Father’s Day was supposed to be celebratory. But Brady Tkachuk was on edge, wondering when he’d get a life-changing call.
Then still captain of the Ottawa Senators, the 26-year-old Tkachuk spent the weekend in St. Louis, the city where he grew up thanks to his father, Keith, playing nine NHL seasons with the St. Louis Blues. On Sunday morning, the Tkachuks celebrated the baptism of Brady’s niece, Camille “Millie” Tkachuk, daughter of brother and Florida Panthers winger Matthew, over brunch at a local restaurant. They returned to the family home in time for pictures ahead of another party, this time to celebrate the Tkachuks’ gold medal victory at the 2026 Milan Olympics with Team USA.
It had been a whirlwind of a day, so Brady decided to put his phone away for five minutes. Then his grandfather John, also known as Chuck, broke the news.
After reading a notification on his smartwatch, the elder Tkachuk came across reports from ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun that Brady had been traded to Florida, where he would join Matthew as teammates. Brady, aghast, raced back to his phone to see he had missed nearly a dozen phone calls.
“Everything just happened so fast,” Brady said Tuesday on the latest edition of his “Wingmen” podcast alongside cohost Matthew.
Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers
Sean McIndoe and Sean Gentille
The podcast is one of a handful of media appearances Tkachuk has made since the trade, including his introductory news conference in Florida and an ensuing appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.” It continued a busy stretch for the Tkachuk family — and Brady in particular — over the 48-plus hours since the blockbuster deal that rocked the hockey world.
On Saturday morning, Brady was told by his agent and uncle, Craig Oster, that he was on the verge of being traded. It had been over a month since Tkachuk notified the Senators that he wanted to leave after eight seasons with the franchise. In possession of a full no-movement clause, the winger was interested in speaking to four teams, but one rose above the rest: the Panthers, winners of two Stanley Cup titles since Matthew arrived under similar circumstances in a July 2022 trade from the Calgary Flames.
Though the idea of skating with his brother was enticing, and Matthew himself called it a “dream” to play alongside Brady, the latter Tkachuk says it was the Panthers’ winning culture that ultimately made him want to join.
“Florida’s always been the toughest games these last bunch of years,” Brady told Matthew on their podcast. “Just the way you guys play, and the winning background. It just shows it’s all about winning. You have guys that came from different spots, came from different teams and found a lot of success. I made this decision taking you out of it. It wasn’t about you; you know how much I love you.
“I just have always, every single time after playing you guys, (I’m) just like ‘Holy cow, that team is incredible, and they have a chance to win every single year.’”
By Sunday afternoon, Tkachuk’s wish had been granted, and the brothers were free to celebrate. It wouldn’t be their final party, however.
On Monday afternoon, Brady’s father, Keith, received a phone call of his own. He snuck outside his home to answer it before returning inside. Eventually, he gathered family members into his family kitchen and proposed a toast. Brady grabbed a beer. Keith then delivered the news: He’d be entering the Hockey Hall of Fame later this fall as part of a star-studded class that includes franchise legends in the Boston Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron, the Montreal Canadiens’ Carey Price and the Nashville Predators’ Pekka Rinne, plus longtime executive Brian Burke and women’s hockey legend Cindy Curley.
“It’s been a great weekend for the Tkachuks,” Keith said on a media call after being announced as an inductee.
Farewell to Ottawa
On Tuesday morning, as his run of media appearances began, Tkachuk uploaded a goodbye Instagram video to his former team, voicing over a montage-laden video of on-ice highlights with the Senators, scenes from when they drafted him at No. 4 in 2018, and his time spent with local Ottawa youth.
“It’s been the best eight years that anyone could’ve asked for. I feel really grateful to have started my career in Ottawa,” Tkachuk said.
The video’s comment section is littered with notes from Senators fans still hurt from Tkachuk’s departure. They stood by their captain as numerous trade rumors surfaced and he rebutted them — or, as he did in April, expressed frustration over them. Tkachuk spent eight seasons with the Senators, making the playoffs in his last two seasons. Both times, they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, including a four-game sweep at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes in which Tkachuk went without registering a point.
