Brady Tkachuk was the centre of attention on Friday.
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While a New York Post report on Friday morning suggested the Rangers were working on a blockbuster deal to acquire the Ottawa Senators captain as part of a trade that would involve defenceman Jacob Trouba, a well-placed source told Postmedia, “It’s total bulls***.”
The Senators would rather win with Tkachuk than trade him elsewhere and it’s believed the report by the Post that stated the Rangers would land him as part of a deal involving defenceman Jacob Trouba is a fabrication and isn’t based on any facts.
Another source called the Tkachuk report “garbage.”
Since Steve Staios, Ottawa’s president of hockey operations and general manager, took over the organization a year ago he has worked hard to try to put better players around Tkachuk to support him and help the Senators make the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
Rangers GM Chris Drury may have some explaining to do to the Senators organization due to this talk. Staios won’t be the least bit pleased to hear Tkachuk’s name floating around out there.
It’s believed Staios planned to have a conversation with Tkachuk to reiterate there is absolutely nothing to this.
It should be noted though that Post columnist Larry Brooks is getting this information from somewhere and it has been made clear that Drury has been trying to shake the trees to make changes on Broadway.
“Excising Trouba takes care of one issue but Drury has spent the week in trade talks with multiple clubs with The Post learning that OTT’s Brady Tkachuk has become the Rangers’ primary target,” Brooks wrote.
Brooks also noted that Rangers star Alexis Lafreniere would have to be part of a package in return, which is interesting but there has been no talks with New York whatsoever regarding Tkachuk.
Tkachuk wants to win in Ottawa and he’d like that to happen sooner rather than later, especially after watching brother Matthew Tkachuk win the Stanley Cup last spring.
Aware that Tkachuk is determined to win here, Staios spent the summer making changes to the roster.
The biggest deal Staios made was the acquisition of goaltender Linus Ulllmark from the Boston Bruins in June. He was signed to a four-year, $33-million US extension and has yet to be at his best, but has started to show some flashes of brilliance.
The club acquired veteran defenceman Nick Jensen from the Washington Capitals to help stabilize the top four and made changes up front as well.
Veteran winger David Perron, who has had only limited playing time because of a personal issue and more recently an upper-body injury, was signed along with forwards Michael Amadio and Noah Gregor.
Tkachuk signed a seven-year, $57.5 million deal with the Senators in Oct. 2021. He has four years left with a cap hit of just over $8.2 million per season and is the club’s best player.
He’s a key part of the Ottawa core along with Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, Shane Pinto, Josh Norris and Ridly Greig.
Tkachuk has 13 goals and 29 points in 25 games this season. He has been one of the club’s most consistent scorers and makes the players around him better.
Coach Travis Green came to Tkachuk’s defence recently because fans were critical of him taking 21 minutes in penalties in a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks last month.
“Someone asked the other night about reining in Brady,” Green said on Monday morning. “We’ve got a player — and I’ve heard this chatter a little bit — we’re lucky to have this guy for starters.
“He’s a skilled hockey player, he’s tough, he’s mean, he cares and he’s passionate about winning in Ottawa. And, he’s a very good hockey player. If you looked around, whether you played peewee, junior, American league or any league in the world, you’d want a player like this on your team.”
Green noted that day he will never tell Tkachuk to change his game and he wants him to ignore the noise.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” Green said. “Is he perfect? No, there are not many perfect players in the world. Sometimes when you have something for a little while you forget what you have.
“The Ottawa Senators are lucky to have this guy. I don’t think the chatter is fair. Is he going to make mistakes? Hell, yeah. Every player does. So I would probably take a step back on that because I don’t think it’s fair.”
Green couldn’t even believe he had to broach the subject.
“It’s always hard,” Green said. “Sometimes you gotta light a fire under a guy’s ass and get him to play hard. I’d much rather have a guy who plays extremely hard and teach him when to do it and when not to do it.
“People forget this guy is still young. I mean, my God, to go after a guy because he’s emotional and wants to win? Like really? We want all our players to be emotional and want to win. To challenge a guy like that is … I’m probably being light in my (comments) but I think it’s crazy.”