Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, and Brady Tkachuk

A Busy Summer Ahead in Toronto and Ottawa

Anthony Di Marco of The Daily Faceoff joined TSN Radio in Montreal on Monday and was asked about who will and needs to have a busier offseason: the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Ottawa Senators. In addition, he was asked how the Brady Tkachuk situation would be resolved.

NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

Host: “I’m just going to ask you, this is probably my favorite question of the day, who’s going to have a busier offseason, Toronto or Ottawa.”

Has Brady Tkachuk Played his Last Game with the Ottawa Senators?

Anthony Di Marco: “It’s who will?”

Host: “Who Needs to?”

Di Marco: “Like, who needs to be in Toronto, like, because Ottawa, unfortunately, they may just have to trade Brady Tkachuk. And is it just trade Brady Tkachuk for Robert Thomas and call it a day? Maybe that’s something you see.

But Toronto, should. I just worry that the marching orders from Keith Pelley and MLSE are going to be, ‘Well, no, we’re going to run it back,’ or, ‘Oh, we’re going to try and rebuild on the fly.’ But with what assets, right? Whether it be John Chayka or Scott White, fellow Montreal native.

If one of those guys gets a job and all of a sudden you don’t have the, I guess, the power to start wheeling and dealing and really get this thing more towards the rebuilding thing, rebuilding direction. I’m not sure if Toronto will have a busy summer, because they can’t add anything because they don’t have the assets. They have no prospects, no draft picks. So Toronto should, but I think Ottawa will, out of necessity, and that resolution will probably come with the Brady Tkachuk situation.”

Host: “Yeah, and I was going to ask you about Brady Tkachuk. Are we gearing towards a trade on that front? Because to me, it seems like things are souring there, on both sides.”

Di Marco: “I think so as well. Like, look, it’s already started by my editor, Matt Larkin, colleague at Daily Faceoff, he wrote stories this morning about coming to terms with trade scenarios about Brady Tkachuk just to stoke the flames a little bit. And it just feels like a story that is not going away. I think whatever happened behind the scenes with (Linus) Ullmark, probably over the season, really soured things for the group as a whole.

The Rumors and Noise Will Only Get Louder Around Brady Tkachuk

And he’s the captain of that team. He’s one of the more, I would say, likable players in the NHL. Everyone seems to like the Tkachuk brothers. Obviously, big personalities. Gold Medalists have played vital roles for Team USA at the Olympics. But like, you can have the captain of your team constantly be the subject of trade rumors when things are going well like this.

It’s been a very good two-year stretch for the Senators since the sale, as they have always taken over. I think Travis Green has been arguably the best coach in the NHL over the last two regular seasons, along with Mike Yeo. I think they’ve done a fantastic job there. But, man, I just think you need to get this negative attention, whatever it is, away from the team, because it has been a mostly positive stretch for the Ottawa Senators, and that needs to be the focus.”

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