Article content continued

Along with Elias Lindholm, a right-handed centre/winger, there’s Neal who has experience on his off-wing as well as Tkachuk who has played left wing for the past two years in the NHL and nearly all of his junior career.

Tkachuk indicated that he practised this off-season with the option to play his off-wing in mind.

“I think I worked a little bit more on catching my passes on my backhand side or on my off-wing coming down the wing on three-on-twos,” Tkachuk said. “You don’t go out of your way to practice that stuff, but maybe you think about it more. Maybe you try harder on it in the summer because you might actually end up on that side, whereas before, I was pretty much glued on the left side.”

That being said …

“It’s one of those things where you’re not on the left side the whole game,” said Tkachuk who has played with centre Mikael Backlund and right winger Michael Frolik on the team’s second line for the majority of the last two seasons. “Your first option coming back is going to the left side. But we’re in the NHL and should be able to catch a pass on our backhand, right? I don’t know if the adjustment will be too hard. It’ll be a little different picking up (pucks that) rim (around the boards), but it’s nothing I haven’t done. I just think if you are given that opportunity (on the top line with Gaudreau and Monahan), it’s two guys I haven’t played with yet.”

This year is an interesting one for Tkachuk who faces an expiring contract at the end of the 2018-19 season. He indicated that he wants to keep conversations strictly business — on-ice business, that is.