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Matthew Tkachuk

Snapshots: Sabres, Tkachuk, Hagel, Lucic

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Sabres defenseman Michael Kesselring is expected to return on Thursday against Philadelphia after missing the last 14 games with a lower-body injury, reports Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald.  A key part of the JJ Peterka trade over the offseason, the 25-year-old has been limited to just nine appearances so far this season after also sustaining a knee injury in the preseason.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see him get eased back in but he’ll likely get a chance to take on a bigger role after the holiday break.

Meanwhile, among other injured Sabres, winger Jason Zucker has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury and is hoping to return after the break.  Forward Justin Danforth has missed 28 games with what’s believed to be a broken kneecap but head coach Lindy Ruff says he’s doing okay now.  Lastly, goaltender Colten Ellis (concussion protocol) is expected to be reevaluated on Friday after missing the last two games.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • While Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk has been skating on his own recently, he has yet to join the team for practice. As a result, GM Bill Zito told NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika that they don’t know if Tkachuk will be available for the Winter Classic in a little more than two weeks.  The 28-year-old had surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia back in August and has yet to play this season.  He’s averaged more than a point per game in four straight years and whenever he comes back – be it for the outdoor game or later on – he’ll be a huge boost to a Florida team that sits around the middle of the pack in the East.
  • Lightning winger Brandon Hagel is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury and hasn’t been ruled out of Thursday’s game against Los Angeles, relays Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). Hagel was injured on a hit from Seth Jones on Monday, resulting in him leaving the game.  He has been a key contributor for Tampa Bay this season, notching 18 goals and 13 assists in 32 games.
  • Veteran winger Milan Lucic has decided not to hang up his skates. Released from an AHL tryout with Springfield late last month, he has found his next team as the Fife Flyers of the EIHL announced that they’ve signed the 37-year-old for the remainder of the season.  Lucic has only played in nine games since the 2022-23 campaign ended so it’s far from a guarantee that he’ll be able to be an impactful player as he looks to continue his career.

Panthers Reassign Jack Devine

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The Panthers announced this afternoon that forward Jack Devine has been assigned to AHL Charlotte. That clears an active roster spot, one that could be used to activate star winger Matthew Tkachuk from long-term injured reserve in the coming days. Nearly two weeks have passed since he started skating again following offseason groin surgery.

If that’s the case, Florida isn’t done making roster moves. With Devine off the roster, they’re exceeding the cap by $7.24MM. They’re compliant because that’s less than their LTIR pool of $9.52MM. That pool will shrink to $5.7MM when Tkachuk is activated, though. That’s a $1.54MM difference they need to make up for. They’ll likely do so by shifting forwards Jonah Gadjovich and Cole Schwindt from standard IR to LTIR. They carry a combined cap hit of $1.6MM, increasing their LTIR pool by just enough to carry Tkachuk on the active roster without making any other changes to the roster.

Devine is in his first professional season and still has three years or 64 NHL games played remaining until he’ll require waivers to head to the minors, so that’s not a concern anytime soon. He’s the only waiver-exempt player on the roster aside from lineup fixture Mackie Samoskevich, so that made his reassignment more or less inevitable as Florida got healthier.

The right-shooting Devine had been out of the lineup as a healthy scratch in three consecutive games. He didn’t manage a point in six appearances since being recalled from Charlotte on Nov. 18. His possession numbers are solid enough, but he was deployed in extremely sheltered usage and had a -3 rating while averaging only 8:26 of ice time per game.

Florida drafted Devine with the fifth-to-last pick of the 2022 draft. He’s been on an upward trajectory ever since and turned pro this year on the heels of back-to-back 50-point seasons at the University of Denver, where he totaled a 57-106–163 scoring line in 162 collegiate appearances across four years. He won two national championships with the Pioneers and was the top scorer in college hockey with 57 points in 2024-25, finishing as a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award for the second year in a row.

His offensive success in the NCAA has followed him to the pros, just not yet to the NHL. He rattled off six goals and 12 points through his first 13 games with Charlotte before getting called up. He was the team’s leading scorer when he was removed from the roster last month and should reclaim that title soon enough as he’s in for an extended stint – potentially the rest of the season – down in the AHL after a quiet first stint on the Cats’ roster.

East Notes: Tkachuk, Coleman, Jensen, Newhook

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Earlier today, George Richards of Florida Hockey Now passed along a note from Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice indicating that Matthew Tkachuk could begin skating by the end of the month.

The news does not significantly alter Tkachuk’s recovery timeline, which is still expected to be around mid-December. Still, it’s confirmation that he’s on the right track to returning on time from his groin injury, which is nothing but music to the ears of the Panthers and the USA’s Olympic roster.

