Top Draft prospect a chip off the old Tkachuk block

Potential top-five pick combines offensive skill with nasty approach

It was at last week’s NHL draft combine in Buffalo, when Brady Tkachuk showed off his strength and competitive spirit by performing 11 pull-ups in 45 teeth-gnashing seconds. If you were a scout, it was as good a sign as any that the 18-year-old has a body that’s more than ready for the NHL.

But they weren’t the only ones who came away impressed. The official Twitter handle of the NHL posted the video, tagging Matthew Tkachuk with the question: Think you can do more? “Absolutely not,” responded Matthew.

Brady agreed.

“He didn’t do it, because he had a sprained ankle, so he didn’t test at all,” Brady said of his older brother’s combine experience two years ago. “But I know he’d be in the fiveto-six range. Maybe.”

That last part was yet another dig at his older brother, who could become a future opponent as early as next season. When that happens, expect a rivalry that’s been forged on the driveway basketball court and at the rink when their dad was playing in the NHL to continue. “Oh yeah, there were a bunch of fights,” said Brady, who along with six other top prospects was invited to watch Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final. “A bunch of witnesses to that. We were doing it in the locker-room and in the wives’ room when my dad was playing. We weren’t afraid to fight. “After the game, we’d get ministicks and we’d be in the wives’ room, so the wives would be hanging out, just talking to one another, and we’d get a two-on-two game going. I got hit from behind once and I think we fought after that.” If you think this is a case of kids being kids, think again.

The brothers were home last month for Mother’s Day and decided to step outside to shoot some hoops. Before you knew it ... “It got pretty physical,” said Brady, laughing. “No fights, so that was good. But we always competed, ever since we were little.” Consider it a taste of things to come. Like their father, Keith, who scored 1,065 points and accumulated 2,219 penalty minutes in 1,201 games, Matthew and Brady know how to play one way: physical. Matthew is a six-foot-two, 202-pound power forward who was drafted sixth overall by the Calgary Flames in 2016. In two years, he’s already developed a reputation and a rap sheet as one of the biggest pests in the NHL. As a rookie, he was suspended for two games for delivering an elbow to the head of Los Angeles Kings star defenceman Drew Doughty. Last season, he received a pair of one-game suspensions for unsportsmanlike conduct — he speared Toronto’s Matt Martin while behind the bench and slashed Detroit’s Luke Witkowski as he exited the ice — and also drew the ire of Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog, who took a four-game suspension for cross-checking Tkachuk in the face.

So if alarm bells aren’t going off by Brady ’s declaration that he’s the bigger, stronger and nastiest one in the family, then police sirens definitely should.

“I mean, we’ll see, hopefully when I get there,” said Brady. “I think my family thinks I’m tougher than him, and Matthew ’s not messing with me anymore, so if that’s a mark, I’ll have to deal with it. Just try to play my game.” Brady, who is already six foot three and 196 pounds, is also by his brother’s estimation the most skilled Tkachuk.

He scored eight goals and 31 points in 40 games as a freshman at Boston University. But it was at the world juniors, where as a member of Team USA he scored three goals and nine points in seven games — and scored the overtime shootout winner in the outdoor game — that he showcased his offensive potential.

“I definitely pride myself and see myself as a big-time player who comes up in big-time games and big-time moments,” said Brady. “I thrive in those games and really enjoy when it’s a high-pressure game. That’s kind of how I play: fast and physical and I’m not afraid of those moments.”

Scouts believe he’ll go somewhere in the top five, where Montreal (third overall) and Ottawa (fourth overall) are picking. “I’ve done a little bit of research on both,” Brady said of the Canadiens and the Senators, adding that he can play either wing or centre.

I think my family thinks I’m tougher than him, and Matthew’s not messing with me anymore. BRADY TKACHUK