Matthew Tkachuk shocked on how teammate Johnny Gaudreau is treated

Forward Johnny Gaudreau is having a tremendous season under coach Darryl Sutter - that’s an understatement - but Calgary Flames teammate Matthew Tkachuk is shocked that Gaudreau-for-Hart train is rolling more than it is.

Tkachuk joined The Athletic Hockey Show to talk about how his teammate isn’t getting more credit for his production and leadership and how he should be a top candidate for the Hart Trophy.

“I mean, it shocks me that he isn’t the frontrunner or at least one of the top two or three. I mean, he has to be. If he’s not, there’s something very, very wrong with the system. And at the end of the day, he couldn’t care less about it. But it just shows he’s having probably one of the best seasons in Flames history, and how much he means to our team, what he provides. It’s like we were talking about earlier, it’s not just the offense. He’s probably leading the league in plus-minus, and he’s one of the best defensive forwards because he has the puck the whole time. He never has to play defense.”

Tkachuk can talk a lot of smack, but here you have to admit he’s right on the money.

Again, Gaudreau scored a power-play goal on three shots in Thursday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Los Angeles Kings. The winger is up to 31 tallies, 91 points, 219 shots on net and a plus-49 rating through 67 contests this season.

I mean come on, he needs to be on the Hart ballot - or else we’ll be shocked like Tkachuk.