Tkachuk: A huge contract will be on the table

If Ottawa Senators and Brady Tkachuk can’t quickly agree the details of an eight-year contract, negotiations could turn into a shorter agreement in order to prevent the young player from causing a stalemate at training camp.

That’s what Sportsnet reporter Elliot Friedman said on Tuesday. A few hours earlier, Bruce Garewicz of the Ottawa Sun, for his part, argued that the senators had made an eight-year, $64 million bid. Such a contract would be identical to the one signed by defender Thomas Chabot two years ago.

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However, the Senses training camp begins on September 22, and Tkachuk, who is currently in the United States, does not intend to return to the Canadian capital without a contract in his pocket.

But the club’s general manager, Pierre Dorion, was reassured last week, after he himself secured a contract extension until the end of the 2024-2025 season.

“We had some really positive conversations,” he said in an interview with 590 radio stations. Do we have confidence that he will sign before the start of the training camp? Yes really. These negotiations are never easy, they should take a little longer.”

Picked fourth in the 2018 National Hockey League (NHL) Draft, just behind Gisbury Kotkanemi, Tkachuk has scored 60 goals, 125 points and 250 penalty minutes in 198 games since his debut on the ring.