Brady Tkachuk plays at the Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday for the first time since the Florida Panthers acquired him, four months to the day since the trade that ended eight seasons and five years as captain of the Ottawa Senators. He has already made his peace with whatever the building decides to do.
“I am definitely putting no expectations on it. If they boo, well, it just shows the passion that they have for their team, their city,” Tkachuk said. “I loved playing in front of them because of that passion.”
It was what came next that supporters took issue with.
“Just know I gave every ounce of blood, sweat and tears for that team, that city, for eight years. I can hold my head up high for the effort that I gave,” he said. “I just appreciate all that they have done for me and making me who I am today.”
The responses from Ottawa arrived quickly, and most of them concerned the final year rather than the first seven.
“Your performance in the playoffs last year suggests otherwise, my friend,” one wrote.
“I would say he did try his best for seven years, though that eighth one is one you could clearly tell he had one foot out the door,” another offered.
A third was blunter still. “Eight years my ass. He came back from 4 Nations and was never the same. Gave us 1.5 years of half-hearted play from then on and then demanded out. You ruined all the goodwill that had been built up.”
Why did Brady Tkachuk leave Ottawa?
The deal went through on June 21, with Ottawa collecting three first-round picks, two in 2026 and a conditional selection in 2029, plus a second-rounder in 2027. What made the Senators willing to trade their captain at all was that he had asked them to after last season, wanting to play alongside his brother Matthew Tkachuk.
Matthew has been through an almost identical evening. He forced his way out of Calgary in 2022 and returned that November to a mixture of boos and cheers, with a partial standing ovation during his tribute video.
“You just want to get through that first shift, that first TV timeout,” Matthew said. “After the tribute video, you can really focus on playing. But during warmups, yeah, you look around.”
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Paul Maurice sounded unconcerned about any of it.
“Brady has handled this impeccably the entire time and he will continue to do that,” Maurice said. “If you have been in the League long enough, you have elite players leave your team. When it happens, you feel like it’s the only time it has ever happened. But then you look back and go, this happens all the time.”
Tkachuk arrives in rather better form than he left in. After going pointless through his first five games as a Panther, he was named First Star of the Week on Monday having recorded natural hat tricks in consecutive games, with 10 points in his last four.
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