On Sunday, the NHL Players Association announced the list of players who have filed for salary arbitration, including three Calgary Flames: Andrew Mangiapane, Oliver Kylington and Matthew Phillips. One notable name missing from the list, however, is Matthew Tkachuk. However, although he didn’t file for arbitration, the Flames chose to file for club-elected salary arbitration on Monday, accompanied by the following message posted on Twitter:
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“The Flames have filed for club-elected salary arbitration with Matthew Tkachuk. This provides us the opportunity to continue to work with his representatives towards a contractual resolution while removing the possibility of an offer sheet.”
Many were confused by this, as it’s rare for a team to file for salary arbitration. As a result, some believed it was good news for keeping Tkachuk around for the long term. While that could still happen, this move seems to suggest the 24-year-old will be on the move sooner than later. Here’s why.
Arbitration Suggests Tkachuk Will be Moved
While filing for club-elected arbitration effectively prevents other teams from extending an offer sheet to Tkachuk, it also seems to suggest he was going to accept the qualifying offer from the organization, which would have been a one-year, $9 million deal. This would keep him with the Flames for the 2022-23 season before he became a free agent, similar to Johnny Gaudreau.
This would have been a major disaster for the Flames. They simply cannot afford to lose two superstar talents while gaining nothing in return. Sure, they could have traded Tkachuk after he accepted his one-year deal, but most teams would prefer to have him unsigned while obtaining his rights so they could work out a long-term deal of their own. Any team making a trade for him on a one-year contract would know he could bolt at this time next year in free agency, which significantly lowers his trade value.
The other issue here is that if his contract situation does go to an arbitrator, an extension cannot be agreed on until Jan. 1, 2023. This again means that any team that might be interested in acquiring Tkachuk would do so knowing they may not get an extension done, which will scare many teams away or lower their offer considerably.
Tkachuk Offer Sheet Not Likely
What this move suggests is that the…
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