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Hurricanes’ 2022 trade offer for Matthew Tkachuk included Martin Necas, Alexander Nikishin and more: Friedman
Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
On Sunday, the Ottawa Senators traded Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers.
Over at Sportsnet, Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas discussed Tkachuk’s trade on the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast. As part of that discussion, Friedman circled back to the 2022 trade that sent Brady’s older brother, Matthew, from the Calgary Flames to the Florida Panthers.
At the time, the Flames were said to have been weighing two trade proposals: a “win-now” package from the Panthers and a “futures” deal from the Carolina Hurricanes. On the heels of a regular season division title and a second-round playoff exit the Flames opted to try to keep their playoff contention open window, acquiring Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt and a conditional first-round pick in exchange for Tkachuk and a conditional fourth-round pick.
Well, Friedman spilled the beans on Carolina’s 2022 offer during Monday’s 32 Thoughts podcast:
Kyle: Elliotte, as you mentioned the teams that Brady gave, even though it was clear there was one really he was interested in going towards, the fact that Carolina was there was interesting.
Elliotte: Well, don’t forget that Matthew was almost traded to Carolina.
Kyle: Right. Right.
Elliotte: When Matthew was traded to Florida at the end it was Florida and it was Carolina, and Carolina’s package was [Martin] Necas, [Alexander] Nikishin, I think the Flames had to take Jake Gardner’s money and there was a first or two, one or two firsts, as part of it.
For the curious, let’s compare the two packages – cap hits and ages are as of July 2022, via PuckPedia:
From Carolina | From Florida |
F Martin Necas [23; $3 million] D Alexander Nikishin [21; unsigned] D Jake Gardiner [32; $4.05 million] First round pick | F Jonathan Huberdeau [29; $5.9 million] D MacKenzie Weegar [28; $3.25 million] F Cole Schwindt [21; $855,833, two-way] First round pick |
At the time, Necas was still establishing himself as an NHL scorer, Gardiner was dealing with long-term hip and back injuries and was residing on the injury reserve list, while Nikishin was playing in the KHL but the Hurricanes held his North American rights after drafting him in 2020. On paper, the package the Flames received from Florida featured more established NHL players, but it also carried a heftier cap hit.
Despite probably taking the better package in terms of staying competitive, the Flames’ contention window ended up slamming shut anyway, as Huberdeau and Weegar took awhile to adjust to the Western Conference (and Darryl Sutter’s demanding coaching style) and the Flames missed the playoffs. Sutter and general manager Brad Treliving departed the Flames at the end of the 2022-23 season, and the Flames ended up transitioning into a rebuild during the 2023-24 season under new general manager Craig Conroy.
What do you think of the reported Carolina trade package? Let us know in the comments!
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