Travis Green, head coach for the Ottawa Senators, speaks to the media at Canadian Tire Centre. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

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Travis Green didn’t see it coming.

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“I still feel that our group is-you know-you look around the league, and there’s certain teams that you know what they are. They’ve established themselves,” Green told the well-respected Millard and Shannon. “I wouldn’t say we’re there yet, as far as a team that’s established ourselves, because we’ve got so many young guys that I expect to come back and be better players next year.

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“A lot of our slack comes from players improving. And I said the same thing last summer. You look at a guy like Ridly Greig, even Tim (Stutzle) and (Jake) Sanderson are still improving (their games). We’ve got a lot of young guys like that: Dylan Cousins, Shane Pinto, you can go through our lineup. (Fabian) Zetterlund (and) Tyler Kleven. There’s a lot of guys that have a lot of room for improvement, and I really believe a lot of our improvement is going to come from there.”

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Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, dealt the No. 9 pick he received from the Panthers in the deal, which will allow Brady to play with his brother, Matthew, to the San Jose Sharks for skilled winger William Eklund less than 48 hours after Tkachuk was traded.

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“We’ve lost a good player. We’ve gained a couple of good players,” Green said of the acquisition of Eklund and veteran winger Andre Burakovsky from the Chicago Blackhawks.

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Green noted he went through a range of emotions after learning that Tkachuk wanted to be dealt, including some anger.

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“It was probably about a month after the season, three weeks that (Staios) brought me up to speed, and you asked me if I was surprised? Oh man, a little bit, of course. He was a big part of your team, captain of your team. When I came to Ottawa, I was really excited to coach the team, and for a lot of different reasons, there were a lot of good young players. He was one of them,” said Green from his Anaheim home.

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“So he would have been part of that reason that I came there and the progression that our team was on. I really like where it’s going, and he’s a big part of that. So to hear that he had asked to be traded, or he was going to be moved at some point, unfortunate is a word I probably will use a lot. I can’t speak for Brady, but I was a little surprised. Would I say mad? A little bit. But also understanding that players have to make decisions, and you move on, though.”

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Brady Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers and Bill Zito, General Manager of the Florida Panthers hold up his new jersey at a press conference. Getty Images

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While Green had a good relationship with Tkachuk, the two didn’t speak about the situation until after the deal was completed. Green played with Tkachuk’s father, Keith, and will maintain a good relationship with the family in the future.