Florida’s last time on the ice came with a Stanley Cup above his shoulders for the second time in as many years. Florida has struggled out of the gates without their top two highest-paid forwards and would significantly benefit from adding Tkachuk’s goal-scoring and physicality back into the mix.

Other notes from the Eastern Conference:

  • According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period (per James Nichols of NJ Hockey Now), the New Jersey Devils are contemplating an attempt to bring back a familiar face. Pagnotta indicated that the Devils are interested in acquiring forward Blake Coleman from the Calgary Flames, who scored 57 goals and 94 points in 237 games for New Jersey from 2016 to 2020. Unfortunately, Coleman has a $4.9MM salary for this year and next with a 10-team no-trade clause, which is something the Devils couldn’t afford unless they moved out their own salary.
  • Outside of ending the Boston Bruins’ seven-game winning streak, the Ottawa Senators are dealing with some injury concerns on their blue line. The Senators announced that defenseman Nick Jensen had left the game due to an upper-body injury, and didn’t have any updates regarding his status after the game. Jensen finished the game with one hit and two giveaways with a -1 rating in 12:02 of action.
  • The Montreal Canadiens are dealing with some injury concerns from their lopsided loss to the Dallas Stars tonight. Montreal shared that Alex Newhook had left the game with an undisclosed injury and is still being evaluated. His only mark on the scoresheet was his brief time on ice of 5:54.

Atlantic Notes: Pastrnak, Tkachuk, Marchand, Edvinsson

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Yesterday, it looked like Bruins star David Pastrnak would be limited to begin training camp when the team told reporters, including Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub, that he wouldn’t be skating for the first few days due to a tendonitis flare-up. That ended up not being the case as he was on the ice this morning skating and shooting by himself, relays Steve Conroy of The Boston Herald. He’s not participating in the full session today, though. Conor Ryan of The Boston Globe reports that trade pickup Viktor Arvidsson is skating as a placeholder in Pastrnak’s spot on the top line alongside Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm for the time being. In any event, it doesn’t look like Pastrnak’s ironman streak, which dates back to the 2021-22 season, is in jeopardy as he aims for his fourth consecutive 100-point season.

More from the Atlantic Division:

  • The Panthers put out some contrasting smoke signals yesterday on Matthew Tkachuk’s timeline for returning from adductor surgery. He underwent the procedure in mid-August, and the initial report was that he was targeting a January season debut. General manager Bill Zito was more optimistic about Tkachuk’s timeline yesterday, telling George Richards of Florida Hockey Now that December could be an option, while head coach Paul Maurice gave a more vague “midseason” designation. In any event, Florida will be playing at least the first quarter of their season without the services of one of their many star wingers.
  • Florida winger Brad Marchand also spoke during yesterday’s media availability, telling Alex Baumgartner of Five Reasons Sports that the lack of income tax in the state was one of the main factors in the Cats’ ability to keep all of him, Sam Bennett, and Aaron Ekblad from reaching free agency this summer. “If we were not in a non-tax state, it wouldn’t have worked out probably for two guys. Two guys probably would have been leaving in that situation. So it’s a benefit that this team has, we were able to utilize and make work,” Marchand said. He also cited the term of his extension offer from Florida (six years) as a driving force behind his decision to stay and one of the reasons he opted not to sign an extension with the Bruins, leading to his trade to Florida at the deadline last year.
  • Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson will miss most, if not all, of training camp due to a lower-body injury, general manager Steve Yzerman said yesterday (via Sean Shapiro of DLLS Sports). His return timeline is “around the start of the regular season.” If he’s to miss any time, that’s a crushing early-season blow to one of the league’s thinnest blue lines. The 2021 No. 6 overall pick broke out for 31 points and a +12 rating in 78 contests last season and is one of only two truly top-four-caliber defenders in the organization, alongside Moritz Seider.

Matthew Tkachuk Underwent Surgery, Aiming For January Return

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Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk’s health entering the season has been a topic of conversation after he returned early from an adductor injury sustained at the 4 Nations Face-Off to suit up in Florida’s run to a second straight Stanley Cup. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period now relays that Tkachuk indeed opted for surgery to repair it, undergoing the procedure “a few weeks ago,” and could miss as much as the first four months of the campaign.

It’s still not clear what caused the right-winger’s injury during the 4 Nations tournament, but he missed the balance of the regular season and wasn’t cleared to return until Game 2 of the Cats’ first-round win over the Lightning. Opting for non-surgical rehab initially to accelerate his return timeline, he still managed to rattle off a point per game as he marched to his third straight Stanley Cup Final and second straight win, although his 17:24 average time on ice was a noticeable drop from his previous usage.

