Brady Tkachuk did not ease into life with the Florida Panthers. He detonated it. The offseason blockbuster scored twice, added an assist and fought in his Panthers debut Sunday, powering Florida to a 6-3 preseason win over the Carolina Hurricanes at Amerant Bank Arena.
The headline moment arrived early, when Matthew Tkachuk found his younger brother on the power play. Brady snapped a shot from the slot past Pyotr Kochetkov at 12:02 of the first period, tying the game and delivering the brother-to-brother connection Panthers fans had been waiting to see.
Brady then fed Aleksander Barkov for a second-period breakaway goal before adding his second marker into an empty net with 2:15 remaining. In between, he supplied the edge Florida acquired him to provide. After Mike Reilly shoved Barkov head-first into the boards, Tkachuk dropped the gloves, completing a Gordie Howe hat trick in his first appearance for the club.
That physical response mattered as much inside the Panthers’ dressing room as the scoring line. Barkov, returning after missing all of the 2025-26 season with a knee injury, said Tkachuk has the team’s back. Coach Paul Maurice pointed instead to the forward’s conditioning and ability to play at a high pace.
Florida also received two goals from Cole Reinhardt, three points from Niko Mikkola and a 21-save performance from Jacob Markstrom. But the night belonged to Tkachuk, whose first shift with Barkov and Sam Reinhart immediately turned a much-discussed experiment into a dangerous early signal. The Panthers face Carolina again Tuesday in Raleigh.