Brady Tkachuk: There have been signs “for over a year” that he wanted to leave Ottawa

Félix Forget
Brady Tkachuk: There have been signs “for over a year” that he wanted to leave Ottawa
Credit: Andrea Cardin/NHLI via Getty Images

It's been a little over a month since Brady Tkachuk was traded to the Panthers. The power forward, who had been with Ottawa since the start of his career, left the Senators after years of speculation about his future.

For a long time, it had seemed that Tkachuk didn't want to stay in Ottawa for the long term. And in the end, that was indeed the case.

On that note, it's interesting to note that Senators GM Steve Staios was a guest on the Sens Central podcast… and he took the opportunity to comment on the Tkachuk situation. And his remarks were… interesting.

Staios was asked if he felt a trade request from Tkachuk was coming. And the GM, in response, noted that he'd been seeing signs for “over a year” that his (now former) captain didn't want to stay long-term.

That's quite something.

But more importantly, when you break this down, Staios doesn't come across particularly well. If you look at Tkachuk's contract, you'll see that the forward has had a no-trade clause for… just over a year. Since July 1, 2025, to be precise.

This means that if Staios had really been seeing these signs for “over a year,” there's reason to believe he was already seeing them before July 1, 2025. But instead of trading him before the forward had a clause, he let the situation drag on.

The result? Tkachuk gained a ton of leverage… and he pretty much forced the Senators to send him to Florida.

The Sens didn't get a bad return—they received three first-round picks and a second-round pick in exchange for Tkachuk. But failing to land a player capable of helping the team (even though some of those picks were used to acquire William Eklund) isn't ideal.

And one has to wonder if Staios, had he been a bit more proactive in this matter, could have gotten significantly more for his captain had he traded him before July 1, 2025—when he could have traded him to the highest bidder.


Quick Thoughts

– What do you think?

– Lando Norris takes pole position in Hungary.

– Phew.

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