Dater’s Daily: Tkachuk Deal Coming, But NHL Trade Market Remains Slow

A good Thursday to all. I hope everyone is staying cool. I definitely do NOT want to see what my air conditioning bill will be this month. Let’s do some cool hockey notes, starting with what’s happening in Calgary with Matthew Tkachuk:

• He’s almost certainly going to be traded, unless Calgary wants to essentially hold him hostage until the NHL trade deadline this coming season. But Tkachuk told Flames management he won’t sign there long-term and Calgary is likely to want to move him soon. This, just after losing Johnny Gaudreau. Not a fun time for Flames fans (Calgary Hockey Now)
• I can’t believe the Flames let Gaudreau go for nothing. But, they had a chance at a Stanley Cup, or so they thought, so trading Gaudreau was never really an option. But you just can’t let a player like that leave for nothing.
• I wasn’t all that impressed with Tkachuk in the second round against Edmonton. I think he’s a tad overrated myself. OK, he’s a hell of a player. He just annoys me lol.
• Sources tell our Montreal bureau that Christian Dvorak is likely on the way out. Montreal Canadiens trade scuttlebutt.
• Things have been slow across the NHL in the last week, though, when it comes to transactions. Lots of good players still don’t have deals.
• Patrice Bergeron is still unsigned. However, did new head coach Jim Montgomery spill the Boston baked beans on Bergeron’s future? Boston Bruins news.
• I re-watched the documentary: “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.” I like to cook a lot. In fact, I do probably 95 percent of the cooking in our household. I would like to try to make good sushi, but Jiro, the 85-year-old master chef profiled in the film, makes that an intimidating prospect. He’s made sushi, like, every day of his adult life and runs a 3-star Michelin restaurant.
• I like cooking shows. If I didn’t have the worst back in the world, I would SERIOUSLY have considered being a chef if the sports writing thing didn’t work out.
• If you’ve never read the Anthony Bourdain book “Kitchen Confidential”, you must do so.
• I once worked at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, 1984, in West Lebanon, N.H. I was 19 and made the princely sum of $4 an hour. I placed hundreds of pieces of breaded, floured chicken in deep fryers, then hauled it out from the deep oil that started out as a 100-pound block of lard boiled into boiling, scalding oil that would spill on your hands all the time. The owner dissed me all the time as a “college boy” who supposedly didn’t have the work ethic of exalted individuals like him. I had long hair and wore Kiss T-shirts and pretty much just gave him Beavis and Butthead-style laughs. I don’t think he liked that.
• The Islanders were in the bailiwick of the 2021 NHL trade rumors, but missed on Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko. It was an epic fail, but could it be a home run in 2022? New York Islanders analysis.
• Should Chris Osgood get into the Hockey Hall of Fame? He won more than 400 games and won multiple Stanley Cups. Our guys in Detroit lay out the case (Detroit Hockey Now)
• If I had to name the team Kadri might go besides the Avalanche? Islanders.

Just made a big drop off of food to this place, and @ColHockeyNow subscribers helped make it happen. Thank you to all pic.twitter.com/UPGyn8a6Os

— Adrian Dater (@adater) July 20, 2022