Pierre McGuire responds to concerns surround Brady Tkachuk.

The Ottawa Senators have responded to the big news of the day.

Earlier today it was revealed that Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk had made some pretty spicy comments regarding the ongoing contract negotiations between the Ottawa Senators and his younger brother Brady Tkachuk. You can read those comments here, but the long and short of it was Matthew indicating that the negotiations between the two sides were not as close as many would have liked to believe.

That is of course not the kind of news you want to hear if you're a fan of the Ottawa Senators, especially not when you consider the fact that most teams around the National Hockey League expect their veteran players to report for training camp sometime around the 22nd of September. That would imply that the Senators and Brady Tkachuk have relatively little time to get a deal worked out if they want his season to start off on the right foot, but the Senators themselves do not appear overly concerned.

On Saturday Senators Senior VP of Player Development Pierre McGuire spoke with TSN's Gord Wilson and downplayed the struggles they have had in getting Tkachuk signed to a new deal.

"So just some really clear, honest, updates," began McGuire during the interview. "Since I've been here we have had 5 meetings, either via phone or face to face with Newport Sports management and not one of them has ended in an acrimonious manner, not one of them. We're trying to negotiate, we are in a firm position and they are in a firm position, we'll see where it goes. We're gonna have another discussion with them before this week starts."

McGuire did admit however that the two sides were running out of time to get a deal done inside of a time frame that would allow Brady to start training camp with the rest of his teammates.

"I wouldn't say lots, I would say there's time. Training camp starts on the 22nd, we have physicals Wednesday and then they are on the ice Thursday," admitted McGuire.

In spite of that he feels both sides have an added incentive to get a contract worked out with the season drawing near, whether or not that will be enough motivation to get the deal done remains to be seen however.