Brady Tkachuk will miss at least four weeks for the Ottawa Senators because of an injury to his right hand, coach Travis Green announced Tuesday.
The forward and Senators captain was injured during a 4-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Monday when he was cross-checked by defenseman Roman Josi in the first period. Tkachuk stayed in the game before missing the last 9:04 of the third period.
“He’s going to miss a significant amount of time,” Green said. “We’ll know more in the next 24 hours. We don’t know exactly, but it’s four weeks plus. We don’t know exactly.”
Green said surgery has not been ruled out.
Tkachuk has three assists in three games for Ottawa (1-2-0) this season. He had 55 points (29 goals, 26 assists) in 72 games last season, helping the Senators qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2016-17.
A first-round pick (No. 4) by Ottawa at the 2018 NHL Draft, Tkachuk has 407 points (191 goals, 216 assists) in 515 regular-season games and seven points (four goals, three assists) in six playoff games, all with the Senators.
“He’s a big voice in this room,” Senators forward Drake Batherson said. “He leads by example, 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 U.S. teammates 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). He sustained 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.”