Brady Tkachuk is set to join his brother, Matthew, in South Florida after the Ottawa Senators traded their captain to the Florida Panthers in exchange for three first-round picks and a second-rounder, the teams announced Sunday.
Tkachuk, 26, has two seasons left on a seven-year, $57.5 million contract the forward signed with the Senators in 2021, at an annual average value of $8,205,714. The contract carries a full no-movement clause, and league sources granted anonymity to speak about nonpublic information say he gave Ottawa a four-team list of preferred destinations: Florida, Vegas, Carolina and Minnesota.
Under the deal, the Senators will obtain Florida’s No. 9 pick in the year’s draft as well as the No. 25 pick previously owned by the Seattle Kraken. Florida acquired the latter pick in a trade from Seattle that sent forward Mackie Samoskevich to the Kraken on Sunday. Ottawa will also receive a 2029 first-round pick and a 2030 second-round pick, league sources said.
Ottawa will now have three first-round picks in this year’s draft, including the No. 32 pick that the NHL restored in March, while Tkachuk will get to play professionally with his two-time Stanley Cup champion brother. Brady Tkachuk is eligible to sign a contract extension as of July 2027.
Ottawa made the playoffs just twice in Tkachuk’s eight seasons with the Senators, exiting in the first round each of the past two years. In 2024-25, the Senators fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs in six games, and the Carolina Hurricanes swept them this past season. Tkachuk scored four goals and seven points in six games against the Leafs, but went scoreless in this year’s four-game sweep at the hands of the Canes.
In 572 NHL games, Tkachuk has 213 goals and 463 points, including a career-high 37 goals and 74 points in 2023-24. Despite missing a quarter of the season recovering from thumb surgery, he had 22 goals and 59 points in 60 games this season.
The Senators named Tkachuk the 10th captain in team history on Nov. 5, 2021, over three years after the organization taking the winger with the fourth pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. Tkachuk ranks fourth in Senators’ history in goals, fifth in points and first in career overtime game-winning goals. Tkachuk’s 821 career penalty minutes are also the second-most in team history behind enforcer Chris Neil’s 2,522.
But as Tkachuk’s celebrity status rose around the league thanks to his play and personality, the forward found himself under the spotlight.
Tkachuk faced trade speculation numerous times in recent years, including a report from late New York Post writer Larry Brooks saying the New York Rangers targeted the forward in a trade back in the fall of 2024. Senators majority owner Michael Andlauer told The Athletic that they hadn’t discussed trading Tkachuk and even considered the talk around him to be “soft tampering.”
The forward expressed frustration with being in the rumor mill as recently as April, days after Carolina eliminated the Senators from the playoffs. Days before Tkachuk’s comments, Senators general manager Steve Staios said the speculation around the star winger was “nonsense.”
“I feel like I’ve answered this hundreds of times,” Tkachuk said. “None of those things ever came out of my mouth. And quite honestly, it’s just getting frustrating. It’s becoming a distraction. I have been fully committed to this team, to the city, and it’s just becoming a distraction and frustrating to deal with.
“I’ve always believed in this team. I’ve always believed in playing for this city, and the city has always been good to me. So yeah, it’s just I don’t really know what else to say than what I’ve said countless times, and I just always still have to answer to it.”
This past February, Tkachuk and his brother captured a gold medal with Team USA at the Milan Cortina Olympics. In five games at the Winter Games, he had three goals and five points, but the Tkachuks were criticized for how they celebrated their gold-medal victory.
First, they faced scrutiny for laughing at U.S. President Donald Trump’s remark that he’d have to invite the women’s team to avoid being impeached, and then for visiting the White House and attending the State of the Union address. Tkachuk’s voice was also altered in a TikTok video released by the White House in which he was depicted referring to Canadians as “maple-syrup-eating f—s.”
“Well, it’s clearly fake,” Tkachuk said. “Because it’s not my voice, not my lips moving, so. I’m not in control of any of those accounts, and I know that those words would never come out of my mouth. So, I can’t do anything about it.”
Tkachuk also drew criticism for comments made by his father and former NHLer, Keith, on his “Wingmen” podcast, which he co-hosts with Matthew, regarding his ice time. Tkachuk then denied that his father was taking a shot at Senators’ goaltender Linus Ullmark when he made fun of players resting for injuries or goaltenders who didn’t play consecutive games.
The forward spoke about the past year’s struggles in his season-ending interview with reporters in April, including post-Olympics fatigue and having to stop using social media as his name popped up frequently on the news cycle. But Tkachuk also said he took “responsibility” for his team being swept in the first round of the playoffs and hoped he’d be “better” after enduring a season filled with “ups and downs.”
Tkachuk, however, will apply those lessons in another city alongside his brother in Florida.
In the summer of 2022, Matthew told his previous team, the Calgary Flames, he wouldn’t re-sign with them and was eventually traded to the Panthers in a blockbuster deal involving forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar.
Matthew then won back-to-back Cups with the Panthers in 2024 and ’25, and will now get to chase a third with his brother after the two led Team USA to gold.
