Matthew, Brady, Keith Tkachuk Talk NHL 26 Cover, Surgery and More in B/R Interview

Matthew Tkachuk hasn't yet decided whether he is going to undergo surgery this offseason to address the injuries he played through during the Florida Panthers' run to the 2025 Stanley Cup, he told Bleacher Report on Friday.

Tkachuk, who told reporters after the Panthers' championship-clinching Game 6 victory over the Edmonton Oilers that he had been playing through a torn adductor muscle and a sports hernia injury, said in June he was "50-50" on whether or not he would undergo a procedure this summer.

"No updates yet, but I guess we're coming down to the wire if we do it or not," Matthew told Bleacher Report.

Matthew told ESPN's Greg Wyshynski that he would miss "the first two or maybe three months" of the 2025-26 season should he decide to undergo the procedure.

Matthew may not be certain about his availability for the opening of the 2025-26 season in October, but he was recently back in skates for a photoshoot as the cover athlete for EA Sports' NHL 26.

The standard edition of the game features Matthew lifting the Stanley Cup for a second straight season, while the deluxe edition features him alongside his brother, Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, and their father, former St. Louis Blues and Team USA star Keith Tkachuk.

"All aspects of what's important to me in my professional life is all captured in two covers," Matthew said. "So, it's an honor for me to be on both. And I mean, the one is special, I'm holding the Cup for the standard. But I'd almost argue the deluxe one's more special for me."

Matthew is nonetheless aware of his significance of his standard cover. The last cover athlete to hold the Cup was Jonathan Toews, who struck the pose for NHL 16 after leading the Chicago Blackhawks to three Stanley Cups in a span of six seasons.

"I think that's a great comparison for our team," Matthew said about the 2010-15 Blackhawks. "I mean, they've got the one-up on us right now with the three Cups instead of the two, so I guess we've got to chase that down. But I think it's a great comparison. I think we're both one of, if not the best, teams of our little run there."

New features added by EA Sports in NHL 26 include the incorporation of more detailed player data gathered through NHL EDGE.

"It's great how individualized it is. I hope that they can show off my hands a little bit better than Brady's, because I know that they're going to make him a way faster, more powerful hitter than me," Matthew joked.

EA Sports' NHL 26 is set to release on Friday, Sept. 12. Fans who pre-order the deluxe edition can access the game as soon as Sept. 5 while getting the chance to play Matthew at a 99 OVR in NHL 25.

"Any excuse to get myself at a 99 rating, I'm signing myself up for all that," Matthew said. "That's not going to happen very often."

Brady, who joined his brother and father in St. Louis for the EA Sports photoshoot ahead of both covers' release earlier this month, was dealing with his own injury issues toward the end of the 2025-26 season.

After helping the Senators make the playoffs for the first time in eight years before conceding a first-round elimination loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brady told reporters he had suffered a hip injury during February's 4 Nations Face-Off as well as an upper-body injury in March.

"Definitely wanted to take more of a slow and kind of conservative approach this summer, so it probably took a little bit longer to get to 100 percent than I expected," Brady said on Friday. "But now, at this point, this is probably the best I've ever felt going into a season."

Brady added that he's spent some time this summer watching the in-game intros played at Canadian Tire Centre before Game 3 and Game 4 last April, when the NHL playoffs returned to Ottawa for the first time since Erik Karlsson led the Sens to the conference finals in 2017.

"It was just such a long time coming," Brady said. "To see how everybody stuck with us, through the low, through the adversity, now getting back to where we want to be. Just seeing the support that the city gave us is really special."

While Brady prepares to rejoin a team that worked to add depth this season by adding Lars Eller and Jordan Spence while losing a key penalty killer in Adam Gaudette and a veteran backup goaltender in Anton Forsberg, Matthew is returning to a squad that re-signed Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand to keep most of its championship roster intact.

"These are opportunities that you can't take for granted," Matthew said. "When you have a team like this, you've got to make sure that you give everything you can, not matter what you've done in the past or not."

The Tkachuks' individual playoff aspirations aren't the only things the brothers will be focused on next season.

The brothers also joined the Vegas Golden Knights' Jack Eichel, Vancouver Canucks' Quinn Hughes, Toronto Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews and Boston Bruins' Charlie McAvoy on the list of the first six players named to the Team USA roster ahead of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

That will allow Matthew and Brady to follow in the footsteps of their father, who played in four Olympics with Team USA and helped his country win silver during the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Keith also helped the United States defeat Canada in the final of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. He and current Team USA general manager Bill Guerin helped spark the Americans by starting fights in the first 20 seconds of a round-robin game against Canada, much like Matthew and Brady did during the first rivalry game of last February's 4 Nations Face-Off.

Matthew said Keith has advised himself and Brady about the importance of making sure players quickly buy in to a team identity during weekslong tournaments.

"You just collectively buy into an ultimate team that'll do whatever for each other," Matthew said. "I think especially in a short tournament like that, whatever country, team, does that the quickest, the most success that they'll have. I know that we already have a tight-knit group."

In that respect, Team USA is already off to a head start. All six players on the initial Olympics roster were also selected for 4 Nations, although Hughes was sidelined by injury during the tournament.

That also wasn't the first time this group has worked together. Matthew watched Eichel play on the group one year ahead of him with the U.S. National Team Development Program, and he competed alongside Matthews and McAvoy during the 2015 IIHF U18 World Championship in Switzerland.

The 4 Nations tournament also gave Matthew the chance to work with players he described as "gamers," like the New York rangers' J.T. Miller, Detroit Red Wings' Dylan Larkin and Carolina Hurricanes' Jaccob Slavin, while introducing him to younger players like the Minnesota Wild's Matt Boldy and Brock Faber.

Brady isn't sure if his young son Ryder will be able to make the trip to Italy, but both Tkachuk brothers are expecting to see their sister, parents, wives and a host of other family members in the crowd this winter.

"It'll be amazing to share that with them," Brady said. "I always joke around about how great it'd feel to be able to win the Olympics and crush the most amount of past that the Olympic Village has ever seen."

Keith Tkachuk was playing in the 1996 World Cup the last time an American men's hockey team defeated Canada in the championship game of a best-on-best tournament.

His sons will now look to become the first American team to win Olympic gold since the 1980 Miracle on Ice when the 2026 Games kick off next February.