The Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers have completed a blockbuster trade. The Flames have agreed to trade forward Matthew Tkachuk and a conditional fourth-round pick to the Panthers in exchange for Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt and a 2025 first-round pick.
Full trade, per sources:
To #FlaPanthers:
Matthew Tkachuk (extension in place)To #Flames:
Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt and a 1st round pick.@DailyFaceoff— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 23, 2022
Matthew Tkachuk Traded
The Panthers immediately announced an eight-year extension with the restricted free agent. The deal is worth $76 million and has an AAV of $9.5 million. The deal carries through the 2029-30 season.
Tkachuk extension in FLA is 8x$9.5M
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 23, 2022
Last season was by far the best season of the 24-year-old’s career in both the regular season and the playoffs. He put up 42 goals, 62 assists and 104 points in 82 games, all career highs. And it wasn’t just him who had a career year. Linemates Johnny Gaudreau and Elias Lindholm put up 115 points and 82 points, respectively.
He slowed down in the playoffs, with four goals, six assists and 10 points in 12 playoff games, including a hat trick in Game 1 of the Battle of Alberta in the second round. The Darryl Sutter led Flames beat the Dallas Stars in seven games in the first round and lost to the Edmonton Oilers in five games in the second round. That’s the furthest the Flames have gone since Tkachuk joined the squad.
Over his six-year NHL career, he has put up 152 goals, 230 assists and 382 points in 431 games for the Flames. He has seven goals, eight assists and 15 points in 27 playoff games. He was originally drafted sixth overall by the Flames in the 2016 NHL Draft.
The Flames Side
Between losing Gaudreau, who went to the Columbus Blue Jackets to be closer to home, and now Tkachuk, the Flames will have a completely different look. Still, acquiring Huberdeau does soften the blow, a little. He is coming off a 30-goal and 115-point season himself. He is a supremely skilled forward that will slot right into the Flames top line. Huberdeau is in the final year of his contract, however, so the Flames need to hammer out an extension otherwise this could be a disaster for Calgary.
The other (seemingly) key piece to the trade is MacKenzie Weeger. The 28-year-old defenceman is coming off a career-best 44-point season. He will add a bit more offence to the Flames blueline this year. Weeger, like Huberdeau, is in the final year of his contract. As of the writing of this, no extensions are in place for either Huberdeau or Weeger. Perhaps the Flames are looking more towards the future right now and were really after Schwindt and the first-round pick.
What This Means
There are still a few interesting free agents remaining that they could go after, like recent Stanley Cup champion Nazem Kadri, Phil Kessel, Patrice Bergeron or Nino Niederreiter. And now they might have enough cap space to do so. Or they could make another trade for some other pieces.
If they don’t, this could be the beginning of a rebuild in Calgary just the summer after their most successful playoff run in years.
🚨#TradeCentre ALERT🚨: Panthers acquire F Matthew Tkachuk from the #Flames for F Jonathan Huberdeau, D MacKenzie Weegar, F Cole Schwindt and a conditional 2025 1st-round pick…
Follow every deal in our Trade Tracker – https://t.co/lTl9gr0T6Z#TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/A15y3zJ8P6
— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) July 23, 2022
