After losing Johnny Gaudreau in free agency to the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Calgary Flames have lost another core piece of their roster in Matthew Tkachuk, as they traded him to the Florida Panthers on Friday night. The return, however, was shocking, with Jonathan Huberdeau being the center piece of the deal from Florida. With a player of Tkachuk's caliber being available via trade, the ideal move would be to add him to your core while sacrificing prospects and futures. Instead, the Panthers replaced the 29-year-old Huberdeau with the younger player in Tkachuk; they essentially made a substitution. Additionally, they also traded one of their solid defensemen, Mackenzie Weegar. Tkachuk also signed an eight-year extension upon arriving in Florida. The Panthers gave up a lot for Tkachuk, but the problem with the trade was that they were unable to maintain their core in order to make the acquisition. Although the Rangers had the correct assets, they did not have the cap space necessary to keep the son of Hall of Famer, Keith Tkachuk.

Any deal for Matthew would have had to include at least one first round pick and one of Nils Lundkvist or Zac Jones. It would've made sense for Calgary to ask for roster players, so Filip Chytil, Vitali Kravtsov and Kaapo Kakko come into play, with one or two of those going back to the Flames. The Flames could've also asked for another prospect and pick and the price would still have been worth it for the superstar winger.

Despite seemingly having the necessary assets to ship to Calgary in exchange for Tkachuk, the one asset the Rangers did not have was cap space. With Tkachuk's high level of production and unique style of play, he could have commanded more than $10M, and even if the Rangers were to move out Jacob Trouba and his $8M cap hit right now, it would still make life difficult for the Rangers, who will have to give contract extensions to Alexis Lafrenière and K'Andre Miller next offseason. The easiest way for the Rangers to have traded for and extended Tkachuk would have been to trade Trouba and Ryan Lindgren, freeing up $11M in cap space, which would most likely all be used on the former sixth overall pick. However, that would've been extremely unrealistic, as Chris Drury seems to think very highly of both Trouba and Lindgren. Tkachuk is the type of player that would be worth trading those two players for, but it was hard to see the Rangers ever pulling the trigger on something to that extent.

The Rangers missed their chance to make a move for Matthew Tkachuk. That opportunity came last offseason, when all the talk was centered around Jack Eichel. At that point, the Rangers had a bit more flexibility with their cap situation and could've afforded to make a move for a big contract before having to prioritize extensions for their younger players, which is what needs to be done this offseason and next. For now, the Rangers' roster should be set for this season, with the exception of Kakko, who still needs to be re-signed.

Joey DiMeglio - Ice Cold Takes/ Olde City Sports Network

Tkachuk (puck flipping): Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

Tkachuk 2nd picture: AP