Matthew Tkachuk makes All-Star Game, excited to rep South Florida with game in Sunrise
Matthew Tkachuk had much bigger goals than just making some NHL All-Star Games when he joined the Florida Panthers back in the offseason.
Making his first one — especially with it being in Sunrise this year — isn’t a bad way to start, though.
With 47 points in his first 36 games as a Panther, Tkachuk is unsurprisingly headed to the 2023 NHL All-Star Game as the representative for the hometown team.
“It’s very cool that I’m here, being my first year, being able to represent the team here,” the All-Star right wing said. “Hopefully, we can get some other guys on the team in, as well.”
On Thursday, the NHL announced one All-Star for each team, as chosen by the league’s department of hockey operations, for the initial eight players on each division’s roster. Now, a round of fan voting begins, running through Jan. 17, to determine the final three spots in each division.
This is Tkachuk’s second time as an All-Star. The 24-year-old American also made the 2020 NHL All-Star Game and was part of the postseason NHL All-Star team last year. This year, he’ll be teammates with younger brother Brady Tkachuk, who’s headed to his second All-Star Game as a member of the Atlantic-rival Ottawa Senators.
They’ve never been teammates at any level, Tkachuk said.
“I’ve never played with him on a team before in my life,” he said. “That’ll be very cool.”
Last year, All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau was Florida’s lone on-ice representative at the 2022 NHL All-Star Game, although former interim coach Andrew Brunette — now an assistant coach for the New Jersey Devils — was the coach for the Atlantic Division in Las Vegas. The Panthers haven’t had multiple All-Stars since the 2016 NHL All-Star Game, when Hall of Fame goaltender Roberto Luongo and right wing Jaromir Jagr, who’s still playing professionally for Rytiri Kladno of the Czech Republic’s Czech Extraliga at 50, represented the team in Nashville.
The 2023 All-Star Game will once again take on a 3-on-3 format, with four teams, each made up of players from one of the NHL’s four divisions, playing in a tournament.
A year ago, Florida seemed like a relatively safe bet to have multiple All-Stars playing at FLA Live Arena next month. Instead, the Panthers (17-18-4) have been one of the most disappointing teams in the NHL and there are no other obvious choices to make the All-Star Game beyond Tkachuk, who has lived up to every bit of the hype accompanying him when Florida traded for him last year.
“It was always more fun to play with him than against him, so it didn’t surprise me, but I’m just happy to have a guy like that on our team,” defenseman Radko Gudas said. “When he steps up or defends his teammates, scoring big goals, making great plays — he seems like he’s there every time we need something to get done.”
The Panthers’ deal for Tkachuk was one of the biggest blockbuster swings in recent NHL history — Florida traded Huberdeau, star defenseman MacKenzie Weegar and a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft to the Calgary Flames to land Tkachuk — and, so far, the outcome has been decidedly mixed.
Tkachuk is certainly delivering the type of performance the Panthers expected, on pace for the second most points in a single season in franchise history and vastly outperforming Huberdeau. Florida, though, is barely even hanging around in postseason contention, sitting at least eight points out of the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with almost half the season done.
The All-Star Game was once poised to be a potential celebration of an organization on the rise in a nontraditional market and a chance to shine a spotlight on one of the most exciting, up-and-coming teams in the NHL. Now, it could wind up being bittersweet, as the organization is excited to host the game for the first time since 2003, but also in real danger of missing the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs a year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy.
Tkachuk promises the outlook won’t be quite so grim when All-Star weekend arrives in February, with more than a dozen games between now and then for the Panthers to make up ground.
“We have [13] left, so we’re going to be in a lot different position than we are,” Tkachuk said.
A turnaround, he hopes, will continue Friday at 7 p.m. when Florida begins a four-game road trip against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena. If they beat the Red Wings (16-13-7) in Detroit, the Panthers will have just their fourth two-game winning streak of the season and they still don’t have a single one longer.
“A lot will change — lots of travel, lots of road games, lots of very tough opponents we’re playing and hopefully that brings our team closer together,” Tkachuk said. “Hopefully, we can bring that gritty, low-scoring, desperate hockey — the type of games that we need to play right now and win those low-scoring games.”
As good as Tkachuk has been, Paul Maurice believes his star winger has another level he can reach, too.
“He’s 24 years old. That’s the thing you keep having to remind yourself,” the first-year coach said. “There’s an upside to him and there’s going to be an upside for 10 years.”
It’s a big part of why Florida made the trade. The Panthers wanted to contended for a Stanley Cup this year, but they general manager Bill Zito also wants them to contend for years and years to come, and Tkachuk is five years younger than Huberdeau and four younger than Weegar.
As part of the trade, Florida signed Tkachuk to an eight-year, $76 million extension, which will keep him in Broward County until 2030.
Six months in, the Panthers are excited about Tkachuk’s play and Tkachuk is still excited about his new home, even with the team struggling.
Said Tkachuk: “Being able to show off South Florida to players throughout the league is going to be, probably, my favorite part.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2023 at 8:12 PM.
