One year into Panthers tenure, Matthew Tkachuk feels like luckiest guy in the NHL

Tkachuk says he’s ‘feeling a lot better’ after suffering broken sternum during Stanley Cup Final

The Florida Panthers really hit the jackpot with Matthew Tkachuk.

We’ve discussed how great of a deal Florida General Manager Bill Zito when acquiring Tkachuk in a sign-and-trade that locked the 25-year-old up through the end of the decade at a reasonable cap hit of $9.5 million.

Reasonable because Tkachuk is a budding superstar in the NHL, is coming off back-to-back 100-point seasons and was a Hart Trophy finalist in his first season with the Panthers.

Did I mention that he also emerged as the most clutch player of all during last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs?

Throughout the season, Tkachuk was never shy about how much he was enjoying being with the Panthers, but it was never more apparent than during the NHL All-Star Weekend in South Florida when he seemed to become the unofficial Mayor of Fort Lauderdale and did an amazing job balancing his time between the fans, his fellow All-Stars and his family.

Other than coming up short during the Stanley Cup Final, the season couldn’t have been more of a success for Tkachuk and the Panthers.

Tkachuk was on Sportsnet’s The Fan Morning Show with Ailish Forfar and Justin Cuthbert earlier this week and continued to express nothing but joy and appreciation for being able to play for the Panthers.

“You get a chance to play hockey for a living in probably the greatest place to play hockey, down in Florida,” Tkachuk said. “I feel like one of the luckiest guys, if not the luckiest in the NHL to be able to play in that place. It truly is the best. I'm super lucky.”

Tkachuk also spoke about Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup Final, Sergei Bobrovsky’s epic playoff and his bother Brady’s wedding.

As for his broken sternum, Tkahcuk said he was able to do a little more each week and now he’s almost back to normal.

“I’m feeling a lot better,” he said. “It’s taken a little bit of time, but I guess it’s a good thing I have the summer to get better and get back to 100% before camp.”

Slowly but surely healing from an injury of that magnitude couldn’t have been fun, and while Tkachuk will be hungry to get back to work and help his team finish what they started, he knows he needs to be smart about it.

“Right now, I’m pretty much back to doing everything that I have before, other than a couple little things, I’m just not overdoing it right now to set myself back, but so far so good in the recovery process,” he said.

Tkachuk and the Panthers will be back on the ice together for training camp sometime in mid-September.