The crazy behind the scenes details of this summer's blockbuster Tkachuk for Huberdeau trade

Julian McKenzie of The Athletic has just published an absolute must-read story that breaks down the behind the scenes details of this past summer's blockbuster trade between the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers that saw Matthew Tkachuk, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar all change locales.

The entire article can be found here:

Read below for some particularly juicy quotes though:

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.

Again, the entire article is well worth your time. I highly recommend giving it a read if you have a subscription to The Athletic.