Matthew Tkachuk is now a Florida Panther.
Over at Sportsnet, Eric Francis managed to track Tkachuk down and has a pretty extensive chat with the former Calgary Flames forward. Among the big takeaways: Tkachuk went into his 2019 contract negotiations – coming out of his entry level deal – with an eye towards keeping his options open.
Tkachuk echoed Brad Treliving’s statement from earlier on Saturday that his decision wasn’t impacted by Gaudreau’s move to Columbus at all. In fact, Tkachuk wasn’t sure what he was going to do until after speaking with teams during the restricted free agent courting period that opened up on July 12.