Insider Trading: Senators not concerned about Tkachuk’s absence

Gino Reda is joined by TSN Hockey Insiders Chris Johnston and Pierre LeBrun to discuss the injuries to Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk and Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, how the league viewed Jalen Chatfield's take down of Connor McMichael, the latest in CBA negotiations with the NHLPA, and more on Insider Trading.

Gino Reda: Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk is missing his second straight game after suffering an upper-body injury against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.

What’s the latest on his return?

Chris Johnston: It doesn’t sound like it’s something that is going to stretch on for too long, but of course some alarm bells go off.

This was expected to be a one-game absence for Tkachuk earlier in the week and has now become a two-game absence with him missing Thursday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Internally, the Senators feel very comfortable about where Tkachuk is at. 

He’s had a tough season. He missed some time during the 4 Nations Face-Off and afterwards with a lower-body injury and suffered this upper-body issue after colliding with Penguins defenceman Ryan Graves over the weekend.

I think the Senators feel like it’s best to give him some time to rest while they are still fighting for that playoff spot. They do have a bit of a cushion and flexibility to give him that time off.

They’re being sensible and cautious, but I don’t think there’s any reason for anyone outside the walls to be too concerned.

Pierre LeBrun: In the meantime, the Florida Panthers didn’t have captain Aleksander Barkov in the lineup for their loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.

They’re already a banged-up team and Barkov is doubtful for the weekend where the defending Stanley Cup champions have games in Ottawa and against the Detroit Red Wings.

However, I’m told that the injury is not considered serious so that would be the positive spin on losing another key player. They will get Barkov back and they’re not worried about not having him for the start of the playoffs.

Reda: There was a scary moment in the Carolina Hurricanes-Washington Capitals game on Wednesday night. Hurricanes defenceman Jalen Chatfield threw down Capitals forward Connor McMichael. His helmet flew off and smacked his head on the ice.

How did the league see this?

Johnston: There was a lot of buzz about it and a lot of people were naturally worried about it when you see a player in that position.

General managers, coaches, and media people maybe don’t like this takedown.

What I can tell you is that when the NHL Department of Player Safety saw this, they didn’t have a lot of debate about whether there should be supplemental discipline for Chatfield.

What they saw here was two players engaged while trying to push and pull each other for leverage and balance. They clipped skates and ultimately tripped, which led to how violent that throwdown ended up looking.

They didn’t feel that there was anything out of the ordinary there. Remember, this is a department with George Parros, Ryan Getzlaf, and Stephane Quintal, who are all people who fought in the NHL. 

Their view was that there was nothing to see here but there was a little bit more concern elsewhere.

Reda: When we were at the GM meetings, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said he wanted to get down to some serious CBA talks with the NHLPA by the start of April.

Where are we with that?

LeBrun: Well, I guess he’s a man of his word because the two sides started negotiations on Tuesday in New York and then again today.

They’re trying to do it without much fanfare. In fact, that’s one of the things the NHL and NHLPA have agreed upon earlier on is that they’re not in the mood to give a blow-by-blow update to the media through the course of these negotiations.

They want to keep a low profile and keep a lid on things.

Let’s put it this way, if you start getting media updates on either side, that’s when you know things have gone off the rails and no one wants to see that.

As far as how long this might take to get an extension done? I spoke to one source involved in the talks and he said he had no prediction on that.

Remember Bettman had said in December during the Board of Governors meetings that would it be great if they could have a CBA extension announced in the June Stanley Cup Final.

At this point, no one can predict if that can be done.

Reda: The NHL regular season ends two weeks from today and from that point we expect to see a number of players come off long-term injury reserve and move right into playoff action.

This is something teams can do because there’s no cap in the playoffs.

Is that going to be addressed?

LeBrun: It is going to be addressed in these CBA talks.

This is something that a lot of hockey fans keep talking about. It started with Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015. It happened with Nikita Kucherov and the Lightning in 2021 and Mark Stone and the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023.

The reality is a number of teams, including the Maple Leafs, Panthers, you name it, have used LTIR to the max in and around the trade deadline to have the deepest possible playoff roster.

The reality is that this is not an easy fix.

Former Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland and Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill have discussed in the past that it doesn’t matter what your payroll is but come playoff time your active roster should be cap compliant.

That’s one solution that have been proposed during the year.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly has responded to that by saying that’s a little too simplistic for a very complicated LTIR system.

Either way, the NHL intends on dealing with this with the NHLPA in this CBA extension, if they can.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of it.