HENDERSON, Nev. — Brady Tkachuk turns 23 on Friday, so the Ottawa Senators forward planned to take advantage of staying in Las Vegas for the NHL North American Player Media Tour by celebrating Thursday night with older brother Matthew Tkachuk from the Florida Panthers and a few other players in town for the event, including Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils, Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks and Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues.
“I don’t know every detail, but I just know it will be a late one,” Matthew Tkachuk said Thursday at Lifeguard Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nevada. “… The fact that we have a bunch of us together in Vegas, it will be a blast tonight, I’m sure.”
In that way, the Tkachuks’ off-ice relationship was unchanged by the July 22 trade that sent Matthew and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft from the Calgary Flames to the Panthers for the forward. Jonathan Huberdeaudefenseman MacKenzie Weegarforward prospect Cole Schwindt and a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 draft. The bond between them as each other’s biggest fan remains strong.
But the brothers realized quickly after the trade that the on-ice dynamic would be different between them with Matthew joining Brady in the Atlantic Division.
“The excitement when [the trade] happened, it was pure happiness,” Brady Tkachuk said. “But then all of a sudden we started thinking, ‘Well, all right, this is not all fun and games anymore.’ These are going to be some big-time games moving forward.”
The Tkachuks have gone from being on teams in different conferences, which meant two family-fun regular-season games between them each season, to three intense regular-season showdowns this season, the first on Oct. 29 at Florida. Those games will impact the Stanley Cup Playoff race in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference with the potential for the Tkachuks to go head-to-head in the playoff series for many seasons to come.
Matthew signed an eight-year contact with Florida following his trade and Brady is signed for six more seasons with Ottawa.
“These games are four-point games. They mean a ton,” said Matthew Tkachuk, a 24-year-old forward who set NHL career highs with 42 goals, 62 assists and 104 points in 82 games last season with Calgary. “I’m sure our teams are going to have playoff battles. They’re just very important games for a bunch of years.”
Video: Top 5 Matthew Tkachuk Plays from the 2021-22 Season
The Panthers (58-18-6) won the Presidents’ Trophy by leading the NHL with 122 points last season and are expected to be strong contenders for the Stanley Cup again after adding Matthew Tkachuk. Although the Senators (33-42-7) finished seventh in the Atlantic Division last season, they are optimistic about their chances to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2017 after supplementing their talented young core by signing forwards. Claude Giroux to a three-year contract as an unrestricted free agent, acquiring forward Alex DeBrincat in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks and adding goalie Cam Talbot in a trade with the Minnesota Wild.
Brady Tkachuk established NHL career highs with 30 goals, 37 assists and 67 points in 79 games last season.
“Eventually down the road, we will be playing in those big playoff games and playoff series and one of us is going home,” he said. “So, it definitely changes from more of a fun aspect to an adjustment to more of a business and must-win games. … I feel bad for my mom. She’s going to be the most stressed out of anybody in the world watching that. “
The games between Brady and Matthew always seemed to be more difficult for Chantal Tkachuk than for their father, former NHL forward Keith Tkachuk. Chantal made them promise not to fight before their first NHL game against each other in 2019.
That promise remains intact despite the expected increased intensity in their games now that they’re division rivals.
“That doesn’t change,” Brady Tkachuk said. “It changes just how hard we’re going to be playing against each other, but we’ll never cross that line.”
And if the Senators don’t qualify, don’t expect to see Brady in the stands rooting for Matthew in the playoffs, like he did when he traveled to Calgary to watch the Flames face the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Second round last season. . Or vice versa.
“That’s all over,” Brady Tkachuk said. “That was a one-time thing.”
But Matthew and Brady plan to continue to have dinner together the night before games between them, if the schedule allows, and to root for the other to do well when they are not facing each other — from a distance.
“I’m still his biggest supporter, he’s still mine,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “We want each other to do very well personally, but at the end of the day, I want to beat his team so bad and he wants to beat mine. So, the games mean a lot more now.”
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