The Ottawa Senators are currently on a seven-game road trip. After winning the first two games of the trip, the team fell 2-1 to the Los Angeles Kings on Monday. Ottawa has been without its star forward, Brady Tkachuk, since he was injured on October 13. He has now announced he will be returning to the lineup on Friday night.
“We have to check some boxes but everything looks good for Friday,” Tkachuk said on his podcast Wingmen, which he hosts with his brother, Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk.
The Senators will be in St. Louis for that game. Brady was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, but raised in the St. Louis area after his father, Keith Tkachuk, was traded from the Phoenix Coyotes to the St. Louis Blues. He was then drafted by the Senators with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft.
The winger broke into the NHL in 2018-19, and has played 515 games with the Sens in his career. He has lit the lamp 191 times and added 216 helpers as a member of the franchise.
Tkachuk was off to a solid start to the 2025-26 campaign, registering three assists in three games before a thumb injury that required surgery took him out of the lineup. Before the ailment, Tkachuk had been playing on the top line with Tim Stutzle and Fabian Zetterlund. David Perron has been taking over on the left side of the ice since the injury, with Drake Batherson on the right side.
Perron has not put up the same production as a player like Tkachuk can. He has scored just two goals while adding eight assists, so the return of Tkachuk will be a major boost for the top line. Meanwhile, Batherson and Tkachuk have yet to play together this season. Batherson has found the back of the net seven times while amassing 13 assists for 20 total points after missing the first three games of the year.
The Senators are 11-7-4 on the season, which places them in third in the Atlantic Division. They will need to wait one more game to see the full top line take the ice together for the first time. The Sens will visit the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night, and then will have Tkachuk back in the fold for a Friday matinee against the Blues.
