Since news came out that there was progress finally being made on the Jack Eichel trade front, one team has started to emerge as a legit landing spot.
The Calgary Flames reportedly went after Eichel hard during the summer, but like all other teams eventually backed off. Could they be the under the radar team that gets this deal done?
NHL Rumors: Flames pursuing Jack Eichel
On a recent appearance on The Jeff Marek Show, Elliotte Friedman revealed that the Calgary Flames tried hard to acquire Eichel in the offseason. He also added that Eichel never said he wouldn’t want to play there.
The question everyone seems to have is what could the Flames give up that meets what the Sabres want. Despite all the renewed trade talk, and the possibility the Sabres would be open to a deal with conditions, they still want futures.
Do the Flames have what it takes to get it done? Would they be willing to include Connor Zary in a deal, and is Buffalo interested in him? That obviously won’t be enough, but it would have to be a starting point. Then Calgary has to clear cap space to fit Eichel in eventually, which spells the end of Johnny Gaudreau as a Flame and likely Sean Monahan.
Still an Eichel and Matthew Tkachuk connection probably sounds really good to Flames’ fans.
Senators still trying to get Brady Tkachuk under contract
The holdup in Ottawa centers around Brady Tkachuk’s desire to only sign a bridge deal, while the Sens want him to ink a full 8 year contract. A familiar situation if you followed what happened with the Wild and Kirill Kaprizov.
According to Andy Strickland of the Cam and Strick Podcast: “In a nutshell here it is, the Tkachuk’s want a bridge deal and Ottawa does not want to sign (Brady) Tkachuk to a bridge deal. They want to do a 7 or 8 year deal and Brady Tkachuk doesn’t want to.”
In a new report in the Ottawa Sun, Senators president of business operations Anthony LeBlanc claims they are doing everything they can to sign him. “Unfortunately, and this may be a little bit of news for you, you can’t believe everything you see on social media,” he said. “But, unfortunately, what we’ve seen in the last couple of days is conjecture that the problem is the owner is getting involved and dictating, and that part couldn’t be further from the truth.”
However; TSN’s Insider Darren Dreger said on a radio spot for TSN1050 that this stalemate has Sens ownership in a predicament. If they give Brady a 3 year bridge deal, they may as well go 4 years and send him to UFA status, which they don’t want to do. He then said trade speculation is about to begin.
So will this end similar to Kaprizov in Minnesota with a 5 year deal? It remains to be seen.
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