The year of 2026 was an eventual one for the son of longtime NHL power forward Keith Tkachuk.

Brady Tkachuk teamed with his older brother, Matthew Tkachuk, to help Team USA win gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics, the country's first in men's Olympic hockey since the 1980 Lake Placid Games. He had 59 points (22 goals, 37 assists) for the Ottawa Senators that season and helped them advance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a four-game loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.

Brady was then reunited with Matthew when Ottawa traded him to the Florida Panthers on June 21, 2026, ending his five-season tenure as Senators captain. He played with Matthew for the runner-up United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off for the first time for the same team in the same game other than the 2023 NHL All-Star Game in a 6-1 win against Finland on Feb. 13. The Tkachuks were the 14th set of brothers to play on the same team in an NHL international tournament and fifth to do so for the United States, joining Derian and Kevin Hatcher (1996 World Cup of Hockey), Aaron and Neal Broten (1984 Canada Cup), Brian and Joe Mullen ('84 Canada Cup), and Curt and Harvey Bennett (1976 Canada Cup).

Brady didn't need much time to make his mark after he was taken by the Senators with the No. 4 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft. He made the Senators out of training camp and scored two goals with an assist in his second NHL game, a 7-4 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 10, 2018, for the family's fastest first NHL goal. Matthew scored in his fourth NHL game playing for the Calgary Flames in a 4-3 overtime victory against the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 18, 2016.

Tkachuk scored 22 goals his first season, second among rookies to Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks, and had 15 goals in his first 48 games in 2019-20 to earn a spot on the Atlantic Division team for the 2020 NHL All-Star Game. On March 28, 2019, Tkachuk had 12 shots on goal to tie a Senators single-game record set by defenseman Jason York on Jan. 30, 1999, and his 20th goal tied Alexandre Daigle (1993-94) for Ottawa's single-season goal-scoring record by a teenager. The success earned him a seven-year, $57.5 million contract he signed with the Senators on Oct. 14, 2021, and being named the 10th captain in their history Nov. 5.

Playing his 300th NHL game, Tkachuk scored his 100th goal at 19:11 of the third period and No. 101 with 18 seconds remaining in overtime in Ottawa's a 3-2 win against the New York Rangers on Dec. 2, 2022. He scored 37 goals and had 294 hits in 2023-24, the most goals ever by a player who had at least 290 hits in a single NHL season.

Though Tkachuk was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, he grew up and played youth hockey in St. Louis after his father was traded to the St. Louis Blues in 2001. He played two seasons for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program and one at Boston University, where he was selected to the Hockey East All-Rookie team and helped BU win the Hockey East championship. He was captain of the gold medal-winning United States team at the 2017 IIHF Under-18 World Championship and helped the U.S. finish third at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship.

* Traded to Florida by Ottawa for two 1st-round picks in the 2026 NHL Draft (Nos. 9 and 25), a 2nd-round pick in 2027 and a conditional 1st-round pick in 2029, June 21, 2026.