Brothers Brady Tkachuk (left) and Matthew Tkachuk (right) speak during a live interview on stage at The Ellipse near the White House on June 14, as part of the UFC's Freedom 250 event.Tom Brenner/Getty Images
On their podcast recently, the Tkachuk brothers were talking about their visit to Donald Trump’s birthday brawl.
“Boots on the ground. South Lawn. White House,” said Brady.
“By far, not even close, the greatest sporting or anything event I will ever go to in my life,” said Matthew, a man who has attended the Stanley Cup finals. He even won them.
Gary Bettman must be staring forlornly out his office window, wondering what he’s doing wrong.
On Sunday, Brady’s team, the Ottawa Senators, traded him to Matthew’s team, the Florida Panthers. The diehards on the MAGA hockey boards must be whooping it up. All four guys.
This is the rare trade involving a major hockey star that makes sense for both parties. With the addition of the other Tkachuk, the reintroduction of Aleksander Barkov and a full summer’s rest, Florida are Cup favourites going into next year.
Ottawa gets to tap the brakes on its rebuild, receiving three first-round picks for a guy who clearly wanted to go. It’s not the scenario they’d hoped for, but it’s better than doing it the Leafs way – praying that your star bumps his head getting out of the shower and forgets that he doesn’t like you.
Despite all that, what it really seems like is the long tail of the Milan Olympic final. Some hard feelings were created in mixed-nationality marriages – Tkachuk in Ottawa, Connor Hellebuyck in Winnipeg, Auston Matthews in Toronto. Four months later, those relationships are starting to crack up.
Matthew Tkachuk was the George Washington of the gold medal celebration – the player who most enthusiastically embraced the most jingoistic version of its meaning. In this founding father metaphor, that would make Brady the Benedict Arnold. He was just as big for the cause, hit the White House like an open bar and then took his know-how back to the capital of Canada.
Brady Tkachuk (right), seen here celebrating a goal at last year's 4 Nations Face-Off, landed in an awkward situation after representing the U.S. then returning to the Canadian capital to play for the Ottawa Senators.Charles Krupa/The Associated Press
The younger Tkachuk was cunning enough never to say anything that would offend his hosts, but he didn’t go out of his way to create a rapprochement either. In the Canadian way, the whole thing was left largely unacknowledged.
But clearly, someone was unhappy. You don’t trade your most important player two years before the end of his way-below-market-value deal unless things are irreparable. The only person who could have decided that is Brady Tkachuk.
There is another layer here, which is business. The Tkachuk brothers are a brand, but only together. Through their podcast, the Tkachuks have cultivated the reddest, whitest and bluest version of themselves. It doesn’t completely work if one of them works for foreigners.
All to say, there is more than one reason this happened. Still, one wonders if it has given permission for other Canadian-based Americans to insist on going home.
Hellebuyck is the next obvious candidate. If you’re a Jets fan, it was hard not to compare his recent performance for his country versus the one for his club. One of those things was not like the other.
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If the best player in Winnipeg cared about how he’s going over in Winnipeg, he would’ve skipped Trump’s congressional glee club. That he didn’t means Hellebuyck either didn’t care (not great) or wanted to send a message (worse).
At his end of season availability, Hellebuyck was asked about “the future” of the Jets: “It’s hard. It’s hard. Can you get the pieces you need? That’s always hard in Winnipeg. I’ve made it my home and I like it here, but the majority of the league doesn’t feel the same way.”
It’s not exactly kissing the crest, is it?
Then there’s Matthews. Nobody in Toronto was happy that the U.S. took gold, but seeing Matthews win something was a minor comfort. Maybe this would be the encouragement he needed to finally become the player the club thought it was drafting.
Tkachuk's final game in a Senators uniform was the team's Game 4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in April.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The charitable view didn’t last a week. Matthews tried to have it both ways – appearing at the White House, but skipping the introduction in front of Congress. He came back to Toronto mumbling some nonsense about “I don’t like to get political” that made no one happy.
He was a non-factor as the Leafs’ season cratered over the next couple of weeks. Then he got annihilated by a cheap hit and none of his teammates on the ice did anything about it.
It’s hard to imagine a more disastrous series of events in terms of building employee-employer solidarity. But none of this can be discussed openly because Matthews is a hockey player and the Leafs are run by Canadians – two of the most repressed demographics on Earth.
Instead, everyone’s pretending things are fine, fine, totally fine. Until the day Matthews pulls a Tkachuk, when everyone will say they knew it was doomed as soon as the Olympics ended.
All of this creates a problem for mediocre Canadian teams going forward. I’m talking here about everyone but Montreal.
Montreal is not going to have an issue with Michigan-born Lane Hutson because Montreal is in the mix. If Winnipeg were Colorado, Hellebuyck wouldn’t be complaining either. Nobody’s bailing on a winner because they feel oppressed.
But bad Canadian teams are having a moment when it comes to their American talent (Quinn Hughes leaps to mind). That gold medal was the signal for all errant ships to return to port. Back home, nobody’s going to yell at them about tariffs.
Maybe this is a good thing. If you’re the Leafs, or the Jets, or the Senators, you can afford to be bad. You make money win or lose. But it’s a lot less fun if you’re losing and the few top performers you have are looking for political asylum.
No team is responsible for politics, but they are all to blame for their own performance. In future, being better may not just be a news-conference cliché for Canadian hockey teams. It may eventually become an actual operating necessity.