Selected by Ottawa with the No. 4 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft, the 26-year-old forward has 407 points (191 goals, 216 assists) in 515 regular-season games and seven points (four goals, three assists) in six playoff games.
“He’s a big voice in this room. He leads by example,” Senators forward Drake Batherson said. “So, we have a lot of older guys and guys who’ve been around who can step in and help out, but at the end of the day, you can’t replace a player like that. All you can do, everyone of us (can) just play a little better and try to take over for what we’re missing from him as much as we can.”
In June, Tkachuk was among the first six players named to the United States’ roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. His brother, Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, was also named. They were teammates for the U.S. at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
“It’s unfortunate,” Green said. “You don’t want to lose a player, and you don’t want to lose a player of his stature. We’re not going to dwell on it. It’s just like when anyone else gets hurt, we’re going to move on quickly.
“Brady will be around our team and will be the captain that he is, but he won’t be playing.”
Batherson will make his season debut at the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, SN1, RDS) after sustaining an upper-body injury during the first week of training camp last month.
Batherson was second on Ottawa last season with 68 points (26 goals, 42 assists) in 82 games.
“I feel really good, so [I’m] excited to be back in tomorrow,” Batherson said. “I think I was taking it day by day and kept feeling a lot better the last two or three days. I feel good enough to play, so I’m ready to go.”
