NJ: Tkachuk, Sogaard
Ott: Dawson Mercer, Anton Silayev, Leeni Hennamaino, 1st round 2026, 2 x 2nd round picks 2024
With the cap rising fitting tkahcuk in won’t be a problem.
Include Sogaard to get rid of the salary
Don’t resign Giroux
New leadership group
Stutzle - Captain
Pinto - A
Sanderson - A
Norris - A
Use the Tkachuk money to sign a 1st line LW
If they move Brady, they will want a sure thing coming back.
I am going to call it now. Brady Tkachuk for Alexis Lafreniere. He wore #11 in Junior, and apparently Melnyk and Dorion pushed hard to try and get him in 2020 but the Rangers wanted the Stutzle pick and Tkachuk.
You can only avoid the French Canadian superstar to Ottawa timeline for so long. Gatineau and Orleans need a hero if we're ever going to stop the next generation from cheering for the Montreal Toilets.
For the Rangers, the cap works out next year since Lafreniere's big extension will kick in. So there is only about 1M difference between the two. They don't care that Tkachuk is only signed 3 more years after this season, because their window to win is now and as a world class city/org in the biggest market, they don't have to worry about Tkachuk walking.
The Senators do it because once Tkachuk's NMC kicks in, they aren't getting a piece like Lafreniere, even if that's a downgrade in the short term (although, he could surpass Tkachuk). Lafreniere is locked down for another 7 years, where as if they keep Tkachuk, even if he doesn't want out now, they have to start thinking about trading him in a season or two anyways if he won't re-sign here. Add in the marketing potential of Lafreniere when they are trying to capture the Gatineau/Orleans fanbase. Daigle 2.0 in that regard.
Lastly, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, it gets Tkachuk's wife close to New Jersey. I think if both management teams were at a crossroads, one look at her Instragram would melt their hearts and convince them to bridge the gap and get the deal done so that she could be closer to home. I know people think GMs are mainly concerned with on ice matters, but anybody who has ascended beyond being a mere "fan" and is more of an enthusiast for the management side of the game understands how important it is for the teams to create a situation where the player's wives have good vibes all around.
Most GMs have shadow Instagram accounts that they use to follow the players wives so that they can see what mantras or slogans are being posted, the moment they see a "if you can't take me at my worst you dont deserve me at my best", they know that they need might need to make a move to improve the bottom pairing D, because even if the wife doesn't know it, spouting a mantra like that on Instagram as a grown woman in 2024 is a pretty good indication that while Travis Hamonic is a respected veteran, his lower footspeed and reaction time makes it far too easy for rival teams to forecheck against him.
The above is why I would expect a Tkachuk for Lafreniere trade.