Matthew Tkachuk Stays With Flames

The Calgary Flames have decided to keep 18 year old prospect Matthew Tkachuk in the NHL past the nine-game mark and officially burn a year off of Tkachuk’s entry level contract (ELC).

Matthew—son of former NHLer Keith Tkachuk—has amassed 1G and 3A in 9 games for the Flames and has not looked out of place so far this season. He is currently playing on a line with Michael Frolik and Mikael Backlund, reports the Calgary Herald’s Kristen Odland. While Tkachuk has averaged under 12 minutes a game, the decision to keep him foreshadows more playing time.

Tkachuk is just one of five draftees from this summer’s draft to remain with his team past the nine-game slide rule threshold. The other four are Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, Jesse Puljujarvi, and Jakob Chychrun. The nine-game mark is important to teams—if a player plays nine games or less in the NHL then the year does not count as a year under the ELC. The ELC basically ’slides’ intact to the next year. If the player plays more than nine games in the NHL, however, then that year counts as one year of the ELC.