Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk wants to spend the rest of his career in Florida.
Tkachuk joined the Panthers in a blockbuster trade prior to the start of the 2022-23 season. Since the 27-year-old joined Florida, the Panthers have been the best team in the Eastern Conference, advancing to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals before finally winning the Cup in an epic seven-game series over the Edmonton Oilers last year.
While he has plenty of years left in his NHL career, Tkachuk has no interest in leaving Florida, he told The Sports Daily in an exclusive interview.
“That would be a dream come true,” says Tkachuk of the possibility of spending the rest of his career with the Panthers. “That would be incredible. The best thing to happen to me was coming down here to play for the Panthers.
“The people in Florida have been unbelievable,” Tkachuk continues to say. “The people in the organization, starting with the Violas (who own the Panthers), and Bill Zito and everybody else have treated me and my family like absolute gold. This is the plan, to continue to give myself and my team a chance to win year in and year out.”
Tkachuk was already a star with the Calgary Flames, having been named an All-Star and having served as an alternate captain for the franchise.
However, he reached superstar status with the Panthers, establishing himself as the best player on the team for a franchise that had struggled to get over the hump. Florida had won just one playoff series since 1996 and were swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning in a season where they finished with the most points (122).
On a team already featuring stars such as Aleksander Barkov, Tkachuk led the Panthers with 109 points, establishing himself as a franchise favorite while coming through in the clutch during the team’s surprise run to the Finals as an eighth seed in 2022-2023. He led the team in assists and ranked second in points when the Panthers won the Cup last season.
Tkachuk: ‘Everybody Wants to Beat The Champs’
Tkachuk speaks of wanting to experience that feeling of winning again. The difference this time around is the Panthers are the hunted rather than the hunters as the defending champs. The two-time All-Star winger speaks of the challenge of defending the title night in and night out.
“ The challenge is you’re getting every team’s best,” says Tkachuk. “Whether they come to Florida or you’re on the road, there’s no easy games for us, everybody wants to beat the champs. There’s no easy games for us. I think we’ve done a pretty good job with that this year. As long as we just keep getting better and keep evolving our game before the playoffs, hopefully we can do it again.”
Tkachuk: Defending Better Key Down the Stretch
The 6-foot-2 winger says that in order for the Panthers to repeat as champs, they need to improve when it comes to defending the net and helping out star goal Sergei Bobrovsky.
After leading the NHL in goals against last season, the Panthers now rank in the middle-of-the-pack at 13th.
“We just have to defend better as a five-man unit in front of our goalies,” says Tkachuk. “To this point, compared to last year, we’ve given up more goals. Last year we were really stingy defensively the whole year, which gave us a lot of juice and confidence going into the playoffs where we got even better.”
The veteran winger stresses the importance of the Panthers getting back to winning low-scoring games rather than offensive shootouts.
“We have to get back to winning games 2-1, 1-0,” says Tkachuk. “That’s where we’re comfortable and that’s where we thrive the most, even though we have a lot of offense. We just have to get a little more comfortable in those types of games and not turn it into the high-scoring games where other teams thrive.
Tkachuk just so happens to be good friends with another defending champ, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum. Tatum — like Tkachuk — is coming off of his first championship last year. The two are both St. Louis natives, knowing each other from their childhood when Tkachuk’s father, Keith, played for the St. Louis Blues during the 2000’s.
The Panthers star says he keeps in regular touch with Tatum and they both want to win it again for their franchises. Florida is currently in a good spot, leading the Atlantic Division while the Celtics are currently second in the Eastern Conference.
“We both wanna do it again, because you get a taste of winning,” says Tkachuk. “Winning it that first time is the most special feeling and once you get a taste of winning, you just want it more and more.”
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