Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer said Brady Tkachuk’s father, Keith, and brother, Matthew, pressured the captain into demanding the trade that sent him to the Florida Panthers in June.
“Blood is thicker than water, and let’s just say that his father and his brother got in his kitchen. Ultimately, the decision was made to go and play with his brother. It’s a decision that was out of our control to a certain degree,” Andlauer said in an interview with Pierre LeBrun published September 22.
Tkachuk has said publicly that his trade request was not about his brother, so the owner’s account and the player’s own explanation do not match. The request itself is not in dispute: Tkachuk held a full no-movement clause and asked out after the season, and general manager Steve Staios granted it on June 21, dealing the captain to Florida for a package of draft picks.
Three months after the deal, the return Ottawa received is beginning to take shape. The Senators acquired the Nos. 9 and 25 picks in the 2026 draft, a conditional first-round pick in 2029 and a 2027 second-round pick. Ottawa then used the No. 9 pick in a trade with San Jose that brought in William Eklund, Kasper Halttunen and Brandon Svoboda.
What Ottawa gave up was significant. Tkachuk, drafted fourth overall in 2018, played his first eight NHL seasons with the Senators and captained the team for five, leading it to back-to-back playoff appearances before the trade.
Andlauer said Tkachuk left as a model Senator. He called him “an exemplary captain for us and leader and role model” and praised the community work Tkachuk and his wife, Emma, did in Ottawa.
Whether Tkachuk responds publicly to the owner’s characterization is not known. Andlauer said Ottawa fans backed Tkachuk to the end, even after Team USA won Olympic gold.