Calgary Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk is among the large group of restricted free agents who figure to cash in next season.

Tkachuk, who has 24 goals and a career-high 57 points through 53 games this season, said Wednesday his preference will be to play out this season and then enter into contract negotiations.

“I think if we just keep playing this [season] out, my mindset’s not to sign in the season or to not sign in the season,” Tkachuk said. “If it were up to me I’d probably just want to keep playing and not talk about that stuff, not even discuss anything and just figure it out in the summer, probably.”

The 21-year-old, selected five picks after Auston Matthews at No. 6 in the 2016 Draft, admitted that he took notice of Matthews' five-year $58.17 million contract for more reasons than one.

“It kind of changes every year. It seems like there’s always that one guy or a couple of guys that change the money, whether higher or lower,” Tkachuk said. “You had [Connor] McDavid a couple years ago setting the bar there, maybe a guy like [Drew] Doughty setting the bar for free-agent (defencemen), a guy like [Jack] Eichel, too, signing, and now you have Matthews.

“I feel like every year there’s a couple guys, a couple big names every year, who kind of change the way a little bit. I think Auston changed it, too, going with the approach (of) a five-year deal, too. Maybe people haven’t seen that in a couple years, but it’s not like, uncommon. Guys used to do that all the time. He definitely set the bar.”

Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Giordano are currently the Flames' highest-paid players, carrying cap hits of $6.75 million. Daniel Austin of the Calgary Sun believes Tkachuk could earn more than $7 million on his next contract.