His projected return timeline makes him LTIR-eligible and offers the Panthers a pathway to cap compliance to begin the season, but it’s not that simple. They’re now $4.5MM over the cap and, on top of shuffling their roster to optimize his LTIR relief, they have to figure out a way to reinstate him on the active roster when he’s ready to return while staying below the $95.5MM upper limit. They likely won’t concern themselves with the first bit too much, as he’s not a season-long absence and their roster is full, but their roadmap to a compliant roster and a healthy Tkachuk is still murky.

Tkachuk, 27, has averaged 99 points per 82 games since arriving in Florida in 2022 via the blockbuster trade with the Flames that sent Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar the other way. He also has 25 goals and 69 points in 67 playoff games for the Panthers over the last three years, ranking fourth and third in franchise history, respectively.

In the interim, the Panthers can expect 2021 first-rounder Mackie Samoskevich to play a pivotal role in their early-season success. The 22-year-old winger filled in for Tkachuk down the stretch last year and finished his rookie campaign with a 15-16–31 scoring line in 72 games. He’ll now get more opportunity out of the gate after essentially being forced to sign a league-minimum contract this summer thanks to Florida’s cap crunch and his 10.2(c) status prohibiting him from signing an offer sheet.

Players Who Could Start The Season On LTIR

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While only a handful of teams project to need cap relief via long-term injured reserve to open the season, multiple candidates across the league might technically qualify for a placement. Doing so would bar the player from returning until Oct. 31 at the earliest – 24 days from the season start date of Oct. 7.

Avalanche: Logan O’Connor

O’Connor underwent hip surgery in early June. Given the five-to-six-month projected recovery window, he won’t be available until early November at best, putting him past the 10-game/24-day threshold required for LTIR. Colorado, which has $2.10MM in current cap space, will likely place O’Connor on standard IR if they don’t make any other cap-affecting moves between now and October. If they need the relief, though, they could create up to O’Connor’s $2.5MM cap hit in cushion for the first few weeks of the season if they need it.

Blues: Torey Krug

St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong announced in May that Krug’s career is done because of pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle that surgical intervention only slowly corrected. Since the Blues only have around $625K in cap space, Krug and his $6.5MM cap hit will be going on LTIR as soon as they need the flexibility for a call-up.

Canadiens: Carey Price

What’s certain is that Price won’t play this season or ever again. He’s entering the final season of his contract at a $10.5MM cap hit after confirming nearly two years ago that his knee injury would prohibit him from suiting up again. What’s uncertain is whether or not he’ll begin the season on LTIR. Montreal isn’t in a great position to optimize its LTIR relief, either by matching his cap hit in excess or getting down to $0 in space before placing him on the list. That’s made his contract a trade chip for teams who might need the relief more.

Devils: Johnathan Kovacevic

Kovacevic underwent knee surgery in early May and won’t be ready for training camp and likely opening night as well. Whether that stretches past Oct. 31 and makes him eligible for an LTIR placement if New Jersey needs cap relief early on remains to be seen.

Flyers: Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen

Ellis’ career is over after sustaining a wide-ranging muscular injury in his pelvis just four games into his Flyers tenure in 2021. Ristolainen underwent a procedure on his right triceps tendon on March 26 with a six-month recovery time, putting him right on the edge of potential LTIR eligibility. Philly will have a better idea of the latter’s LTIR deployment potential after he undergoes his training camp physical. With $370K in cap space, they’re in a good position for near-max LTIR capture and will almost certainly at least place Ellis there to begin the year to give them call-up flexibility.

Golden Knights: Alex Pietrangelo

Pietrangelo is already on offseason LTIR, meaning the Knights actually still have to add an additional $1.2MM to their roster before opening night to optimize his capture and unlock his full $8.8MM cap hit’s worth of relief for this season. The team confirmed he requires multiple undisclosed but significant surgeries that will likely mark the end of his playing career, but it’s unclear if he’s actually had them done yet.

Jets: Adam Lowry

Lowry underwent hip surgery in late May and won’t be available until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Winnipeg likely won’t be formalizing an LTIR placement with nearly $4MM in cap space, though.

Mammoth: Juuso Välimäki

Välimäki underwent ACL surgery in early March. He likely won’t end up on LTIR given Utah’s current cap flexibility ($6.68MM), but he’ll be out until at least early November so he’ll be there as an early-season option in case they need relief for whatever reason.

