Matthew Tkachuck Needs To Drop The Fake Tough Guy Act ASAP

Few players in the NHL are as polarizing as Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuck.

He’s a wildly talented player. Over the past four seasons, he has been just under or exceeded 100 points. He only had 57 this year, but that was because he only played in 52 games. The dude can flat out cook on the ice.

However, he’s also your classic agitator, which is someone who is always annoying opponents by taunts, stick checks after the whistle, and dirty hits. Yet somehow, he manages to hide behind referees and not get caught most of the time.

But perhaps the most frustrating part of Tkachuck’s game is that he’s a fake tough guy.

Matthew Tkachuck Has A Tendency To Annoy Players, And Find Ways To Avoid The Consequences

Yes, I hear you: "Dude, get a grip. How could you say that about the guy who fought in the Four Nations Faceoff?"

(Here it is in case you missed it, or if you want to relive a hype moment).

On the one hand, it was pretty sick that it happened and I was on the edge of my seat watching this. But Hagel, a guy who doesn’t fight a lot, ended up taking Tkachuck down and landing an even amount of punches. 

He talks a big game, always saying something to try to get some real estate between his opponent’s ears. 

But for a guy that makes a lot of threats and that makes a bunch of dirty plays (including on defenseless players), he often cowers when he gets a taste of his own medicine.

Take this sequence from 2020, when he was with the Calgary Flames. Tkachuck hit an Oilers defenseman in questionable at-best spots in the same game and cowered when the defenseman stood up to him.

He acts just like that younger sibling who loves to annoy the older ones and poke the bear, yet acts innocently when that bear has had enough. Sure he'll sometimes fight, but if he has the option to run from trouble, he will.

OutKick’s resident hockey expert, Matt Reigle, drove home his point in his assessment of Tkachuck. 

"I’m not sure he’s done anything that wouldn’t make me consider him ‘tough.’ He’s not like an old school tough guy like Donald Brashear, but he answers the bell if necessary and played with a broken sternum a couple years ago. But I’d consider him more of an agitator and he’s great at that," Reigle said.

Yes, Tkachuck played with a broken sternum in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2023. But here’s what I would say to that.

First, while this takes a lot of strength and is incredible, it’s nothing all that special in the hockey world. Rasmus Anderson played a dozen games with a broken leg this past season. Patrice Bergeron played in the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals with broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a separated shoulder. Erik Karlson played six playoff games with two fractured feet. All hockey guys play hurt, it's expected of them.

Second, that broken sternum didn’t stop him from engaging in a postgame scrum in the 2023 finals in which he but his stick around Alex Pietrangelo’s head and did his best to choke him.

Tkachuck is an agitator, not a tough guy - and other players in the league are catching on to it.

Matthew Tkachuck Threatened William Nylander. Should He Be Afraid?

Toronto and Florida are matched up in a second-round series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Last night, the Panthers won Game 4 to bring the series to a 2-2 deadlock. As time winded down, Maple Leafs forward Max Domi boarded Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov, which sparked a scrum.

As this was happening, Tkachuck took the time to look at Nylander on the bench and said "I’m going to get you" multiple times, while winking at him. That means he threatened to hit the star when he saw Barkov, a Florida star, get hit.

Can teams expect some level of revenge for a late hit like this? Yes, its a hockey thing. But you have to take these things with a grain of salt if Tkachuck says them, because he’s just looking to annoy people.

Nylander said as much after the game.

It’s certainly possible that we see Tkachuck headhunt Nylander once Game 5 starts tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. But I wouldn’t expect any actions that would indicate he’s anything more than an agitator.

He'll have to fundamentally change his ways to be considered a genuine tough guy.

Written by
John Simmons graduated from Liberty University hoping to become a sports journalist. He’s lived his dream while working for the Media Research Center and can’t wait to do more in this field with Outkick. He could bore you to death with his knowledge of professional ultimate frisbee, and his one life goal is to find Middle Earth and start a homestead in the Shire. He’s still working on how to make that happen.