Senators' Brady Tkachuk excited for division rivalry with brother Matthew's Panthers

Ottawa Senators forward Brady Tkachuk and his family had "a busy couple of weeks."

His brother Matthew made a cross-conference move from the Calgary Flames to the Florida Panthers in a blockbuster trade last week. In return, the Flames received Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt and a conditional first-round pick for 2025.

Brady spoke about the experience to see his brother in the midst of trade talks on The Fan Morning Show Wednesday morning.

"I didn’t really know much, it was more of a busy couple of weeks," he said. "I didn’t know that there was anything going on until the day it happened where things started picking up. (Matthew) was on the phone more and then it kind of all happened. He gave up brief updates, nothing detailed really a couple of days before."

The Senators captain thought it was a unique moment to be in the thick of things just as the trade everyone was waiting for finally happened.

"Everybody’s talking about it, everybody’s still talking about it so it was a pretty crazy trade and it was pretty cool to see, to witness it, first hand," Brady said. "He told us right away when it was official and all of sudden, five minutes later, it’s out so we thought that was pretty crazy. It was a different experience to see first hand."

Both brothers now find themselves in the Atlantic Division on teams with big ambition. The Panthers are reigning Presidents' Trophy winners, while the Senators made big moves in the off-season showing that the rebuild era in Ottawa is no more.

"It’s going to be nice to see him pretty regularly," Brady said. "Of course they’re going to be some big games because both teams fight for a playoff spot and will fight to move on in the playoffs.

"We’re probably going to cross paths in some very important games so I feel like it’s going to be really exciting for the both of us and nerve racking for some of the people in the family but we’re excited for that. We’re excited to be able to see each other more and just play those big-time games against one another."

The 22-year-old is fully aware of the buzz surrounding the Sens. After trading for Alex DeBrincat and Cam Talbot as well as signing local star Claude Giroux, the Senators are swinging for the fences and it couldn't make the captain any happier.

"Everybody’s buzzing right now with all of these moves," he said. "It’s so exciting to go back and talk to a lot of guys and they want the season to get started ASAP. That’s just how excited our team is and we have a full belief with our group that we can take that next step and it’s going to be a lot of fun."