Well, it was fun while it lasted.
The idea of Matthew Tkachuk using The Note blew our minds.
Reality verified the daydream Friday night, when news broke that Tkachuk had been traded to Florida, where the St. Louis product, son of Blues alum Keith, signed an eight-year deal with the Panthers worth of $76 million.
The average annual value of $9.5 million should come as no surprise. Tkachuk is that good, and the team on his preferred list of landing spots was going to have the best and first chance to lock up the 24-year-old phenom for the long haul. Florida took advantage of the same situation, so many hoped the Blues could and would. Tkachuk, unless he is traded again, is now a Panther through the 2029-30 season.
What was surprising here was how much the Panthers agreed to part with a team that won the President’s Trophy last season. Let’s go line by line. Calgary has…
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• Jonathan Huberdeau, a 29-year-old star forward and two-time All-Star who is coming off a career-best 115-point season that included 30 goals and a career-best 85 assists. Huberdeau was the No. 3 pick in the draft in 2011. Tkachuk was No. 6 in 2016.
• MacKenzie Weegar, a proven 28-year-old defender who had a career-best 40-plus for the Panthers last season while producing career highs in goals (eight) and assists (36).
• Cole Schwindt, a 21-year-old rookie forward and former third-round pick who has three career NHL games.
• A lottery-protected first-round pick in the 2025 draft. Calgary sent a conditional fourth-round pick to Florida along with Tkachuk, and that’s it.
The challenge Calgary took on in trading Tkachuk after he made it clear he wouldn’t be signing there long-term was trying to get a return that had fans optimistic after losing not one but two key players in Tkachuk and free agent Johnny Gaudreau. Mission accomplished. Flames general manager Brad Treliving isn’t being criticized. He is being encouraged.
Huberdeau and Weegar were two of Florida’s key players. They will help the Llamas immediately. Combined, they’re set to make less than $10 million next season, leaving salary-cap room for other moves if Calgary wants to be even more aggressive.
Both Huberdeau and Weegar could be free agents after the season. This is not as bad for Calgary as some have assumed. Calgary can try to extend one or both Canadians. If neither is interested, both could be traded as rentals for more future talent, taking advantage of the high prices that the terms demand.
Schwindt adds cost-controlled depth and perhaps more upside than that as he grows in his game.
And don’t forget that prized draft pick.
Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff, who first reported the trade, noted that the Blues and Carolina were two of the other teams that entered trade talks for Tkachuk. That won’t make hopeful blues fans feel much better. Makes me wonder what a commercial Blues package would have looked like to match the one in Florida.
The Blues didn’t have a player score more than Vladimir Tarasenko’s 82 points last season. Tarasenko and Pavel Buchnevich were the only scorers of more than 30 goals for the team. Tarasenko, many forget, has a no-trade clause that would force him to accept any trade assignment. Jordan Kyrou, who many assumed could be the centerpiece of a potential Blues deal for Tkachuk, had 75 points last season. That is 40 points less than Huberdeau.
The Blues had a 40+ defense last season. That would be Justin Faulk (plus-41). Like Tarasenko, he has a no-trade clause. Same for Colton Parayko (plus-16).
Don’t forget the prospect and the first draft pick.
This would not have been a team-building trade for the Blues. It would have been a team-altering trade. You could argue that that’s what was needed, but it’s not the direction the Blues think they need to go. At least not yet. Paying this price would have meant separating from some pillars, in the plural. And that’s without going too far down the road of the capitalization math of figuring out who would have had to go to make room for the Tkachuk extension.
There is another thing worth mentioning here. If Tkachuk was determined to finish the Blues, he could have played a season without an extension and hit free agency to see if the Blues were waiting for him with a big check. Nobody should blame him for taking the money in Florida. But I won’t blame the Blues for not blowing up their team to beat the Panthers pack.
The Panthers are desperate to get past the Lightning and reach their first Stanley Cup Final since a flop there in 1996. The Blues believe some of the players who helped them win it all in 2019 can work some more magic sooner. of a great review. While it’s entirely fair to call out Blues GM Doug Armstrong for failing to manage salary-cap space in a way that allowed for a new deal for now-deceased free-agent forward David Perron, it feels disingenuous to criticize him for not lasting longer. than the Panthers in a trade race. which has some in the hockey world wondering if Florida overpaid. Even if Armstrong wanted to submit a bid that beat Florida’s, I’m not sure he could have done so, considering the challenges of the cap, the no-trade clauses on his books and the priorities Calgary seems to have emphasized. The Flames weren’t looking to rebuild. It is clear that they want to continue competing.
With Tkachuk off the board and out of his league for many years, reality now awaits the Blues. They are a crushed team with a beast of an enemy in Colorado. Hope is not lost, but daydreaming is over.