At long last, Keith Tkachuk is a Hockey Hall Of Fame member.

The former St. Louis Blues left wing, among the greatest goal scorers among American-born players in NHL history, was indicted into the Hockey Hall of Fame for the Class of 2026, which was announced on Monday afternoon, 16 years after the power forward retired from the NHL.

“I think like a lot of people on this (call), the inductees, I was shocked," Tkachuk said. "You don’t go into your career thinking you’re going to be a Hall of Famer. You don’t play for that. But as you get older, when you get that call, it was truly the biggest honor I could ever have. I’m thrilled. I don’t know how I’m going to react in the NHL in November. It’s going to be overwhelming. But we’re doing this for our families who have sacrificed everything for us. I’m looking forward to spending that time with my family, my grandkids, my wife Chantal who sacrificed a ton for me. I’m looking forward to going in representing all the teams that I played for, especially the St. Louis Blues. I’ve been here a long time, so I’m looking forward to that.”

Tkachuk, who played the final eight-plus seasons of his NHL career with the Blues (2000-2010), who also had stints with the old Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes and a short stint with the now-defunct Atlanta Thrashers, who relocated to make up the current Winnipeg Jets franchise, played in 1,201 regular-season games and had 1,065 points (538 goals, 527 assists).

Introducing the Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2026! 👏#HHOF2026#HHOFpic.twitter.com/jwTD6Q0OUL

— Hockey Hall of Fame (@HockeyHallFame) June 22, 2026

Tkachuk, who played 18 seasons in the NHL starting in 1991, never won the Stanley Cup in his career, and one wonders if that was a sticking point as to why it's taken him this long to finally be enshrined, is third among American-born players in NHL history in goals scored behind former Blue Brett Hull (741) and Mike Modano (561).

It's a long time coming and well-deserved for the 54-year-old, who currently serves as the team's director of recruitment. It was a decade-long wait.

"I don’t think about that," Tkachuk said. "I’m enjoying life right now. I’ve got a great family, grandkids now. This is the ultimate, for sure. The Tkachuks are never known to be patient, but we had to be a little patient."

Tkachuk was enshrined into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011 and Blues Hall of Fame; he will become the 27th former Blue to be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Tkachuk played in 543 regular-season games with the Blues and ranks 14th in franchise history with 427 points and sixth with 208 goals.

He is a five-time NHL All-Star (1997, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009) and two-time selection to the NHL’s Second All-Star Team (1995, 1998).

"Keith Tkachuk’s induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame is richly deserved," Blues chairman Tom Stillman said in a statement. "One of the greatest American-born hockey players of all time, ‘Big Walt’ brought a unique blend of skill and toughness to the St. Louis Blues. It was a privilege to watch him play in the Blue Note for nine seasons, and his impact on the franchise and our broader hockey community continues to be felt to this day. On behalf of the Blues organization and Blues fans everywhere, heartfelt congratulations to Keith and the entire Tkachuk family on this prestigious honor."

The news came 24 hours after Tkachuk's youngest son, Brady, was traded by the Ottawa Senators to join forces with older brother Matthew and the Florida Panthers.

“They’ve dreamt of playing together," Keith Tkachuk said of his sons. "They had an opportunity in the Olympics and 4 Nations. They’re best friends, they wanted to do this together and fortunately, it worked out. Both parties found a way to get it done.

"... It’s been a great weekend for the Tkachuks."

Totally worth the wait.

Congratulations Big Walt! pic.twitter.com/7WYlJNPmtH

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) June 22, 2026

Blues Inquired About Trading For Brady TkachukArmstrong admitted team was interested, not on player's list and "that's that." They have to find way to get on those types of players' list

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The Philadelphia Flyers have already addressed one major need this offseason by trading for goalie Joseph Woll, and next up on the list appears to be the center position.

The left defense position has been the talk of much of the offseason so far, given that the Flyers will most easily be able to address it, specifically at the 2026 NHL Draft.

Center, of course, is the position in much greater demand around the NHL, and as a result, the Flyers may need to buy low and explore bargain bin options around the league.

One such option is reportedly Seattle Kraken center Shane Wright, a former No. 4 overall draft pick who is just one year removed from a promising 44-point campaign as a 21-year-old player.

Wright, 22, had an uninspiring 2025-26 season that saw him score just 12 goals and 27 points while averaging only 13:48 of ice time on a bad Kraken team that needed some juice.

Offensive involvement has been the question mark for the former top prospect, as Wright has just 204 career shots on goal, though he does have 36 goals to show for it thus far.

NHL Trade Rumors: Flyers Linked to Multiple Senators CentersThe Philadelphia Flyers are reportedly interested in three different Ottawa Senators forwards, including two established goal-scorers.

