Matthew Tkachuk Traded To Florida Panthers

It seemed inevitable that when Johnny Gaudreau left via free agency to the Columbus Blue Jackets that the possibility of Matthew Tkachuk following suit could occur. Of course, Tkachuk is a restricted free agent but after turning down a reported eight-year, $11 million offer to stay in Calgary, the writing was on the wall for his departure. The Flames filed for club-elected salary arbitration on July 18th. That avoided the star forward from being grabbed via an offer sheet.

WE HAVE A TRADE TO ANNOUNCE!

The #Flames have acquired Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a conditional 2025 first-round pick from the Florida Panthers!

— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) July 23, 2022

Matthew Tkachuk Got His Wish to Leave Calgary

When Tkachuk notified the Flames that he didn’t intend to sign a long-term contract to stay in Calgary, the trade option was the only way for the team to get something in return for him. Prior to this trade, he had mentioned that he would be open to a trade to the St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars. He grew up in St. Louis after being born in Phoenix, AZ. When his father, Keith was traded to the Blues in March of 2001, Matthew grew up in St. Louis.

Tkachuk Is An Offensive Weapon

Tkachuk tallied 42 goals, 62 assists while playing in all 82 games for the 2021-22 season. In his NHL career thus far he has collected 152 goals and 230 assists in 431 games. During the playoffs this season, he had four goals, six assists in 12 games. His +/- stat for the past season was a phenomenal +57, which means he was on the ice a lot when his team scored. He added 12 powerplay goals along with 17 assists.

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There’s no doubt that the Flames losing not one, but two star players will be difficult to recover from, but they will. In this trade, they received an offensive powerhouse forward in Jonathan Huberdeau (30-G, 85-A) and a solid defenseman in MacKenzie Weegar (8-G, 36-A). Cole Schwindt is a forward prospect who just played three games last season without any scoring. The Flames will get Florida’s lottery protected first round pick from 2025. Florida will receive Calgary’s conditional fourth round pick from 2025.

Tkachuk immediately got signed to an eight-year $76 million contract. That places the Panthers $3.4 million over the salary cap. NHL teams can exceed the cap limit by 10 percent until the new season starts.

Going Forward

The Flames will recover from their roster loss with another good scorer like Huberdeau. For whatever reason, Calgary has not been the place for star players wanting to sign a long-term contract and stay a while. Maybe if they got a new arena, that may help? Just a suggestion.

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