This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Matthew Tkachuk
Florida Panthers Left Wing
Sixty-two assists and 636 career penalty minutes in 590 games, which is the whole player in two numbers.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | CGY | 76 | 13 | 35 | 48 | +14 | 105 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 142 | 9.2 | 14:40 |
| 2017-18 | CGY | 68 | 24 | 25 | 49 | -1 | 61 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 188 | 12.8 | 17:15 |
| 2018-19 | CGY | 80 | 34 | 43 | 77 | +14 | 62 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 207 | 16.4 | 17:36 |
| 2019-20 | CGY | 69 | 23 | 38 | 61 | -5 | 74 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 188 | 12.2 | 18:18 |
| 2020-21 | CGY | 56 | 16 | 27 | 43 | +6 | 55 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 151 | 10.6 | 18:09 |
| 2021-22 | CGY | 82 | 42 | 62 | 104 | +57 | 68 | 12 | 0 | 6 | 253 | 16.6 | 17:54 |
| 2022-23 | FLA | 79 | 40 | 69 | 109 | +29 | 123 | 14 | 0 | 6 | 322 | 12.4 | 20:26 |
| 2023-24 | FLA | 80 | 26 | 62 | 88 | +19 | 88 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 280 | 9.3 | 18:38 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 590 | 218 | 361 | 579 | +133 | 636 | 65 | 1 | 24 | 1731 | 12.6 | 17:53 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
80 games, 26 goals and 62 assists for 88 points, 6 on the power play, 88 penalty minutes, 18:38 a night and plus-19. He took 55.0 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,074 minutes, the 87th percentile, and his ice went 56-38 against an expectation of 55.19-45.19.
Level with his chances at one end and seven fewer conceded than they called for at the other. 88 points in a season that ended with a Stanley Cup, and the 88 penalty minutes are not an accident either.
The Finesse Game
280 shots at a median of 18 feet with 52 per cent from inside 20, converted at 9.3 per cent against a career 12.6.
361 career assists in 590 games. He holds the puck below the goal line, absorbs the cross-check, and finds the seam a beat later than anybody expects him to. The hands are better than the skating and always have been, and the release from the top of the circle is genuinely dangerous.
The Physical Game
He finishes every check, cross-checks after the whistle, and says something to somebody on most shifts.
636 career penalty minutes in 590 games. He is an agitator and a genuine one — the difference between him and the men who only do the talking is that the opposition has to keep playing him honestly. He is hard to move off a puck at 6-2 and 202 and he takes liberties when he can get away with them.
The Intangibles
Sixth overall in 2016 out of Scottsdale, eight seasons, 579 points in 590 games and a career plus-133. He was traded from Calgary in the summer of 2022 and Florida has been to two finals since.
He is 26 and the game he plays is expensive. The mileage on a forward who initiates this much is the one thing that should worry anybody here, and none of it has shown yet.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,074 minutes
- Expected goals
- 55%
- 87th pct
- Shot attempts
- 57.4%
- 95th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 56 for, 38 against. Expected: 55.2 and 45.2.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 12 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 415 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 82 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2023-24 · 1074 minutes at five-on-five
- Sam Bennett72%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2023-24
- The club
- FLA took 53.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 55.0% — 1.3 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Second line, 1,074 minutes at five-on-five — 68th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Bennett | 56.1% | 52.3% | 54.8% |
| Carter Verhaeghe | 55.8% | 53.5% | 57.6% |
| Niko Mikkola | 50.6% | 57.9% | 52.4% |
56.1% together, 52.3% for him apart and 54.8% for Bennett apart. He was worse away from Bennett, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Bennett did.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
389 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 25 of them goals. His median goal came from 19 feet. 52% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 19% from beyond forty.