Player Profile: Matthew Tkachuk

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Matthew Tkachuk was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, on December 11th, 1997. Tkachuk is a left-shot left-winger who played for the St. Louis AAA Blues 16U team, who scored 25 goals and added 57 assists for 82 points in 41 games during the 2012-13 season. The next year, he scored five goals and added 12 assists for 17 points in 33 games for the United States National Team Development Program. That same year, Tkachuk scored four goals and added three assists in six games for Team USA at the U17 World Hockey Championships.

Tkachuk was the 64th overall pick of the London Knights in the 2013 OHL Priority Selection. Tkachuk slipped down the OHL draft board due to his commitment to play for Notre Dame. During the 2015-16 season, Tkachuk scored 30 goals and added an astonishing 77 assists for 107 points in 57 games played in his one season for the Knights. In the OHL playoffs that season, Tkachuk scored 20 goals and added 20 assists in 18 games for the Knights. In seven games played for the U20 USA team at the World Junior Championships, Tkachuk had four goals and added seven assists.

The Calgary Flames Select Tkachuk with the Sixth Overall Pick in the 2016 NHL Draft

Matthew Tkachuk was the sixth overall draft pick of the Calgary Flames in the 2016 NHL Draft. The 6’2”, 201 lb. power forward was a member of Team USA at the World Championships and had the second most goals at the Memorial Cup with five, including the overtime winner against the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. The Scottsdale, Arizona native was seen as an agitating power forward going into the draft, and this is the type of player that the NHL was moving towards. In his first season with the Flames, Tkachuk scored 13 goals and added 35 assists in 76 games for the Flames at 19 years old. This led to Tkachuk finishing seventh in the Calder Trophy race this season.

Tkachuk Traded to the Florida Panthers

Coming off an all-star season with the Calgary Flames in which he scored 42 goals and added 62 assists in 82 games played, Tkachuk was traded to the Florida Panthers by the Flames in July of 2022. He immediately signed an eight-year contract extension with the Panthers worth an average annual value of $9.5 million. In the first season with the Panthers, Tkachuk scored 40 goals and added 69 assists in 79 games played, his career high in points scored. These 40 goals were two fewer than his 42, which was a career high in Tkachuk’s final season with the Flames.

In the two and a half years since, Tkachuk and the Panthers have won back-to-back Stanley Cups. Tkachuk has made the All-Star Game five of the last six seasons. After playing for Team USA at the 4 Nations Faceoff last season, Tkachuk had an injury that caused him to miss the rest of the 2024-25 regular season, but he did return for game one of the Eastern Conference first round. He recently made his 2025-26 season debut for the Panthers against the San Jose Sharks.