The Matthew Tkachuk trade and why I believe Calgary won

BY: Cristina Hauerstein

Desperate times calls for desperate measures and that's what Calgary did after loosing Johnny Gaudreau. Gaudrau had a total of 115 points this past 2021-22 season in the 82 games he played and Tkachuk had 104 points (highest in his career so far) also in 82 games, making both of them Calgary's star players this year.

Johnny Gaudreau asked to leave Calgary when free agency started despite Calgary offering him a 12 million dollar deal. The New Jersey Devils also offered Gaudreau a 11 million dollar deal before he decided to take The Columbus Blue Jackets offer of 7 million a year. After that, Tkachuk wasn't happy with the move so he requested for a trade himself out of Calgary.

Many teams were contenders for Tkachuk, like the Saint Louis Blues and the Nashville Predators but he ended up going to south Florida to play for the Florida Panthers, while Jonathan Hurberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar went up north to Calgary.

As good of a player Matthew Tkachuk is, he has had one amazing season compared to Hurberdeau and Weegar who have been in the NHL for a long time and have continued to prove their worth year after year. If Calgary keeps Jonathan Hurberdau and and Mackenzie Weegar, they can become serious cup contenders, especially if Calgary learns to build around them. As for Florida, they lost two of their best and most beloved players, despite gaining a good addition to the team.

Despite different people having different opinions, this was one of the biggest trades of this year's off-season along with Gaudreau leaving and rejecting not one but two huge deals, both Ryan Mcdonagh and Ondrej Palat being traded of to Nashville and New Jersey, the Chicago Blackhawks loosing most of their best players and Patrick Kane wanting to leave the team and also the crazy 2022 draft that left everyone shocked - especially Shane Wright.