It’s time for the Senators to have the Brady Tkachuk trade conversation
The Ottawa Senators of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs were decidedly not appointment viewing.
But their locker cleanout day this week? That should’ve been be must-see TV.
Eyes would have been glued to captain Brady Tkachuk, the man who attracted plenty of attention all season, sometimes for the wrong reasons. Alas, he understandably could not attend Monday’s season-ending availability as his wife, Emma, just gave birth to their second child.
That puts some big questions on hold for the big guy. He had a lot to answer for after what he showed on the ice the previous week.
His postseason was all bluster, no results. At the 0:00 mark of Game 1 vs. the Carolina Hurricanes, Tkachuk dropped the gloves for a staged, pointless, ceremonial fight against Canes captain Jordan Staal. The first-line left winger vs. third-line center matchup was a tradeoff Carolina would gladly take 10 times out of 10. The “momentum” it brought Ottawa: a 2-0 defeat.
The Sens postseason ended up lasting just four games across seven days, during which they scored a total of five goals. Tkachuk was in on none of them; he went pointless for the series, and the Sens were outscored 3-0 with him on the ice at 5-on-5, albeit the scoring chances were even and Ottawa held the edge in high-danger chances.
While the Hurricanes were the No. 1 seed and thus a tough Round-1 draw for anyone, the result was still crushingly disappointing for an Ottawa team plenty of prognosticators felt could pull an upset or at least push Carolina to the brink. The Sens, a structured, stingy group under coach Travis Green, were the best defensive team in the Eastern Conference all season long in terms of scoring-chance prevention; their goaltending had been the culprit of their slow start, and once Linus Ullmark found his rhythm, Ottawa went on a run, finishing with the NHL’s third-best points percentage after the Olympic break, going 16-5-4 across 25 games.
Sure, the series might have gone very differently had Ottawa pulled out a win in double overtime of Game 2, and losing top defenseman Jake Sanderson to a concussion on a controversial Taylor Hall hit in Game 3 pretty much killed any hopes of a rally. But the lack of pushback was pretty stunning to see, particularly across Ottawa’s two final games at home, with the most “memorable” moment across that stretch being a sucker punch from a frustrated Ridly Greig that will earn him a suspension carrying into next season.
We can spread the blame for the flaccid series across 20-plus players, but plenty of it must fall at the feet of Tkachuk. His entire brand is supposed to be dragging his teammates into the fight. Instead, the hulking power forward who is seemingly engineered for playoff hockey ended up with no points and more penalty minutes than shots on goal. His body language looked disinterested at times, and if that’s the example a captain sets, his team stands little chance.
If Tkachuk’s 2026 playoffs had no other context to attach to it, we could chalk it up as a bad year for an otherwise outstanding player. But there’s circumstantial evidence to believe Brady’s relationship with Ottawa as a market is fraying. There was the tension last season as Tkachuk, a patriotic American, shook his head watching the fans at Canadian Tire Centre boo his country’s national anthem in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump imposing trade tariffs on Canada. Tkachuk drew a line in the sand supporting Trump and expressing pride over attending the State of the Union address this season, too, after Team USA won gold at the 2026 Olympics in February. And on his podcast with his brother Matthew Tkachuk earlier this month, their father Keith took thinly veiled shots at the Senators’ team toughness and Ullmark in particular.
Tkachuk is eight seasons into his career with the Senators and has two playoff victories to show for it. He has two seasons left on his contract, meaning he’ll be eligible to sign an extension July 1, 2027 and will become a UFA July 1, 2028. His brother, Matthew, forced his way off a Canadian team, the Calgary Flames, in 2022, engineering a trade to the Florida Panthers. If we spread all the press clippings across one big table and stare at them: are we confident Brady will want to re-sign with the Senators?
His future puts GM Steve Staios in a difficult position. His Senators had missed the playoffs six consecutive seasons and have returned to relevance the past two. They have a new arena coming to LeBreton Flats in the next four to six years. And Tkachuk, 2026 playoff flop aside, remains one of the best players in the NHL. He’s a sledgehammering power forward, nearly peerless at finding scoring areas; over the past three seasons, no NHLer averages more shots on goal per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. The Senators are already in need of more marquee scorers, not fewer, so trading Tkachuk needs to mean a lateral move at worst that keeps them just as competitive if not more so. Since he can’t sign an extension for a year, they can’t dangle an extension in a sign-and-trade scenario right now, either.
On the other hand: now feels like the time to take that swing given his value remains sky-high. He’s smack in his prime at 26. In a rising-cap world, his $8.205-million AAV is a huge bargain for the next two seasons. He’s shown up more often than not in high-stakes situations; he dominated at the 4 Nations, he was excellent in the 2025 playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he had three goals in six games at the Olympics. His many suitors would feel the good outweighs the bad and perhaps view his poor showing against Carolina as that of a player wanting out, so they’ll pay up.
Perhaps they’ll even overpay for a player with a unicorn skill set like Tkachuk’s. One can point to the Flames’ trade of Matthew Tkachuk to Florida and say that no one wins then they trade a Tkachuk brother, but (a) few expected Jonathan Huberdeau to go from 115 points to mediocre in one year and (b) Matthew was an unsigned RFA who had actively demanded a trade and thus hurt Calgary’s leverage. Brady hasn’t come out and asked for anything, and he’s still signed two more seasons. He does have a no-movement clause, meaning he has plenty of leverage, but it’s not as pronounced as it was with Matthew.
So it’s possible Ottawa can land a high-impact, first-line forward plus additional pieces in the form of picks, prospects or young NHLers with upside in a trade for Brady. Maybe that means sending him to Florida where he can play with his brother Matthew; or if the Panthers don’t have the right mix of assets or are hamstrung by all the NMCs they’ve handed out, Staios could explore sending Brady to his hometown team, the St. Louis Blues, and try to bring Ontario-born Robert Thomas to Canada’s capital. The New York Rangers are another logical fit given the fact Brady and Emma make their offseason home in nearby New Jersey, to say nothing of the Devils as well. They have an enthusiastic new GM perhaps looking to make a splash in Sunny Mehta.
The Senators are a good hockey team, but they’re not good enough, and their captain is starting to become a distraction. If he’s not part of the long-term plan, and he doesn’t resolutely express his desire to stay in Ottawa for good when he does speak to reporters next…it’s time for Staios to get out in front of the problem. Explore the robust market for Tkachuk now, as his leverage will only get stronger with every day, week and month closer to the expiration of his contract.
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