We don't get much coverage of the Sens where I live, so I need you Sens fans in Ottawa to help me out. Why isn't Tkachuk signed yet? Is he asking for too much money? Is the term the issue? Does he want out or does he want to stay? What's going on?

Given the Sens history of losing players in their prime to free agency, if I was the team I would want to go long like they did with Chabot, but I don't think he's reached his full potential yet so if they go that route they'll have to pay him more than what he's shown so far and hope he grows into it, like Carolina did with Svechnikov. Svechnikov's offensive numbers are better and he got 8x$7.75, but I don't know how comparable they are because I think Tkachuk is a different type of player. (Svech tries to be physical, but I think it's more just trying to show that he won't be pushed around. He usually ends up just taking dumb penalties.) They gave Chabot 8x8, but he had already had his breakout season by then. We're still waiting for Brady to break out.

We really don't know what the offers have been by both side. It appears though Brady doesn't want to sign long term with Ottawa....fair enough, most RFAs sign bridge deals.
Probably...I'm guessing Brady is asking too much $$$. For a three year deal the bar might have set by th superior Pettersson at 7.3m X 3. Brady is no Pettersson...so what's his value?
My opinion Brady wants ASAP as soon as possible, and really wants to play elsewhere.

Don't know why you say "Sens history of losing players in their prime go free agency." Who? Not Duschene, not Karlsson, yea maybe Stone. All teams lose players to to UFA, and sign other UFAs.

Definitely Stone. It seemed that he wanted to get to free agency as quickly as possible, and then when he was almost there he signed long-term with Vegas. At least they were able to get Karlsson to sign for 7 years after his entry-level contract expired.

Duchene and Karlsson definitely went downhill after they left Ottawa, as did Turris and Dzingel, but I don’t think any of that was expected because they were all still in their 20s and doing well at the time. It wasn’t necessarily brilliant planning on the Sens part to let them go as much as it turned out to be lucky that they refused to stay.

I tend to dismiss the loss of Duchene because they shouldn’t have acquired him in the first place. I know this is old news but I thought it was a desperation move because they didn’t want to lose Turris for nothing at the end of the season. Even though they got off to a bad start that season I think they thought they still had a chance to win before losing Karlsson and Stone, so they wanted an immediate upgrade for Turris instead of futures. That meant they had to throw in more assets, namely a 1st and 3rd draft pick, which I thought was like the proverbial throwing good money after bad. Girard was already a highly regarded prospect then, so I thought the Sens would have been better off trading Turris for the package that Nashville sent to Colorado, keeping the draft picks, and leaving Duchene out of it.

Anyway, you’re right that losing UFAs (or trading pending UFAs for whatever you can get) is business as usual for NHL GMs, but my point was that some teams have been more successful than others at extending their players before they become UFAs, and then Sens are not one of those teams. What the Sens do seem to be better at than most teams is drafting, so their key to success is getting long term commitments from the better players that they’ve drafted while they’re still under team control. The consensus seems to be that their rebuild is going well, so I thought the players who appear to be the key building blocks in that might be more interested in sticking around to be part of it than Stone was when the team was on the way down. Of course different players have different motivations, so maybe Brady isn’t interested in a lead role on a team on the rise.

Remember the Sens went to 7th game of the Conference Final. Then they acquired Duchene but the Sens went downhill. So luckily they got a good return for the failing Duchene later.
Karlsson had been declining in last year in Ottawa, maybe due to injuries. When Stone.Duchene, and Karlsson were traded, the Sens were out of the playoffs team. So it was time to reload.
Karlsson and whether it due to injuries or not....a great return for the Sens
Stone wanted to leave Ottawa for a better team...nothing the Sens could do.
Folks talk about the Melynk being cheap....I won't argue. But I Know the Sens have managed their cap better than many other teams. So many non playoff teams or just bare playoff team are at cap limit.
IMO the Sens are right path and will be successful very quickly .
Brady. Yea, I think he wants to try UFA ASAP. No reason for the Sens to overpay him, or keep a guy long term who doesn't want to stay. Sens aren't making the playoffs this season with or without Brady, so whether he wants to a Sen this season doesn't matter. Remember Brady can sign with any team, in any league right now. Seems like all these other teams don't like his contract requests either.