from Eric Duhatschek of The Atletic,

The St. Louis Blues make the most sense as a trade partner, with the New Jersey Devils as a strong No. 2. The most complicated part of the equation in sending Tkachuk home to St. Louis is wading through all the no-trade clauses the Blues have given their players over the years. Our Blues correspondent Jeremy Rutherford outlined five scenarios here.

My ideal package is slightly different and would include Jordan Kyrou (something for today and tomorrow), plus Vladimir Tarasenko (to make the salary-cap numbers work), and either a first-round pick or one of their top two prospects (Jake Neighbours or Zachary Bolduc).

Tarasenko is the stumbling block. Even though he requested a trade a year ago, he does have a no-move clause. Convincing him to waive it to go to Calgary seems like a significant challenge. The Tampa Bay Lightning showed it’s possible to muscle a player out of the leverage a no-trade or no-move clause provides by wheeling Ryan McDonagh to the Nashville Predators, but it can be complicated and isn’t the work of a moment.

Realistically, the Flames have two holes to fill here — one caused by Gaudreau’s departure, the other by Tkachuk potentially leaving. And while, in a perfect world, you’d far rather have Gaudreau and Tkachuk in your top three, replacing them for the 2022-23 season with Kyrou and Tarasenko is making the best of a bad situation.

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