Oilers: Zach Hyman

Hyman’s inclusion here is on the speculative side. The winger could very well be ready for the start of the season. However, there hasn’t been much clarity on how much recovery he still needs after undergoing surgery to repair a severe wrist injury that kept him out of the Stanley Cup Final. A report in early June indicated there was uncertainty about his status for training camp, with no meaningful updates since then.

Panthers: Matthew Tkachuk

Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski earlier this month that he’s still deciding whether he wants to undergo surgery to address the adductor issue that hampered him down the stretch and in the playoffs after sustaining it at the 4 Nations Face-Off. All signs point to him opting for it and spending the next two to three months on the shelf as a result, though. Placing him on LTIR is the only way the Panthers, who currently have a cap exceedance of $3.725MM, can be compliant to start the season without shedding a significant contract, something they aren’t keen to do.

Wild: Jonas Brodin

Minnesota has $9.41MM in cap space, but that number will shrink once they re-sign restricted free agent Marco Rossi (or add salary while trading his signing rights). Neither scenario will likely push them into a situation where they need to use LTIR relief, but they might have Brodin and his $6MM cap hit as an option for some short-term flexibility if required. He underwent an upper-body procedure in early June and is questionable for the beginning of the season, so it’s not yet clear if he’ll miss enough time to qualify.

Latest On Matthew Tkachuk

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Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk is continuing to work his way back from an adductor injury sustained during the 4-Nations Face-Off tournament in February. The injury ended Tkachuk’s regular season early, though he played through it for all 23 games of Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup. Now, Tkachuk is paying the price of a long-term injury, and faces the often uncomfortable question of whether to undergo surgery to address the ailment. Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski that surgery would require him to miss the first two-or-three months of the regular season.

That’s a long time for Florida to be without one of their top scorers. Tkachuk finished the year ranked third on the team in points (57) even despite missing the last 30 games of the regular season. Luckily, the St. Louis-native has shown a consistent knack for being able to play through, and above, painful injuries. He tied for Florida’s scoring lead during the postseason, with eight goals and 23 points in as many games. It was an incredibly impressive performance, given Tkachuk entered the postseason having not played a game for three months.

That ability to bounce back to form could make a delayed start to the season a bit easier to stomach. Wyshynski emphasized previous reports that one of Tkachuk’s main goals for next season is to play for Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics. A few-month absence would put him back on the ice just weeks ahead of the NHL’s midseason break, and could provide a chance for 10-to-15 games worth of conditioning. That may be a short window for the average player, but Tkachuk’s ability to quickly jump back onto the scoresheet should only be emphasized on the international stage.

He scored three points in three games at the 4-Nations tournament, his first time representing America at a Men’s National tournament. Prior to that, Tkachuk managed 11 points in seven World Junior Championship games in 2016, 12 points in seven games at the World U18 Championship in 2015, and seven points in six games at the World U-17 Hockey Championship in 2014.

Around his spot appearances with Team USA, Tkachuk has managed a star-studded NHL career. He earned his first 100-point campaign in the 2021-22 season – netting 104 points in 82 games with the Calgary Flames – and then one-upped it with 109 points in 79 games with the Florida Panthers in the next season. Tkachuk was also rarely injured, averaging 74 games and 72 points per season before the 2024-25 campaign. Last year’s shortened season brought his career averages down to 71 points in 71 games each season.

That scoring precedent will make Tkachuk a must-include for the Olympic roster, should he be healthy in time for the tournament. He shared that he was “50/50” on undergoing surgery when the season came to a close, and has spent the off-season taking the time to ensure he’s making the right decision. If he does go under the knife, Florida could be due for a big boost of cap space through the first-half of the season.

Snapshots: Robertson, Tkachuk, Draft

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Despite signing a one-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs just yesterday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman spoke on his 32 Thoughts podcast about the possibility of forward Nicholas Robertson being traded and noted a link between Robertson and Pittsburgh Penguins’ GM Kyle Dubas.

This represents the second consecutive summer that the forward has been linked to Pittsburgh, and Friedman’s report comes just a day after Robertson and the Maple Leafs avoided arbitration with a one-year, $1.825MM contract.

“I’ve had a couple people ask me about the possibility of Nick Robertson in Pittsburgh. They got the arbitration settled on Saturday, but the Maple Leafs need to clear some bodies there. They have a lot of them,” he said. “I think that the Maple Leafs have work to do. I don’t know what their timeline is, but they need to do some things before puck drop.”

