Brady Tkachuk's move to the Panthers keeps raising the same question around the league. Where does family talk end and tampering begin?
Heading into tonight's home date with Seattle, that question isn't going away. Michael Andlauer made sure of it, telling The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun how he saw Brady's exit from Ottawa.
“Blood is thicker than water, and let's just say that his father and his brother got in his kitchen,” Andlauer said.
He was pointing at Matthew and their father Keith, the soon-to-be Hall of Famer. Brady has denied that playing with his brother drove the trade request.
“Ultimately, the decision was made to go and play with his brother,” Andlauer added. “It's a decision that was out of our control to a certain degree.”
Then there's The Wingmen Podcast. Sources told Full Press Hockey that neither club liked the idea of it, especially the Senators.
The episode everyone points to has Matthew and Keith roasting Brady about the Ottawa media, then asking why he doesn't just come play in Florida.
Quinn Hughes and the Team USA gold medal locker room raise the stakes
That's the part that should bother the league. It's like a rival restaurant poaching your head chef by shouting the offer through the front window during dinner service.
On The Green Zone, Jim Biringer told Jamie Nye the league has to deal with tampering before anything else.
“I think the bigger issue is it's outright open on a podcast,” Biringer said. “And I think that's something that they're going to have to corral moving forward.”
He also nailed the practical problem. Players can float hypotheticals all they want, and the league can't exactly tap phones.
And the Olympic gold turned that into a real headache. Several Team USA players have since requested trades or voiced uncertainty about their futures.
Quinn Hughes is the name to watch. Jim Rutherford, then running hockey ops in Vancouver, said in the spring of 2025 that the defenseman wanted to play with his brothers.
Jack and Luke are both in New Jersey. Quinn still hasn't extended in Minnesota, where he's put up 12 points in eight games.
Vegas felt the ripple too. Rasmus Andersson's decision not to extend right away with the Golden Knights was partly shaped by those same concerns.
The league isn't blind to any of it. It sent a memo to all 32 clubs before the 2025 offseason and warned the Blackhawks about tampering this past summer.
Meanwhile, the move is paying off on the ice. Brady has six goals through eight games in Florida.
Ottawa sits second in the Atlantic without him, two spots ahead of the Panthers.
The bigger question is whether the league acts before the next Olympic locker room conversation turns into the next trade request.
Should the NHL punish the Tkachuks over The Wingmen Podcast recruiting pitch?
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