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Good morning to everyone except people who used that one cheap breakaway move in NHL ’94.
Were you expecting a quiet week once the games ended? Fool! Instead, we’ve got the aftermath of a blockbuster trade and a new class of Hall of Famers to sort through.
Let’s get into it.
(Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
A very Brady blockbuster
Fans in Ottawa had heard it for years: Your captain will abandon you. Sure, he might say the right things. And he did sign a seven-year extension in 2021 that ostensibly committed him to the team for the long term. But we all knew how this would end: with Brady bolting for Florida, where he could wear flip-flops to practice, golf on off days and play with his brother, Matthew. The Senators front office denied it. Ownership too. And even Tkachuk himself expressed frustration at the constant rumors. Where were people getting these wacky ideas?
What happened next will shock you.
Or maybe it won’t. Maybe it’s exactly the outcome that felt inevitable all along. Sunday’s trade came out of nowhere in the sense that the teams involved had managed to keep it largely quiet, but nobody was all that surprised. Brady to Florida. Of course.
Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers
Sean McIndoe and Sean Gentille
So, now what? With plenty to unpack here, I think there are three burning questions:
1. What do the Senators do now?
I don’t mean that question existentially, although there’s a bit of that hanging over everything, too. For now, let’s focus on what the Senators do with their sudden haul of picks after adding Nos. 9 and 25 to their No. 32 pick this year. Whether you like the trade or not, it’s rare for one team to acquire three first-round picks this quickly (Ottawa also got a conditional 2029 first-rounder in the deal).
Ottawa could simply use them, of course, rebuilding a prospect pipeline and stocking the cupboard for years to come. But is that the right approach for a team that recently made it back to the playoffs after seven years in the wilderness? With a frustrated fanbase and a division that’s looking brutal, there will be pressure on president/GM Steve Staios to flip at least some of those picks for immediate help. And if he does, that means any evaluation of where the Senators stand in the post-Brady era is still very much in “to be determined” mode.
2. Just how good are the Panthers about to be? They landed a star without giving up anyone on their roster. They’ll have Aleksander Barkov back and healthy. And they’ll be rested for the first time in years. So, where do you slot them in for next year? Just about everyone had them back in the playoffs, even before the Tkachuk deal. But are they in the mix with the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning for home ice? The Atlantic Division favorites? The best team in the East? Should we expect to see them right back in the Stanley Cup Final for the fourth time in five years?
And maybe of more immediate interest: Does this move put an end to the Connor Hellebuyck speculation? In theory, it should, given the Panthers’ diminished trade capital. Then again, they still don’t have a goalie, so … something has to give, right?
3. Does the NHL have a Canadian crisis on its hands? If you enjoy some heavy-handed symbolism, you surely made note of this trade coming just days after we found out “Hockey Night in Canada” is no more. Tkachuk joins Quinn Hughes as the second franchise player to work his way out from a Canadian team in the last year, with Hellebuyck in Winnipeg and Auston Matthews in Toronto still potentially in play. Calgary is already rebuilding. Edmonton is on permanent Connor McDavid watch. Basically, all of the country’s teams are in some form of a mess right now, with only Montreal fans feeling much optimism.
The bigger question is whether this all means anything, well, bigger. In a league where the Canadian TV deal is the single largest slice of revenue and the bottom line is still largely propped up by northern, “traditional” hockey markets, does the math still math if all the stars want to play for the same handful of southern U.S. teams? James Mirtle isn’t sure it does.
You can overreact to stuff like this. Sports are cyclical, and it wasn’t that long ago that nobody wanted to play for the Panthers. And it’s not like all the movement is one-way; the best defenseman on the unrestricted free-agent market just chose to go from Tampa to Toronto. But there’s also a danger in complacency, because perception can become reality. And if the perception in Canada is that the country’s teams are meant to be nothing more than feeder squads for the half-dozen American teams that get to win everything, the league has a problem.
We can hold that thought for now, because we’ve got a busy week ahead of us …
Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg and Chase Reid. (Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Joe Camporeale / Imagn Images, David Berding / Getty Images)
Draft Countdown
The NHL Draft is this weekend, with Round 1 on Friday night and the rest on Saturday. With lots of cap room out there, a very thin UFA market that keeps getting thinner and more big names at least theoretically in play than any year in recent memory, we might be set up for a wild week.
Note that “might” — it wouldn’t be the first time we thought NHL GMs were about to go wild, only to see them choose the conservative approach. But with one monster deal already done, we’ve well past the point of waiting for the first domino to fall.