To Friedman’s point, the Maple Leafs currently have 14 forwards on one-way deals for next season. Robertson, 23, posted 15 goals and 23 points in a bottom-six role last season for Toronto. He added two points in three playoff games. He also averaged a career-high 12:00 per game of playing time.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • Friedman also provided an injury update on Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, who revealed after winning the Stanley Cup that he had been playing through a torn adductor muscle throughout the postseason. Friedman shared his belief that Tkachuk will miss a big chunk of the regular season, but sees a path for him to be ready for the Olympics next winter. “I think (the Olympics) is a huge deal for him. But I do think he’ll miss the start of the year and a chunk of time after that,” he said. Tkachuk, and his brother, Brady Tkachuk, played a huge role in the 4 Nations Face-Off and are expected to be a focal point of the U.S team at the Olympics if healthy.
  • Despite fan (and possibly league) dissatisfaction with the decentralized draft format, teams voted to continue with it in 2026. And Friedman suggests that the decision was largely driven by teams’ desire to protect their internal information. While the vote was closer this year (20-12 in favor of keeping it decentralized), Friedman isn’t convinced that additional votes will soon push for a return to the traditional draft format. “I really thought, because of how (Gary) Bettman was opening ripping the GMs about this, I thought it was going to change,” he said. “It’s obvious to me that these teams that voted to keep it the way it is really value the secrecy.”

Atlantic Notes: Giroux, Geekie, Tkachuk

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Earlier this weekend, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in his latest 32 Thoughts column that the Senators and Claude Giroux were battling over the bonus structure of his next deal.  However, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch adds that at this point, the base salary is still being worked on as well, with the belief that Giroux’s camp is looking for a salary around teammate David Perron’s $4MM; Ottawa is coming in below that.  As long as the 37-year-old signs a one-year contract, Giroux is eligible for performance incentives, including games played, points, and team playoff success.  While his days of being a top-line option are long gone, Giroux still projects as one of the better options available in free agency coming off a 50-point season.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Bruins forward Morgan Geekie told Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe that discussions on a new contract have been “pretty preliminary” so far. The 26-year-old was non-tendered the last time he was a pending restricted free agent, signing a two-year, $4MM deal with Boston that proved to be quite a bargain.  Geekie had 39 points in 2023-24 and then followed that up with a 33-goal, 57-point effort this season.  That could push his price tag past the $5MM mark on a multi-year deal this time around.  He’s arbitration-eligible but with hearings generally running from July 20 to August 4, it’s possible that Boston’s plan is to simply let him file for arbitration late next week and then start to have more substantive discussions on a new agreement at that time.
  • After playing through a torn adductor muscle for the entire postseason, Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk told reporters including Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald that he is 50-50 in terms of whether he’ll need surgery or not. He will take the next few weeks to let the injury heal on its own and then see if he’ll need to go under the knife.  If surgery is needed, it could put Tkachuk’s availability for the start of next season in question.  Despite the injury, he still managed to produce a point per game in Florida’s 23 playoff contests.

Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk Avoids Suspension

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Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk will not face any supplemental discipline for his late-game hit on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jake Guentzel in game three. Despite Tkachuk receiving a five-minute major for interference on the hit, the NHL has determined no additional punishment is justified. As Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman notes, the reasons could be related to several factors, including there being no head contact and that Guentzel did touch the puck prior to the hit.

The hit comes one game after Tampa Bay forward Brandon Hagel received a one-game suspension for leveling Aleksander Barkov. Similar to Tkachuk, Hagel received a five-minute major for interference. As Friedman notes, the force of the hit Tkachuk delivered on Guentzel may not be considered as impactful as the one Hagel delivered to Barkov. And as David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period adds, Barkov never played the puck prior to being hit. It can also be noted that Barkov exited game two and did not return, although he did suit up in game three.

Tkachuk’s hit drew the ire of multiple Lightning players, including captain Victor Hedman. He told reporters following the game, including Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times, that the timing of the hit was also questionable, as the Lightning were in the process of scoring an empty net goal to make the score 5-1. Hedman added that the team can’t control what actions are or are not worthy of suspension.

With Hagel set to return for game four on Monday, it will be interesting to see if tensions remain high. Either way, Tkachuk remaining available for game four and beyond is clearly welcomed news for the defending champs. Tkachuk was a key factor in the team’s run last season, registering 22 points in 24 playoff games, and he is off to a fast start in three games so far this year, securing three goals and an assist thus far. Florida currently leads the series 2-1.

Meanwhile, Guentzel, who appears fine and ready to go for game four, continues to build upon his impressive playoff history. As Benjamin Pierce points out on the team’s website, the 30-year-old is tied with Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl for the seventh-highest goals-per-game average in NHL playoff history.

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