But days after speaking to Ottawa media, and after his team’s playoff exit, Tkachuk notified the Senators he wanted to be traded.
“When the season ended, I didn’t have the opportunity to have an exit meeting with Brady,” Senators general manager Steve Staios said. “And it was about a week and a half after that where I had a chance to sit down with him, and (the trade request) was clear to me at that point in time.”
When Staios spoke to the media Monday, Sens fans were already ripping the Tkachuk nameplate off their jerseys and setting fire to his bobblehead. The team finally released a social media post hours later thanking Tkachuk. But as of Tuesday night, only one of Tkachuk’s now-former teammates had acknowledged his departure publicly: fellow Team USA gold medal winner Jake Sanderson, who reposted the Senators’ post on Instagram with the caption “Goat” and a red heart emoji.
Not long after Tkachuk’s video was posted Tuesday morning, the latest edition of the “Wingmen” podcast was released. An emotionally spent Tkachuk, recording from the basement of Matthew’s Florida home, opened the podcast at his brother’s prompting by thanking the city of Ottawa and the Senators organization.
“Everybody welcomed me from day one, treated me like I was from there,” Tkachuk said. “Treated me like family. I’ll just never forget that.”
Later on, Tkachuk was introduced to local Panthers media at the FTL War Memorial complex in South Florida. The winger walked into his news conference wearing a dark-blue Panthers polo, shorts and sneakers, flanked by general manager Bill Zito — who also engineered the trade that brought Matthew to Florida four years earlier.
“Because we want to win,” Zito said. “That’s our job, that’s our mission. Winning is paramount. And the manner in which we’ve been empowered to do it is to pursue excellence.”
Naturally, Brady Tkachuk was asked about his time in Ottawa. But he was cryptic about what led to his leaving the Canadian national capital.
“There’s definitely a lot of different things that have happened throughout my time there,” Tkachuk told reporters. “For me, I think it was just time for the next chapter. It wasn’t an easy decision. I took a little more time than what’s been out there to make that decision. It was a very hard decision. There’s a lot more things that go into it. But for me, now, (I’m) very thankful for what (the Senators have) done for me. Not just as a player but molded into the player, into the person I am today. And that’s something I could carry into the future.”
Why the Senators traded Brady Tkachuk to the Panthers in an NHL blockbuster
Julian McKenzie
The podcast also failed to reveal why Tkachuk had soured on the Senators, though his final season with the team wasn’t short on public fireworks. Between his celebration at the White House after Team USA’s gold medal, concerns over a lack of on-ice aggressiveness and his handling of Keith’s pot-stirring comments on their podcast, Tkachuk entered the spotlight numerous times, and not just because of the constantly swirling speculation about whether he’d leave the only NHL city he’d known.
Brady fielded a lot of pressure as captain of a Canadian franchise. But in Florida, he’s a puzzle piece on a perennial championship contender, as Matthew explained on “The Pat McAfee Show” later Tuesday.
“He had to wear a lot of hats playing up in Ottawa,” Matthew said. “A young captain playing in Canada, just dealing with a lot of stuff whether it’s in his control or not. Which is sometimes a little bit unfortunate in the business. The best part about playing down here, and this might sound a little bit bad, but we’re really just pieces of meat down here. You have your role, you wear one hat. You don’t have to do somebody else’s job, and it’s just a total group effort.
“We’re a deep team. I mean, it’s the greatest place to live. Look at Giannis (Antetokounmpo) coming down here; it’s not even the same sport, and it’s very similar. Life’s good and the team’s fun, and there’s nobody fighting to be the alpha.”
And now that the trade is behind him, the next step for Brady is to get used to his new surroundings in a new city and move on from his previous one.
“We’re on to the next chapter, and I’m really excited about it,” Brady said.