But, with all that said, The Fourth Period and NHL Network NHL insider David Pagnotta recently reported that "Young centre Shane Wright is still available and remains open to a move.

"[Seattle Kraken GM Jason Botterill] prefers to package him in a larger deal for a top-tier forward and he continues to scour the market. Teams continue to poke, and sources say the Philadelphia Flyers recently entered the chat, and trade discussions should pick up this week."

Of note, the 2026 NHL Draft is just four days away, and the Flyers were previously reported to not have much interest in Wright as a player.

If things have changed, as Pagnotta indicates, the Flyers have accepted that the market for centers is not favorable for what they would like to achieve.

Head coach Rick Tocchet liked having veteran Luke Glendening in the lineup for matchup purposes as the Flyers' lone right-hand center, and prospect Jett Luchanko is still not close to being ready for a full-time NHL role.

Those factors lend themselves well to the Flyers throwing a dart at Wright, who has plenty of talent and is still very young.

Wright has only one year remaining on his entry-level contract at a $866k cap hit, so if things don't pan out, he and agent Kurt Overhardt can work out something else out next offseason.

The Flyers have a surplus of wingers, a need for a young center with talent, and a need for a right-hand center.

Wright checks all those boxes for them, and it seems they are starting to coming around the idea of giving the 2022 No. 4 overall pick a fresh start in Philadelphia.

The Hockey Hall of Fame unveiled its Class of 2026 on Monday, a group headlined by Patrice Bergeron — who spent 20 years in Boston winning six Selke Trophies and a Stanley Cup — alongside goaltenders Carey Price and Pekka Rinne, power forward Keith Tkachuk, women's hockey pioneer Cindy Curley, and builder Brian Burke.

For Oilers fans, it's that last name that carries the most history.

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Burkie’s a Hall of Famer! 🫡 pic.twitter.com/TACWeXYjde

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 22, 2026

Burke and Edmonton go way back — and not always warmly. Before winning the Stanley Cup in 2007, he orchestrated the trade that sent Chris Pronger from the Oilers to the Ducks, a deal that will forever go down as the start of the Oilers Decade of Darkness.

His link to the Oilers was memorable, given his feud with former Oilers executive Kevin Lowe. Burke once threatened to rent a barn to fight Lowe after a heated offer sheet dispute — a threat serious enough that Commissioner Gary Bettman called within ten minutes to threaten a suspension.

Lowe, for his part, was equally colorful in return, calling Burke "a moron" and "an absolute media junkie" on the radio. The Ducks let Edmonton have Dustin Penner (the target of the offer sheet), and it didn't go down as well as the Oilers would have hoped. 

Eventually, the two patched things up, but it was a time in which offer sheets aren't as prevalent as they are in today's NHL. 

Burke also held the title of president of hockey operations with the Calgary Flames — Edmonton's fiercest rival — before later joining the Pittsburgh Penguins in the same capacity. 

Love him or hate him, few figures have shaped the modern NHL front office more than Burke. The Hall of Fame nod is well earned.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins are going to be an interesting team to watch this off-season. While they made the playoffs in 2025-26, they are a team that is still focused on the future. Due to this, it is fair to wonder if they could end up trading some of their veteran players. 

Chris Johnston released his latest board for The Athletic, and two notable Penguins wingers made the cut: Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust.

Rakell was given the No. 21 spot on Johnston's trade board. It is not necessarily surprising, as questions about Rakell's future in Pittsburgh have come up since the end of the club's playoff run. He was also the subject of trade speculation this past summer. 

If the Penguins do shop Rakell, he should generate a good amount of interest. The 33-year-old winger is still an impactful top-six forward at this stage in his career, as evidenced by his 24 goals and 48 points in 60 games this past season.

As for Rust, he landed the No. 22 spot on Johnston's trade board. Like Rakell, Rust has also been talked about often in the rumor mill often this summer, just like was last year. 

Trading Rust would be a big deal, as he has spent all 12 seasons of his NHL career with the Penguins. However, the Penguins could also get a serious return for him if they moved him this off-season. The veteran forward had 29 goals and 65 points in 72 games this past season with Pittsburgh. This was after he had 31 goals and 65 points in 71 games for the Penguins in 2024-25. 

The hockey world was put into a frenzy on Sunday by the Brady Tkachuk trade from the Ottawa Senators to the Florida Panthers. 

When it came to the Tkachuk trade rumors over the past two years, the New York Rangers were certainly linked to him, whether that speculation was true or not.

However, Tkachuk reportedly released a four-team trade list, which included the Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Vegas Golden Knights, and Carolina Hurricanes.  

