Keith Tkachuk is elected to the
Hockey Hall of Fame after his sons become NHL teammates
[June 23, 2026]
By STEPHEN WHYNO
Keith Tkachuk waited more than a decade and a half from the end of
his NHL playing career to get the call from the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Not known for his patience, Tkachuk was so overcome with emotion
that he waited 45 minutes to tell his family.
“I said, ‘Hey, you guys want to have a beer together?’” Tkachuk
recalled. “And I told them and broke the news to them there.”
The timing gave them even more reason to celebrate. Tkachuk was
elected to the Hall of Fame on Monday, less than 24 hours after his
sons became teammates when Brady was traded from Ottawa to Florida,
joining older brother Matthew, during a weekend that also included a
U.S. Olympic gold medal celebration and a baptism.
“It's been a great weekend for the Tkachuks,” Keith said. “It’s been
a crazy weekend, but this tops it off. ... This is the ultimate, for
sure.”
The patriarch nicknamed “Walt” Tkachuk is part of a player class
that includes center Patrice Bergeron, who won the Stanley Cup with
Boston in 2011 and the Selke Trophy as the league's top defensive
forward six times, and goaltenders Carey Price from Montreal and
Pekka Rinne from Nashville.
U.S. women’s hockey pioneer Cindy Curley and executive Brian Burke
in the builder category also are set to be inducted on Nov. 9 at a
ceremony in Toronto.
Tkachuk was one of the premier power forwards of his era, playing in
the 1990s and 2000s as part of the first great generation of
American pro players. He recorded 1,121 points in 1,290 games,
counting the playoffs, with Winnipeg, Phoenix, St. Louis and
Atlanta, and was part of the U.S. team that won the 1996 World Cup
of Hockey.
Bergeron, who spent his entire career with the Bruins, was chosen in
his first year of eligibility. Price and Rinne were selected in
their second, with Henrik Zetterberg and Rod Brind'Amour among those
passed over again.
“You knew what you were going to get every single time you played
against him: You had to dig in,” Tkachuk said of Brind'Amour, fresh
off coaching Carolina to the Stanley Cup two decades after
captaining the Hurricanes to a championship. “Hats off to him. He’ll
be here, there’s no doubt in my mind, as a player and as a builder.”
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Boston Bruins' Patrice Bergeron plays against the Tampa Bay
Lightning during the second period of an NHL hockey game, March 25,
2023, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
Price and Bergeron played together on Canada's 2014
Olympic gold medal-winning team. That was during Price's prime,
which included winning the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, Vezina as top
goalie and the Lester B. Pearson as the most outstanding player as
voted by his peers following a dominant 2014-15 season with the
Canadiens.
“During Carey's heyday, every goalie wanted to play
like him,” said Rinne, who is the first player to make the Hall of
Fame after spending his entire career with the Predators and is
ranked in the top 25 in wins, save percentage and shutouts in league
history.
Curley skated in the first International Ice Hockey Federation
Women's World Championship in 1990. Her 11 goals, 12 assists and 23
points in five games remain single-tournament records, and she'll be
the 15th women's player to go in the Hall at a peak of the sport
with the PWHL thriving.
“When I was playing, I was I hopeful I could play on a girls team at
some point,” Curley said. “Seeing it progress to Olympics and now
the professional (level) and seeing how great the players are, it’s
just wonderful.”
Burke won the Stanley Cup as Anaheim's general manager in 2007, one
of several front-office stops for him, along with time spent as the
NHL's director of hockey operations. Burke also took on a leading
role in hockey's Pride efforts and was a longtime advocate of the
women's game, including a stint as executive director of the PWHL
Players Association.
“They’re on the same level for me,” Burke said of the Cup and his
off-ice advocacy. “That was just as important as anything else I’ve
ever worked on.”
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