Senators Owner Elaborates On Tampering Accusation Involving Rangers And Brady Tkachuk

According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer called the report linking Brady Tkachuk as the New York Rangers’ primary target “soft tampering.”

Andlauer further elaborated on his frustrations and about how he is just looking out for Tkachuk’s well-being.

“Here’s my frustration: I talk about how I care for these players, and I care for their families — you make a commitment to a team for six, seven years, you set roots in the community, you’re part of this community, there’s a lot of pressure on these young men,” Andlauer said. “Yes, people might say they make millions of dollars, but the reality is there comes a responsibility with that.

“And when I see our captain, in the one year I’ve been here (as Senators owner), there’s been three separate occasions where there’s been fires we had to put out. I can tell you 100 percent there’s never actually been an ounce of discussion about Brady Tkachuk being anything other than an Ottawa Senator.”

The Senators owner criticised what he calls false reporting and views it as a major problem for the NHL.

“Or he’s being fed false information, and if indeed he’s being fed false information, or people are giving this information from another NHL organization, I don’t know — we just had a big memo about tampering from the NHL. I might consider that soft tampering,” Andlauer said.

The Rangers came out with a statement denying any form of tampering.

“This is an irresponsible accusation and we defer to the commissioner's office,” the Rangers said in a statement via Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today.