Brady Tkachuk was acquired by the Florida Panthers from the Ottawa Senators in the offseason to join forces with his brother Matthew Tkachuk to boost the team, which won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2024 and 2025 but missed the 2026 postseason. Tkachuk was off to a quiet start with no goals and one assist over his first six games with Florida before exploding for seven points (six goals, one assist) over his past two games, including back-to-back hat tricks, in wins against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 13 and Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 15 (including overtime goal in latter game).
Brady Tkachuk became the third player in NHL history (others: Petri Skriko in 1986) and Cy Denneny (1923) to score natural hat tricks in consecutive games. The last NHL player with hat tricks in back-to-back games was Mikko Rantanen for the Dallas Stars during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Here are three advanced stats behind Tkachuk's offensive outburst:
1. Scoring from middle of ice
Four of Tkachuk’s six goals during this torrid stretch have come from the middle of the ice, two from the low-slot region (high-danger goals) and two from the high-slot region (mid-range goals). The other two goals: one scored from the right-point region (long-range goal) and one scored from the outside-right region.
Eleven of Tkachuk’s 25 shots on goal this season have come from high-danger zones (97th percentile among forwards; just outside NHL’s top 10), while seven have been from mid-range shots on goal (91st percentile at position). Since the start of the puck and player tracking era (2021-22), Brady Tkachuk ranks third in high-danger shots on goal (650) behind Zach Hyman of the Edmonton Oilers (727) and John Tavares of the Toronto Maple Leafs (666).
As the Panthers have dealt with major injuries to veteran forwards Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand early on this season, the team has been playing the Tkachuk brothers on the same line more often in recent games. This has showcased Brady and Matthew’s obvious chemistry from playing together growing up and also recently for the United States in both the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Winter Olympics (won gold medal).
Matthew Tkachuk has had a major hand in Brady’s back-to-back hat tricks with four assists on his brother’s goals over that span, including two primary helpers; Matthew has totaled six assists overall during that two-game span. The Tkachuk brothers also both assisted on Carter Verhaeghe's goal Oct. 13, meaning they have factored in on the same goal five times over the past two games, including two power-play goals.
