SoFla Guide Editors
Brady Tkachuk picked a great time to get hot. The Panthers forward has strung together back-to-back natural hat tricks, and now he heads to Ottawa, the city that traded him away in June. Will Senators fans boo him or cheer him? Nobody knows yet, and that’s what makes this one so juicy.
From Ottawa captain to Florida sniper
First, a quick refresher on how we got here. According to ESPN, the Ottawa Senators traded their captain, Brady Tkachuk, to the Florida Panthers on June 21, 2026.
Ottawa didn’t let him go cheaply. ESPN reported the Senators got four draft picks back: the No. 9 and No. 25 overall picks in the 2026 NHL Draft (two first-round picks), plus a top-10 protected first-round pick in 2029 and a second-round pick in 2027.
That’s a big haul. So far, Panthers fans aren’t complaining about their side of the deal.
Two games, two natural hat tricks
This is the part that has Sunrise buzzing.
On October 13, Tkachuk scored a natural hat trick in Florida’s 7-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, ESPN reported. All three goals came in the second period. A natural hat trick means one player scores three straight goals with nobody else lighting the lamp in between, and he got all of his in a single period.
Then came the family twist. According to ESPN, his brother Matthew Tkachuk assisted on all three goals. Somewhere, a family group chat is going absolutely wild.
Brady didn’t cool off. In the very next game, he scored another natural hat trick at Amerant Bank Arena, this time in a 3-2 comeback win over the Vancouver Canucks, according to FloridaPanthers.com. One of those goals was the overtime winner, which is about as dramatic as hockey gets.
The team’s site reported that the run made him only the third player in Panthers franchise history to record hat tricks in back-to-back games. He joins Pavel Bure and Noel Acciari on that list. Bure is a legendary name in Panthers lore, so Tkachuk is in fun company.
What it means for South Florida
For Panthers fans, this is the dream version of a blockbuster trade. You bring in a big name, you hope he fits, and then he goes off for consecutive natural hat tricks with his brother setting him up.
The brother angle is the kind of storyline that sticks. Seeing Brady and Matthew connect on the ice, with the history books taking notes, gives this season a little extra sparkle at Amerant Bank Arena.
The hat-trick hats have probably been flying, too. Just saying, if you were in the building for the Vancouver game, you saw something only a few players in team history have pulled off.
What’s next: the Ottawa homecoming
Now for the big one. The Panthers play at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on October 21, 2026, and it marks Brady Tkachuk’s first return to his former home arena as a visiting player.
So, boos or cheers? That’s the question everyone wants answered, and the honest answer is we’ll find out when he steps onto the ice. The reporting we have doesn’t say how Ottawa fans plan to greet him.
There’s a case for an emotional night either way. He wore the “C” in Ottawa, and the Senators chose to trade him. Fans can feel a lot of things about a former captain all at once, sometimes within the same shift.
How is Tkachuk feeling about going back? The reports we’re working from don’t include his thoughts on the return, so we won’t guess. If he talks about it before puck drop, that’ll be worth listening to.
What we do know is that he’s walking into that building as one of the hottest scorers around. If he keeps this up, Ottawa might get a front-row look at exactly what it traded away.
Panthers fans, mark October 21 on the calendar. Whether the crowd up north boos, cheers or does a little of both, this is a homecoming worth watching.
