Brady Tkachuk has been the hero for the Florida Panthers on back-to-back occasions, shaking off a slow start to the season by joining an exclusive club and recording two consecutive natural hat tricks this week.
He scored three goals and added an assist in a 7-3 drubbing of the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, then followed it up by tallying all three of his team's goals in a 3-2 come-from-behind overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
On Saturday evening, he has an opportunity to make NHL history by becoming the first player to score a hat trick in three consecutive games when the Seattle Kraken visit Amerant Bank Arena, per NHL On Tap.
There have been 84 instances since the NHL's birth in 1917 of a player scoring three or more goals in consecutive games. Tkachuk is the 65th player to achieve the feat.
Only two other players have managed natural hat tricks in two straight games: “Petri Skriko (Nov. 18-21, 1986 with the Canucks) and Cy Denneny (Feb. 21-24, 1923 with the Ottawa Senators),” per NHL.com.
But no player in National Hockey League history has recorded back-to-back-to-back hat tricks. Even doing it twice is an incredible feat, and Tkachuk now has an opportunity to stand alone.
“A hat trick of hat tricks,” as NHL.com's Dave Stubbs put it.
The last player in the NHL to record consecutive hat tricks was Toronto Maple Leafs sharpshooter Auston Matthews, who did it against the Philadelphia Flyers and Anaheim Ducks in February 2024.
“I've liked his game,” head coach Paul Maurice said of Tkachuk after Tuesday’s win over Columbus, who is up to six goals and eight points in his first eight games as a Panther.
Article Continues Below“Our power play struggled for a little bit and then it just needed something to go a certain way for him. There's some chemistry there, you know. He and his brother played together their whole lives as kids, and there's something there for sure.”
Since Brady joined Matthew on the same line, the brothers have led the way offensively. It's unlikely they will be split up again anytime soon, especially with Brady on the verge of history.
Puck drops on Florida-Seattle just past 6 p.m. ET from Sunrise.

