Analyst Anson Carter tosses out an interesting contract comparable for RFA Brady Tkachuk

The month of September is upon us and with that, we will see the return of NHL hockey in some facet with training camps and pre-season action taking place later this month.

One key storyline over the course of the last couple of weeks has been that of restricted free agent Brady Tkachuk and the Ottawa Senators, who are hammering away in negotiations and trying to get a deal done.

Reports coming out this past week suggested that Tkachuk may not have been too happy with how talks have gone this summer, but with the recent signing of fellow RFA Drake Batherson out of the way, I believe that it's fair to say that Tkachuk can't be too far off now.

During a recent appearance on TSN1200, former NHLer and current analyst Anson Carter had some interesting talking points on Tkachuk - one of the main ones being a very intriguing contract comparable.

"I think it will be in Ottawa's best interest to have Brady Tkachuk there once camp starts because - you look at [Andrei] Svechnikov's deal - I believe that he's ahead of Svechnikov just because the intangibles he brings to the table.. so that's a nice base if you want to talk about a long-term deal for a player like Brady Tkachuk," Carter said of where he potentially sees a Tkachuk contract landing.

For context here, Svechnikov, 21, signed an 8-year, $62M deal on August 26th, which carries a $7.75M AAV.

When asked whether or not he'd go as high as 8 years at $9M per season, Carter also stated that he'd cap Tkachuk at around 8 years x $8M, potentially even $8.25M, to just nudge him ahead of Thomas Chabot, making Tkachuk the highest-paid player in Ottawa.

"I think $8M would be the number for me - I might go a little bit higher than $8M, but I would be a little bit cautious going into the $9M's."

Carter also believes that Tkachuk and his camp have a lot of leverage in the negotiations, comparing it to the Chabot negotiations. Like Chabot, Tkachuk is a high-floor, high-ceiling player who is almost certain to be a star player in the NHL, if he isn't that already.

If Tkachuk and the Sens truly do both want the player signed in time for training camp, that puts the turnaround time at approximately two weeks to strike a deal.

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