“At the outset of discussions between Staios and the Tkachuk camp, Oster presented a list of four teams Tkachuk would consider in a potential trade: the Wild, the Carolina Hurricanes, the Vegas Golden Knights and, of course, Brady’s brother Matthew’s team, the Panthers,” NHL insider Pierre LeBrun wrote.

“At no time did Tkachuk promise to waive for all four teams. And that’s an important distinction, because as the process went and as Ottawa talked trades with the four teams, one thing became apparent: This was really just about Tkachuk wanting to be in Florida.”

The Rangers were notably not one of the teams on Tkachuk’s list. 

It shows that, despite New York being a desirable market for players to flock to, the Rangers are not ready to truly emerge as a Stanley Cup contender, which is deterring star talent from seeking a trade to The Big Apple.

Dylan Larkin reportedly requested a trade from the Detroit Red Wings and submitted a list of three teams he would like to be traded to, which includes the Panthers, Golden Knights, and Wild, with the Rangers absent from his list. 

En route to missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury issued a letter to fans in January outlining the team’s plan to “retool” the roster and focus on the future as opposed to the immediate present. 

Drury then went ahead and traded the Rangers’ to point producer, Artemi Panarin, and is rumored to be shopping Vincent Trocheck this offseason.

Withstanding some of the organization's mixed messaging about fast-tracking the retool, whether it’s from Drury or head coach Mike Sullivan, the Rangers are not a team constructed to win now, and until that changes, star players will only continue to bypass the Blueshirts as one of their preferred destinations.

Is Hermansson too ‘offense or bust' for Flyers at No. 21 in draft? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

For the first time in a while, the Flyers are coming off a playoff run.

That, of course, makes life a little different for the club’s amateur scouting staff leading up to the 2026 NHL draft. Barring a trade, the Flyers will pick at 21st overall. It’s their lowest first-round spot since 2020.

But that was when the Flyers drafted a foundation piece, grabbing Tyson Foerster at 23rd overall.

So the Flyers know the draft is still critical to what they want to do, even when they’re lower in the order.

“We’ve said it for a long time, we wanted to build a team that was going to be here for a long time; not just to go for it for a year or two,” general manager Danny Briere said last month. “That’s still the same approach on my end.”

After the recent trade with the Maple Leafs, the Flyers have only four picks in this draft, which will be held June 26-27. The first round is Friday at 7 p.m. ET, while Rounds 2-7 are Saturday starting at 11 a.m. ET.

“I’ll tell you how I feel about drafts and I’ll be totally blunt with you,” TSN director of scouting Craig Button said June 2 in a phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I think it’s f—ing bulls–t when I hear about, ‘Oh, this draft isn’t as good.’ Here are the numbers. Approximately 45 players from any draft will play 350 games or more in the NHL. It might be 47 one year, 42 another year. That’s the number — you get 45 players that’ll play 350 games or more with varying degrees of success.

“And I know this about the draft. The teams that get good players from the draft say it was a good draft. The teams that don’t get good players from the draft say it wasn’t a good draft. So when people start telling me about a draft ahead of time, I call bulls–t.”

Last summer, the Flyers made nine selections, with six coming over the first two rounds. Porter Martone was their headliner at sixth overall. Now the Flyers will try to hit on a pick in the 20s.

“What you’re trying to do is find a player that you feel has the potential to be an NHL player,” Button said. “That might be a third-line center, that might be a second-line scoring winger. Hey, listen, maybe you get David Pastrnak, who’s a superstar (drafted 25th overall in 2014).

“But the focus has to be on, ‘OK, what type of player do we like, what type of player do we think the guy can be?’ And then get after it and understand what the development path is, and then try to help that player be the best he can be. Put a stake in the ground and celebrate who you’re drafting.”

Before the draft arrives, we’re breaking down first-round targets for the Flyers.

Next up:

Elton Hermansson

Position: Winger
Height: 6-foot
Weight: 182
Shoots: Right
Team: MoDo

Scouting report

Hermansson is a player that fuels on point production, scoring with plenty of finesse and confidence.

The 18-year-old put up 11 goals and 10 assists over 38 games this season in HockeyAllsvenskan, a Swedish pro league that’s a tier below the SHL.

He had a very productive 2026 IIHF U-18 World Junior Championship, a tournament that ended last month. Hermansson recorded 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in seven games for Team Sweden, which won gold.

But his work ethic and battle level without the puck are suspect.

“He had that U-18 tournament, which was impressive,” Daily Faceoff associate editor and prospect analyst Steven Ellis said June 9 in a phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. “Extremely offensive, great creator. But it’s kind of offense or bust for him and I think that’s part of the issue.”

