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Matthew Tkachuk Reveals the three finalists to land him via trade last summer

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Tom Banks
September 9, 2023  (9:09 PM)
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The summer of 2022 was a crazy one for the NHL, and perhaps the biggest move to come out of that was the Jonathan Huberdeau + extras for Matthew Tkachuk trade between the Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames.

Plenty of interest

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While many believed the deal came about due to Florida offering Calgary the best package, that may not be the full story, as Tkachuk has now revealed that he was basically a UFA, and was deciding between teams at the final moment.

I felt very lucky because I basically was a UFA.

After making a Stanley Cup Finals run in his first year, it appears to be a good choice for Tkachuk, but with eight years on the deal, could one of the other finalists have been a better fit?

Three solid finalists

Along with Florida, Tkachuk was weighing up pitches from both the St. Louis Blues, the team his father played for over his long NHL career and the Carolina Hurricanes, who have plenty of young talent on their team.

With their permission, I was allowed to basically for one week talk to, you know, other teams and figure it out, obviously with their permission and everythingthe three final teams were Florida, Carolina, and St. Louis.

Ultimately, it looks like he made a very good decision, but it would be interesting to know what the exact offers were from the other two when compared to Florida, but either way, now, he's locked in for a long time to come.

As Read on Blade of Steel - Tkachuk breaks his silence on being traded, admitted he almost went to 3 other teams

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Matthew Tkachuk Reveals the three finalists to land him via trade last summer

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