Panthers GM makes wildly inaccurate claim about Matthew Tkachuk, mischaracterizing him after acquiring him

Both Weegar and Huberdeau are UFAs at the end of the season and would have commanded massive raises that Florida likely would not have been able to afford in combination. There's also the possibility that extension talks were not going well and that one or both players were leaning towards free agency.

Following the trade, Panthers GM Bill Zito said of Tkachuk, "Matthew is a tenacious, physical competitor who possesses a tremendously unique skillset. He is a consistent elite offensive contributor and has emerged as one of the most complete and dynamic young players in the National Hockey League. We are thrilled to be able to add a generational talent to our lineup."

While Tkachuk is a great player and certainly does have a fairly unique style of play, he is certainly not a generational talent - let's get that out of the way right now. He has exactly one season of 100+ points. A generational talent is often used to describe someone like Sidney Crosby who is the model of consistency or Alex Ovechkin for his legendary goal scoring prowess. Both Crosby and Ovechkin are the past generational players, the current generational players are Connor McDavid (obviously) and Auston Matthews, who appears to be this generation's Ovechkin. Cale Makar and Andre Vasilevskiy are two other players at their position that you could make a case for slapping the "generational" tag on them.

Tkachuk is a great player, make no mistake about it - but he is not a "generational talent", as Zito suggests and I wouldn't even say he is definitively elite. He has a well-rounded toolbox and set of skills, but aside from his ability to throw Gatorade bottles and chew on his mouth guard, there is nothing generational or elite about his skillset. Sorry, Matthew - but it's true.