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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Under the deal, the Senators will obtain Florida\u2019s No. 9 pick in the year\u2019s 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<\/a> on Sunday. Ottawa will also receive a 2029 first-round pick and a 2030 second-round pick, league sources said.<\/p>\n Ottawa will now have three first-round picks in this year\u2019s draft, including the No. 32 pick that the NHL restored<\/a> in March, while\u00a0Tkachuk 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was not a decision we took lightly, but ultimately we did what we felt was best for the long-term future of our hockey club,\u201d said Senators general manager Steve Staios. \u201cWe now possess cap space and draft capital and will be actively working to improve our roster.\u201d<\/p>\n Ottawa made the playoffs just twice in Tkachuk\u2019s 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\u2019s four-game sweep at the hands of the Canes.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019 history in goals, fifth in points and first in career overtime game-winning goals. Tkachuk\u2019s 821 career penalty minutes are also the second-most in team history behind enforcer Chris Neil\u2019s 2,522.<\/p>\n But as Tkachuk\u2019s celebrity status rose around the league thanks to his play and personality, the forward found himself under the spotlight.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t discussed trading Tkachuk and even considered the talk around him to be \u201csoft tampering.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s comments, Staios said the speculation around the star winger was \u201cnonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve answered this hundreds of times,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cNone of those things ever came out of my mouth. And quite honestly, it\u2019s just getting frustrating. It\u2019s becoming a distraction. I have been fully committed to this team, to the city, and it\u2019s just becoming a distraction and frustrating to deal with.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always believed in this team. I\u2019ve always believed in playing for this city, and the city has always been good to me. So yeah, it\u2019s just I don\u2019t really know what else to say than what I\u2019ve said countless times, and I just always still have to answer to it.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n First, they faced scrutiny for laughing at U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s remark that he\u2019d have to invite the women\u2019s team to avoid being impeached, and then for visiting the White House and attending the State of the Union address. Tkachuk\u2019s voice was also altered in a TikTok video released by the White House in which he was depicted referring to Canadians as \u201cmaple-syrup-eating f\u2014s<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, it\u2019s clearly fake,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s not my voice, not my lips moving, so. I\u2019m not in control of any of those accounts, and I know that those words would never come out of my mouth. So, I can\u2019t do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n