Brady Tkachuk said it's frustrating he has to frequently address rumors and speculation that don't line up with anything he or the Ottawa Senators have said. It's time to take him at his word.
For the past two years, there have been countless rumors about Brady Tkachuk's future with the Ottawa Senators.
And countless times, Tkachuk and the team have had to address them and dismiss them. They might not go away until he decides whether to sign a contract extension in the summer of 2027.
After returning from New Jersey, where her wife gave birth to their baby girl, Tkachuk told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday he is fully committed to the team and city and added that the buzz has become a distraction.
"I don't get why it's a consistent thing, and it's happened so many times personally, and it's frustrating," Tkachuk said. "It's frustrating that I have to answer to something that has never been spoken out of my mouth, hasn't been spoken from the team's mouth."
The fresh batch of speculation comes after the Carolina Hurricanes swept the Senators in the first round. Tkachuk was held off the scoresheet. That said, he had 59 points in 60 games during the regular season despite undergoing surgery on a hand injury and winning gold for Team USA at the Olympics without much of a break in between Milan and the NHL.
"I've always believed in this team, I've always believed playing for this city, and this city has always been good to me," Tkachuk said. "I don't really know what else other to say than what I've said countless times, and I just always still have to answer to it. All that stuff is just a distraction."
Tkachuk has been in Ottawa for eight years now, but the 26-year-old father of two is sticking around for a while yet. Even Senators GM Steve Staios reassured fans earlier in the week that nothing has come up that would require a serious conversation with Tkachuk about his future.
"It's nonsense, is what it is," Staios told reporters regarding the fresh batch of Tkachuk speculation. "I don’t read it, I don’t bother with it. We know what we have internally, we have great communication with our players. We really don't focus on it."
That's about as clear as Staios and Tkachuk could be. Senators management and ownership have committed to their core, and although change will take place for Ottawa in the wake of the sweep, it would be beyond shocking if the Senators traded Tkachuk.
That doesn't mean it's 100 percent assured that Tkachuk will be in Canada's capital next season or in the long term. The cast of former NHLers at the Spittin' Chiclets podcast seems convinced he won't return to the Senators, and there's been speculation that the team will explore his value in the trade market – which Staios dismissed Monday.
So, while Staios and Tkachuk are no doubt sick and tired of the constant whispers about the captain's future, they probably will never completely go away – at least, until Tkachuk signs a contract extension when he's able to next summer.
Tkachuk is signed for another two years with a no-movement clause, but players are eligible for extensions in the final season of their current contract.
Until that happens, Tkachuk and Staios will have to continue to grit their teeth and bear the weight of constant speculation. That's just the way this system works. And to his credit, Tkachuk has been consistent in his devotion to the Sens franchise.
This is why you have to take Tkachuk and Staios at their word and presume Tkachuk will be back to at least see out his current contract. That would give Ottawa two more cracks at winning the Stanley Cup and show Tkachuk and his teammates that their best chances of winning a Cup are with the Sens.
By that point, the Senators still may not have won a playoff round, which would certainly cast more doubt about whether Tkachuk can win in Ottawa. We expect some degree of change this summer after Ottawa's feeble effort against the Hurricanes, but it's most likely that Staios gives his core one or two more post-seasons before he makes material changes to the roster.
Tkachuk even mentioned what the Hurricanes have had to go through to get to Cup-contending status and how they thought the series was tighter than the sweep suggests.
"They've been in this position the last eight, nine years, and they've faced a lot of heartbreak, a lot of struggle," Tkachuk said. "They've gotten swept. They got swept in the Eastern Conference finals."
Tkachuk continues to be an important player for the team as well. He hasn't matched his career-high 83 points that he set in 2022-23 yet, but he remains an elite power forward who piles up the shots and hits.
He's given eight years to the Sens organization, and he's probably going to give them at least a couple more years.
Both sides seem willing to keep working together – and until that changes, we should expect the Sens to keep Tkachuk as long as they can, regardless of what everyone else says.
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