Community jittery over Tkachuk's status
Time is of the essence but the reality is the Ottawa Senators and Brady Tkachuk still have time on their hands.
With training camp set to open Sept. 22 at the Canadian Tire Centre, Senators general manager Pierre Dorion remains confident a contract with the 21-year-old Tkachuk will be done in time for him to join his teammates on the ice for Day 1.
Dorion told The Fan 590's Scott MacArthur and Mike Zigomanis in Toronto Thursday morning he's confident the two sides will have a deal in place before camp gets underway. The Senators have held several discussions with Tkachuk's Toronto-based agents Craig Oster and Don Meehan of Newport Sports and those talks continue with progress being made.
“We're not going to talk about it too much. We've had really positive talks,” Dorion told the station. “Are we confident (Tkachuk) will be signed by the time camp starts? Yes. These negotiations aren't always easy and they take me a bit more time.”
The belief in some circles is the Senators have offered Tkachuk an eight-year deal worth $8 million per season and talks between the two sides have been productive with progress being made. The eight-year, $62.5-million deal signed by Andrei Svechnikov is a strong comparable so there really shouldn't too much of a gap for the two sides to come to an agreement.
Though most of his teammates — including Thomas Chabot, Drake Batherson, Tim Stuetzle, Colin White and Chris Tierney — are in town, the plan for Tkachuk is to remain in St. Louis until he gets a deal in place. That's just normal practice for any restricted free agent to stay away until they're signed because they don't want to show too much eagerness.
The fact Tkachuk isn't here isn't really that big of a deal as long as he's in Ottawa by the time coach D.J. Smith has his first on-ice session.
But if Dorion is making the prediction publicly that Tkachuk will be here in time for camp, then the two sides may not be that far apart, but crunch time isn't for another 10 days for either side. For the most part, these negotiations are being done quietly and neither side wants any distractions so both have been tight-lipped.
If they can't get a long-term deal in place then the two sides will likely settle on a three-year bridge deal. But if that's the case that will be done in the late stage of talks. Senators' owner Eugene Melnyk has stated publicly he wants to get Tkachuk signed to a long-term contract and that's where both sides are focused as these talks enter the final stage before camp begins.
After getting Batherson signed to a six-year, $29.85-million deal last Friday, Tkachuk is the only restricted free agent remaining to sign.
No, centre Logan Brown hasn't signed his qualifying offer, but the expectation is he will if he isn't traded before camp starts on Sept. 22. As noted by a league executive earlier this week, the threat of the 23-year-old former first-round pick playing next season in Europe is a red herring if Brown really wants to play in the NHL.
His best bet is to sign, come to camp and see if he can attract enough attention to get dealt or picked up on waivers.