Hermansson is the 20th-ranked player on Ellis’ final top-120 draft board.

“I think he has got to work on his B game, making sure he’s more effective and you can throw him in for a checking role,” Ellis said. “He doesn’t hit many guys, that’s kind of the thing. I think if he adds a little bit more speed, he’d be really interesting.

“But I think from a pure skill perspective, few guys can go out there and dangle like he can, few guys can go out there and create the offensive opportunities like he can. It’s just can he do a bit more than that? I think that’s where there’s a question mark for me.”

NHL Central Scouting has Hermansson pegged as the fifth-best international skater. He’s the 25th overall player on EliteProspects.com, but he’s down at No. 55 on Button’s June 17 list.

Fit with Flyers

While immensely skilled, Hermansson is not the biggest and there are some concerns with his competitiveness.

Can he be a true play-driver or does he rely a little too much on others? Will he consistently play 200 feet? The Flyers will have to answer those questions if they see Hermansson as an option at No. 21.

The scoring talent is absolutely there and that could intrigue the Flyers. But a different player may give them more answers.

More targets

• Could Lawrence’s early jump to college have him fall to Flyers in draft?

• Will Flyers eye 6-foot-4 forward with ‘goal-scoring hands’ at No. 21?

• Palmieri ‘type of player’ may be available for Flyers at No. 21 in draft

• Russian center with pro build has interesting case for Flyers at No. 21

• Lin has ‘Brandon Montour profile,’ but will he be there for Flyers at No. 21?

• D-man with ‘unbelievable maturity to his game’ could be option for Flyers at No. 21

• ‘Second-line center all day long’ should intrigue Flyers in draft

• ‘This kid is a hell of a player’ — Flyers could draft 45-goal, 104-point winger

• Is Novotny, a winger that’s ‘so dangerous around the net,’ a fit for Flyers?

• A Drysdale type of defenseman for the Flyers at No. 21 in the draft?

• Another OHL first-rounder for Flyers? Klepov, with 97 points, has tons of appeal

• A center with ‘fantastic’ hockey sense could give Flyers option to trade down

• Should a 6-foot-7 center have the Flyers’ attention in first round of draft?

Patrice Bergeron, Brian Burke, Cindy Curley, Carey Price, Pekka Rinne and Keith Tkachuk have been named to the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026, the Hall announced Monday. The inductees will enter the Hall in November.

Bergeron won the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward six times, most of any player. He won his final Selke in 2022-23, his last year before retiring.

He was not just a defensive whiz. He scored 1,040 points, all for the Boston Bruins. His most productive offensive rates occurred while centering Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. The 2003 second-round pick developed into one of the top power-play specialists while working the bumper position.

He won the Stanley Cup in 2011. The Quebec native helped Canada win Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014. He also claimed international titles at the 2004 World Championship and 2005 World Junior Championship. Coaches regularly used Bergeron with Sidney Crosby during international competition.

Burke will enter the Hall in the builder category. He served as general manager for the Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs, winning the Cup with the Ducks in 2007. In Vancouver, Burke executed the trades that allowed the Canucks to draft Daniel and Henrik Sedin in 1999.

Burke was president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames and Pittsburgh Penguins. He also worked for the NHL as senior vice president and director of hockey operations.

Curley played at Providence College. The forward helped the Friars win back-to-back NCAA championships in 1984 and 1985.

The native of Stow, Mass., was a member of Team USA’s inaugural World Championship team in 1990 and won three silver medals while playing for the Americans at the event.

Price played his entire career for the Montreal Canadiens. The netminder won a franchise record 361 games.

He reached his peak in 2014-15, when he posted a .933 save percentage and a 1.96 goals-against average in 66 appearances. The smooth-moving Price won the Hart Trophy as league MVP and the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goalie that season.

Price, a native of Anahim Lake, British Columbia, won Olympic gold with Team Canada in 2014. He was also a gold medalist at the 2007 World Junior Championship. His career ended early because of a knee injury.

Rinne played all 683 of his games with the Nashville Predators. The 2004 eighth-round pick developed into a workhorse for the Predators, playing a career-high 73 games in 2011-12. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2017-18 with a .927 save percentage and a 2.31 GAA.

The Finnish goalie represented his country at the 2014 and 2015 World Championships. He helped the Finns win silver in 2014.

Tkachuk was one of his generation’s most dangerous power forwards. The left-shot Tkachuk scored 1,065 points, including 538 goals, for the Winnipeg Jets, Phoenix Coyotes, St. Louis Blues and Atlanta Thrashers.

In 1996-97, Tkachuk, a native of Melrose, Mass., scored 52 goals for the Coyotes. He became the first American to lead the NHL in goals.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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