06/24/2026
Extracted from today's "Athletic":
Winners and losers of NHL’s blockbuster trades: Tkachuk brothers
Winner: The Tkachuks and the Florida Panthers
Whether you like them or hate them, you just know that the Tkachuk brothers are going to have a blast playing together full-time. It’s not just that they’re on the team; they’ll almost certainly be on the same line with Sam Bennett. A trio of Bennett and the Tkachuk brothers is going to drive opponents nuts, and they’re going to relish every second of it.
This move is a win for the Panthers, who will now have one of the greatest top-nine forward groups ever assembled in the salary cap era. However, they were also lucky to have the assets to acquire Brady in the first place.
Florida sent its 2026 first-round pick to Chicago at last year’s trade deadline as part of the Jones trade. The only reason the Panthers kept that pick and got to use it as the centerpiece of the Tkachuk deal is that it was top-10 protected. Had Florida collected just three more points in the regular season, that pick would have landed outside the top 10 and been transferred to the Blackhawks, and this trade wouldn’t have happened.
