from Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

With center Elias Pettersson and defenseman Quinn Hughes nearing new deals with the Vancouver Canucks, Tkachuk is the last big RFA to remain without a contract.

He is upholding the Tkachuk family tradition of being really hard to sign.

Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk foreshadowed this outcome with candid comments to the media a while back. Brady is the cornerstone the Ottawa Senators are building upon, so he’s going to get paid.

Brady is a bulldozing power forward who impacts games many way. He likes it in Ottawa and is willing to settle there. He is expected to serve as the Senators’ captain for many years to come.

So it’s just a matter of when he gets paid and how. Speculation has centered on his desire to be paid significantly in lump-sum bonuses versus salary, which adds real-dollar value to the deal and protects him from a work stoppage.

As for the Canucks, they are nearing deals for Hughes (six years, $7.75 million average annual value) and Pettersson (three years, $7.7 million AAV).

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