for a downgrade and still not rebuild.

It's hard to cheer for this franchise. Our asset management is absolutely atrocious.

 

[Divine]

They didn't do it to benefit him.

Your post was that Calgary did this so Tkachuk doesn't drag this out until December.

I'm saying how does Tkachuk not signing benefit him? Calgary has all the leverage there because if he doesn't sign, he's not a UFA next season. So that doesn't make sense.

If I'm Calgary and Matthew Tkachuk says I'm not going to sign, you just say don't. He loses a year of payment and becomes UFA a year later.

 

[Melrose Munch]

Ok sure but how does filing for arbitration not help that?

Shows that they don't believe he will sign...

No, you don't. He's overrated by you Americans and isn't worth anywhere close to 9.5-10.5M. His brother is going to be better than him as of next year.

I'm Canadian and I agree Brady is better.

 

[Double Dion]

Shows that they don't believe he will sign...

I'm Canadian and I agree Brady is better.

Matthew Tkachuk is a 75 to 80 point player without Gaudreau. He's also a far better defensive player. Not sure how you could come to the conclusion Brady is better.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Well a 115 pt player signed for 9.75 so it has to be under that

RFA deals aren't comparable to UFA ones. His comparable would be players who signed RFA deals after getting 100 points - ish. He could easily use Marner or even McDavid comparables. He could easily be awarded a one year, $11m contract.

This could cost Calgary more than his QO would have, and they are still only getting a one year deal unless they sign him to long-term contract prior to hearing.

 

[Double Dion]

RFA deals aren't comparable to UFA ones. His comparable would be players who signed RFA deals after getting 100 points - ish. He could easily use Marner or even McDavid comparables. He could easily be awarded a one year, $11m contract.

This could cost Calgary more than his QO would have, and they are still only getting a one year deal unless they sign him to long-term contract prior to hearing.

I don't think they can use a McDavid comparable. I think the best one is probably Kaprizov or Marner.

I agree with your logic in general though. The logic from the Flames side has to be that they want to make a hockey trade and are scared of a offer sheet. It's the only thing that makes sense unfortunately.

 

[Fig]

Your post was that Calgary did this so Tkachuk doesn't drag this out until December.

I'm saying how does Tkachuk not signing benefit him? Calgary has all the leverage there because if he doesn't sign, he's not a UFA next season. So that doesn't make sense.

If I'm Calgary and Matthew Tkachuk says I'm not going to sign, you just say don't. He loses a year of payment and becomes UFA a year later.

Calgary has other RFA in mangiapane and Kylington to sort out. You can't let the Gaudreau situation respawn again from Tkachuk into those guys who had filed for arbitration if he doesn't sort out his contract/trade situation prior to those arbitration hearings.

For Gaudreau, if the outcome was known a few weeks earlier, Flames still have options to salvage the situation.

Calgary taking the arbitration option helps to maintain those options and a clearer picture on Mangiapane and Kylington. Tkachuk doesn't have to hold out till December to screw things up. That's just the absolute worse case scenario and how far the leverage can go. Things are already screwed and they just keep amplifying for every week his contract is not sorted out. The arbitration a non moveable deadline/ultimatum to remove a bottle neck and know whether to proceed forward or mutually move on IMO.

 

[Conbon]

If any good can come from this disaster of an offseason its that Treliving will finally be fired but I won't hold my breath

 

[MarkovsKnee]

It prevents a team from doing an offer sheet that would result in the flames matching it and thus preventing any trades what so ever. It also prevents the player from dragging it out.

Yup, say a team offers Tkachuk a one year contract. Calgary matches then can't trade him for a year. He walks as a UFA.

Rumours were Colorado actually thought about doing this to Mark Stone when he was in the same situation as Tkachuk. Then decided not to screw with Ottawa that much.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Might have been better to let him sign the offer sheet and just match it, depending by if was something ridiculous like $11M AAV

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

I wonder if Treliving had an idea Tkachuk was ready to accept his qualifying offer so he's nixed that

either way, a major bungling by him to have both him and Gaudreau up for contract renewal in the same year

 

[Connor McConnor]

Shows that they don't believe he will sign...

I'm Canadian and I agree Brady is better.

They've tried to offer Matty a contract that is higher than what he is worth, paying the usual "Canadian team tax" and he still doesn't want to sign. Not only that, he's taking them down a route that very likely leads to them getting nothing back in return while he maximizes his money the whole time.

 

[StlBill]

Matthew Tkachuk is a 75 to 80 point player without Gaudreau. He's also a far better defensive player. Not sure how you could come to the conclusion Brady is better.

I beg to differ, put him on Robert Thomas’s wing over the next five years, he consistently puts up 90+

 

[PostBradMalone]

I beg to differ, put him on Robert Thomas’s wing over the next five years, he consistently puts up 90+

The good: Tkachuk-Thomas-Kyrou is probably one of the league’s best lines for a long time

The bad: At their respective future cap hits, it will be St. Louis’ only line.

 

[Double Dion]

I beg to differ, put him on Robert Thomas’s wing over the next five years, he consistently puts up 90+

Doubtful. Thomas is a playmaker but not a play driver. Gaudreau was both. Moreover you'd be wasting Tkachuk playing with with Thomas. He should be with ROR and Kyrou seeing the hard matchups.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Keith Tkachuk is already on it. I bet Keith does more negotiating than Matthews agent. Keith may as well be his son's agent.

 

[Donner]

Calgary is in free fall mode and extreme desperation

MT is getting the he'll out of there asap

 

[Eggtimer]

I’m surprised there isn’t more chatter about this. To me it feels like Tkachuk is on his way out. That’s major news IMO
But then again, at this point it is only speculation that he wants to go play for another team as soon as possible.
I wouldnt count my Devils out as a possible landing spot. Apparently they already tried trading for him at the draft . Fitz is his uncle so that might play a small factor , being able to talk to Tkachuk about what his role would be and where he would fit in etc ( play next to Hughes and PP1 )

 

[Korpse]

Keith Tkachuk is already on it. I bet Keith does more negotiating than Matthews agent. Keith may as well be his son's agent.

Nah. Keith probably lets his brother in-law handle the business.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

Nah. Keith probably lets his brother in-law handle the business.

I think Matthew requests a trade by December of this year. Then Lindholm will likely want out.
It will have a spiral effect on the team.

The fact that their GM let their best player, who just put up 115pts walk for nothing is a fail.

 

[McVespa99]

When the dust settles some team is going to pay MT like he is McDavid or Mack and will be hugely disappointed when they realize he is not. Curious to see how he does without JG feeding him. Betting its not 104 points