For now, here’s what you need to know:
(Scott Cunningham / Getty Images)
đź’ˇ Trivia Question
The No. 9 pick was a nice add by the Senators, but it’s not the highest draft pick ever traded for a Tkachuk. That honor goes to the No. 3 pick in the 2008 draft, which was included in a trade that sent Keith Tkachuk from St. Louis to Atlanta at the 2007 deadline.
However, the Blues didn’t end up using that pick — they traded it away that summer.
For today’s question, can you name the player the Blues acquired in that offseason deal?
Hint: This player is a Hall of Famer.
Answer at the bottom.
Coast to Coast
🧳 Veteran Brendan Gallagher is on his way out of Montreal, and he has some thoughts on what comes next.
🦣 The Mammoth extended head coach André Tourigny and hired former Canucks boss Adam Foote as an assistant. The 52-year-old Tourigny coached the franchise during its final three years as the Arizona Coyotes before it relocated to Utah ahead of the 2024-25 season.
💰 Big news in the PWHL, as the league adds its first outside investors. Two interesting names — one Canadian, one American.
🎙️ On Monday’s “The Athletic Hockey Show,” the guys and I break down the Brady Tkachuk trade. Plus, thoughts on the Maple Leafs’ acquisition of Darren Raddysh and Jonathan Toews calling it a career. Watch or listen here.
Patrice Bergeron. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
đź—ż HHOF Class of 2026
The Hockey Hall of Fame revealed the six names that will be inducted this fall. Congratulations to:
Patrice Bergeron: This year’s only slam dunk does indeed get the call as a first-time eligible. His six Selkes (and 12 straight years as a finalist) were already enough to get him in, but topping 1,000 points and winning the Cup in Boston ended any debate. Fluto Shinzawa has a look at Bergeron’s evolution as a player.
Carey Price: He was a somewhat surprising snub last year but makes it in on the second try. The Hall went through an era where it was stingy with goalies but has been more generous lately. Price’s resume of a Hart, a Vezina, 361 wins and international success was enough to make his case even without a Cup ring. Arpon Basu looks into Price’s legacy, both on and off the ice.
Pekka Rinne: This seems to be the biggest surprise of this year’s class, and I’m not sure why. If Price was a lock, as many fans seemed to feel, then Rinne’s case looks very similar. No Hart, but the rest of it — one Vezina, 369 wins, international success, one trip to the Cup Final — is very Price-ish.
Keith Tkachuk: Finally, the Tkachuk family gets some attention. Keith’s 538 goals had been the most of any eligible player who wasn’t already in, and he’d waited over a decade to get the call.
Cindy Curley: She was a pioneer for the American women, first as a player and later as a coach. Her playing days were over by 1994, meaning she missed out on the glory years of the women’s game, but she helped pave the way for it.
Brian Burke: He’s not everyone’s favorite personality, but as a builder, it’s hard to argue that he doesn’t deserve a spot based on his decades as a GM and NHL executive.
Were there any deserving candidates that were missed? Sure, as always. The committee continues to insist on using only one of its two spots for women, despite a backlog. Rod Brind’Amour will have to console himself with his latest Cup ring, while Rinne’s induction should turn up the heat on cases such as Curtis Joseph and Ryan Miller. And now that Tkachuk is in, the new leading goal-scorer among eligibles is Pat Verbeek, who has 522 goals to go with 1,062 points and 2,905 penalty minutes; you don’t hear his name all that often in Hall talk, but that could be about to change.
Still, it’s a worthy class overall. And if your favorite didn’t make it, hey, at least they still have a shot at the Hall of Very Good.
(Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
Trivia Answer
After acquiring what would end up being the third pick in the 2008 draft from Atlanta in exchange for Keith Tkachuk, the Blues ended up trading that pick to … Atlanta. For some guy named Keith Tkachuk.
Yeah, it was weird.
Basically, the Thrashers paid a ransom of picks to get Tkachuk as a rental at the 2006-07 season’s deadline. Once the season was over and it became clear he wasn’t interested in signing an extension, they traded his rights back to the Blues for the same first-round pick they’d given up as part of the package to get him in the first place. The Blues signed Tkachuk before the 2007-08 season and still came out of the whole deal with three high picks that they got to keep.
As for that No. 3 pick in 2008, the Thrashers used it to take Zach Bogosian. Not a bad player, though in hindsight, there were a few better defensemen on the board.
Questions, comments or corrections? Our line is open. Shoot us a note at redlight@theathletic.com.
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