Tkachuk has chance to add to family’s legacy
BUFFALO — With a last name such as his, Brady Tkachuk’s life has unsurprisingly revolved around hockey.
Whether it was breaking basement windows or the garage door playing with his father Keith and older brother Matthew, or heading to the rink to attend Blues practices, the 18-year-old has plenty of childhood memories while growing up in St. Louis.
“We’d go on the ice before they practised and there were some guys who would come out like David Perron, David Backes, T.J. Oshie,” Tkachuk said at the NHL pre-draft combine on Saturday, referring to his father’s former teammates. “And those guys would spend their time, while Matthew and I were skating around, passing and shooting and joking around with us. Those were some of my big memories.”
Keith Tkachuk was considered one of the game’s top Americans during a 19-year NHL career that ended in 2010. Matthew, 20, is already in the NHL after completing his second season with the Calgary Flames.
At the rate Brady Tkachuk is developing, there’s a very good chance he’ll enjoy more memorable moments in the near future.
Listed at six-foot-three and 196 pounds, and still growing, Tkachuk is ranked second among North American draft-eligible prospects by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau. That puts the forward in the mix to be among the top five players — and first American — selected once the draft opens at Dallas on June 22.
Much like his father, Tkachuk has a combination of hard-hitting and playmaking components to his game. He had eight goals and 31 points, plus 61 penalty minutes in 40 games in his freshman season at Boston University.
He also has leadership potential after serving as captain of the bronze-medal-winning U.S. team at the World Junior hockey championships last winter.
“He’s a complete package that can be impactful in every situation with and without the puck,” central scouting bureau director Dan Marr said. “He knows what needs to be done, and he’s not afraid to get dirty to go out and do it. But he also has the skills and finesse to play that type of a game to win you the game.”
The world junior tournament became Tkachuk’s coming out party in finishing tied for fifth among tournament players with nine points. It carried over into the second half of his college season, where he had four goals and 17 points in his final 21 games to help the Terriers clinch just their eighth Hockey East tournament championship.
Tkachuk credited his improved production to learning how to play against older opponents.
“I was used to winning battles, every battle in the USHL because they’re all my own age. But I found playing against 23-yearolds was different,” he said. “Instead of just using my body, I had to use my mind, too, a little bit more and try to outsmart them.”
And he wasn’t afraid to joke during pre-draft interviews with prospective teams in saying how better looking he was than other players. And then there’s the picture accompanying Tkachuk’s combine profile, which features him with an upturnedlip smirk. “I like the smirk,” Tkachuk said. “I’ve done it before and a lot of guys think it’s funny. It’s just my personality.”