Over the past few days, the annual trade rumors surrounding Brady Tkachuk came out of thin air, and this time it caught the organization’s attention and they felt the need to make some public statements. Statements and posts from Michael Andlauer, Ian Mendes, and other media members have all made it clear that a trade to the New York Rangers, or any other team for that matter, is false.
How These Tkachuk Trade Rumors Started
In a post for the New York Post by Larry Brooks, he mentioned Tkachuk as a target for the Rangers.
“Excising Trouba takes care of one issue but Drury has spent the week in trade talks with multiple clubs with The Post learning that OTT’s Brady Tkachuk has become the Rangers’ primary target.”
Larry Brooks, New York Post (from Messy Jacob Trouba breakup is just the start of Rangers overhaul, New York Post, Dec. 6, 2024)
The idea that the Rangers would have an interest in Tkachuk makes total sense. He is a unicorn of a player. With 13 goals and 29 points through 27 games, Tkachuk is on pace for career-highs in both categories. Not only is he a strong goal-scorer and point-producer, but he is as physical as they come, and is an excellent leader. So yes, the Rangers would probably want him on their team, and so would the other 30 teams in the league.
At least once a year for the past three seasons, Tkachuk’s name has been out there with trade rumors, and each time, the organization, the player, or both, have come out publically saying that as of now, the goal is to win a Stanley Cup with the Senators and stay around.
A lot of rumors start based on the Senators’ team struggles, but Tkachuk has repeatedly said that he wants to be the one to take this team to the playoffs. All signs point to him loving the city, organization, and fans.
Countless Reports Shut Down Tkachuk Rumors
After Brooks’ post was released, NHL fans from all over were curious about what the aftermath of the reports would look like. With rumors that the Rangers are looking to move on from a number of core pieces, including Jacob Trouba who was traded, and Chris Kreider, who is a valuable asset, there was reason to believe they were in the market for a change like Tkachuk would be.
Shortly after the post was released, the Senators’ Vice President of Communications and long-beloved media member, Ian Mendes, indirectly replied to Brooks’ post on X.
Related: NHL Rumors: Maple Leafs, Canucks, Senators, Rangers
In Brooks’ initial post, he stated that the “Blueshirts targeting Brady Tkachuk in trade talks in what would be a whopper.”
Mendes posted just 40 minutes later with a screenshot of the Thesaurus synonyms of the word “whopper”, which included untruth, fabricated, falsehood, lie, story, and tale.
Later in the day, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch posted an article stating that a well-placed source told him “It’s total bull****” (from Brady Tkachuk to New York Rangers rumor is ‘Total bulls–t’ and ‘garbage’, Ottawa Sun, Dec. 6, 2024)
Every source close to Ottawa had immediately shut down these rumors, but for those still skeptical, Darren Dreger added “Nothing going on between the Senators and Rangers. Zilch”.
The NHL’s Board of Governors is getting set to meet, and Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic had an interview with Andlauer, the owner of the Senators.
In the story posted by LeBrun, he quotes Andlauer saying that in the one year he has been the owner of the Senators, there hasn’t been one discussion about trading Tkachuk. He then goes on to say that he would be frustrated if it was Brooks just making things up, or if another team, without specifically mentioning the Rangers, is feeding Brooks the information, it could be considered “soft tampering” (from Senators owner Michael Andlauer suggests Rangers-Brady Tkachuk talk could be ‘soft tampering‘,The Athletic, Dec. 9, 2024)
The NHL recently sent a memo to teams stating that they are going to start cracking down on tampering, which is mostly directed towards free agent signings, and how it seems to be a common case that teams have a deal in place before a player even officially hits the open market.
The Rangers gave a statement to The Athletic when they reached out to ask questions, and all they had to say was “This is an irresponsible accusation and we defer to the Commissioner’s office.”.
Following the release of the statement Andlauer gave, NHL Insider Kevin Weekes posted that his sources say that there have been no internal, or external conversations about acquiring Tkachuk on the Rangers side of things.
There are a lot of moving pieces with this Senators and Rangers conflict, and with the allegation of tampering, it could lead to a league investigation. The only thing that is known for sure at this point, is that the Senators have not made Tkachuk available, and likely won’t for the foreseeable future.
