The Florida Panthers did it again. They traded for a superstar in Brady Tkachuk by giving up something that doesn’t hurt their status as a contender. This time, they moved three first-round picks, including one they got on Sunday for trading Mackie Samoskevich to the Seattle Kraken. Brady Tkachuk is now joining his brother Matthew in South Florida.
That’s terrible news for the Montreal Canadiens, who came out of the Atlantic Division in the postseason, making the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the Carolina Hurricanes. They were clearly a little ahead of schedule, but everything ended up hitting at the same time.
Nick Suzuki was great during the regular season, winning the Selke Trophy for his efforts. Cole Caufield more than arrived, scoring 51 goals on the season. Lane Hutson is already playing like a legitimate number-one defenseman, and the rest of the team is quickly growing into serious contributors. That’s not even mentioning young guns like Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, and eventually Michael Hage.
The Canadiens are built to contend for a decade or more.
And yet, the move that happened on Sunday makes it seem like the Canadiens are light-years away from the Stanley Cup. Not only are Jon Cooper’s Tampa Bay Lightning in the way of the Canadiens in the Atlantic Division, and the reigning Atlantic Division winners, the Buffalo Sabres, but the Florida Panthers are reinforcing their roster after missing the playoffs.
Brady Tkachuk is a Florida Panther.
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) June 21, 2026
Brady Tkachuk gives Florida a massive edge in the Eastern Conference
The Florida Panthers got one of the most desirable available players about 10 days before the start of free agency. Brady Tkachuk joins his brother Matthew Tkachuk to make the Florida Panthers instant favorites in the Eastern Conference. And just like that, the Canadiens’ road to contention just got a lot harder.
Of course, there’s one element to the Panthers’ contention window that is a problem. They currently don’t have a goalie. They are watching Sergei Bobrovsky walk to free agency, and the former replacement, Spencer Knight, was traded years ago for Seth Jones. Many believe they will try to pry Tkachuk’s Team USA teammate Connor Hellebuyck from Winnipeg, which would make it just unfair to face the Panthers on a nightly basis.
The Canadiens have all the pieces to be true contenders in the Eastern Conference, but they have teams stacking up like the Avengers in their way. They are still young and ridding themselves of bad contracts every year, so hopefully, they can take advantage of this great young core, but seeing the Panthers make another huge move to get a superstar is dejecting, to say the least.
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