While Mikko Rantanen and Patrik Laine have joined a European team to continue their training while waiting on new contracts, Matthew Tkachuk has taken a different route, according to Ryan Pyette of the London Free Press.
Flames RFA Matthew Tkachuk started skating with his old junior club, the London Knights, this week. He's out there with the Rupert twins. What a line that would have been (though Marner and Dvorak were pretty good mates, too).
— Ryan Pyette (@RyanatLFPress) September 18, 2019
Tkachuk spent just one season with the Knights before being drafted by the Flames in 2016 but helped form one of the most dominant lines the OHL has seen in many years alongside Mitch Marner and Christian Dvorak. The trio each totaled more than 100 points that season en route to a Memorial Cup championship.
Both Marner and Dvorak have signed long-term extensions with their respective NHL teams, but for the Flames to do the same with Tkachuk might be tricky. The team currently projects to have just over $6.3M in cap space and would likely have to make an additional move of some kind before signing the star winger to any deal buying out unrestricted free agent years.
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