Ottawa Senators Captain Brady Tkachuk was recently floated in a quickly denied trade rumour, and now Senators owner Michael Andlauer is calling on commissioner Gary Bettman for an investigation.

The NHL recently put out a statement saying that they would be cracking down on tampering, and it seems Andlauer believes there was ill-intent by the Rangers.

Ottawa Senators Owner Michael Andlauer Calls on NHL to Investigate New York Rangers for Tampering

The trade rumour linking Brady Tkachuk to the New York Rangers came from New York Post reporter Larry Brooks. A Senators employee immediately released a statement calling the rumour completely false.

It seems that Andlauer may believe that the Rangers planted that potential trade rumour to attract Tkachuk to the idea of playing for New York.

If that is indeed the case, the NHL and Gary Bettman need to make good on their recent promise to crack down on teams tampering with players under contract for another team.

Tampering is more traditionally seen when General Managers begin contract negotiations with a pending free agent early, but Andlauer is calling this an example of «soft tampering», using other avenues to influence a player’s decisions.

Not only that, but it causes some significant internal conflict among the Senators that’s entirely baseless. Brady Tkachuk is under contract for the next 4 seasons at $8.2M, the Senators absolutely do not need to trade him.

Given the Senators staunch and immediate denial of any trade rumours for Tkachuk, it seems like they’re committed to keeping him in Ottawa for his career. Recently though, Tkachuk did discuss the past possibility of playing with the Edmonton Oilers.

We’ll see how Gary Bettman responds to Andlauer’s request for an investigation. It’ll certainly be interesting to see if the NHL keeps their promise, and if this event constitutes tampering.