Matthew Tkachuk: Throughout the summer, that was the big talk with me and my representatives on the potential options of what I put myself (through) on the contract. That's what I came to. Once I came to that realization, I owed it to (Treliving) to have an honest talk and tell him why and what I've been thinking. Once I realized what I wanted, I didn't want to string him along for months or a year. I had that talk with him. It was tough, but he obviously understood.
Brad Treliving (Flames GM): It was an emotional discussion. Later in the day, Craig and I had a talk. And then we had another talk and sort of said, OK, let's start to put some framework together of how we want to go about this process.
Tkachuk: Wherever I was going, I wanted to be there for as long as possible.
Treliving: When Matthew and his representative told us what their intentions were, they gave us a list of teams. We went to work on it immediately.
Bill Zito (Panthers GM): I remember in our pro meetings, we were joking about Tkachuk. When we had gone through the Calgary players, somebody had said, «Boy, oh boy, if we could ever get a guy like Tkachuk.» That stuck in my head. When I got that first phone call, I was like, are you kidding me?
Tkachuk: (South Florida) is one of my favorite places to visit. But I didn't really know too much about it. And then, talking with Bill, I talked with Roberto Luongo. I talked to a lot of past and current players about it. Everybody just couldn't talk enough about how great it was.
Zito: He was very gracious. He had done a lot of homework. He knew an awful lot about our team. I was really impressed by his knowledge of our team.
Allan Walsh (Huberdeau's Agent): I was having a late Friday night dinner with my family. I have my phone next to me like I always do.
Jonathan Huberdeau: I was at a hockey game that Friday night with my buddies. We were just having a beer in a parking lot after and just talking. That's when, at 11:00 at night, that's when I got the call.
Zito: I don't think it would be anything that I would share because it would be personal.
Huberdeau: I was shocked and, obviously, disappointed. I gave a lot to this organization. I think the respect they gave me, I think I deserved a little bit more.
Walsh: I see Jonathan Huberdeau calling me. Right away, I calculate. Friday night. 8 p.m. L.A., 11 p.m. in Montreal. Hmm. Right away, Spidey senses are tingling. I answered the phone, «Hey Jo, everything OK?» And he said, «I don't know, I think I was just traded to Calgary?» I said, what do you mean you think? And he said, «Well, Bill Zito called me and said I was traded to Calgary. Is it true?»
Huberdeau: I know it's a business and I know that's how it happened. You can't really tell that he was going to trade me. But (Bill) kind of told me 10 words, that was it.
Tkachuk: At dinner that night, celebrating my brother (Brady) and his fiancee's engagement, I finally got the news. Everything blew up from there. It was a really, really crazy night. Everybody there was super happy for me even though I might've ruined his dinner a little bit. But we had a nice time the night before, so he wasn't too upset about it.
Treliving: What did I do after it was all done? Sat in my office and had a beer. That whole week was as mentally exhausting as any week in my career.
