Goodness the NHL offseason confuses me. It’s either nearly entirely actionless, or there are things happening and I don’t know what they are.
The Senators locked up Filip Gustavsson for another two years, which solidifies the goalie situation for a bit with him and Matt Murray both firmly in the fold, and it sounds like the next orders of business are figuring out deals with Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the situation seems to be as follows:
- The Senators want to lock Brady Tkachuk up long term, because he is everything they want in a hockey player.
- Brady Tkachuk might want a chance to prove he’s worth more money than the Senators are offering him, so he might prefer a bridge deal (shorter contract, gives him a shot at a bigger deal in a few years).
- The Senators would like Tkachuk to be their captain, but they don’t want to make him the captain on a bridge deal, especially because making him captain means not making Thomas Chabot captain.
- Tkachuk would like to be the Senators’ captain, but he also wants to make his money.
- The Senators aren’t going to do anything with Drake Batherson until Tkachuk’s situation’s finalized, because they need to know what’s in the budget, OR they’re just taking a while with Batherson like they took a while with Gustavsson.
Is this right? Please help.
