Brady Tkachuk will take a run at a scoring feat no NHL player has managed when the Florida Panthers host the Seattle Kraken on Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena. After hat tricks against Columbus and Vancouver, Tkachuk can become the first player in League history to record three-goal games in three straight outings.
A rare chance for a third straight hat trick
The Panthers forward is the 65th player to post hat tricks in consecutive NHL games, a category that reaches back to the League’s opening 1917-18 campaign. Cy Denneny, Newsy Lalonde, Joe Malone and Reg Noble were the first names to do it.
Tkachuk opened his streak with three goals and an assist Tuesday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. He followed that with another three-goal night Thursday against the Vancouver Canucks in Florida.
- Opponent: Seattle Kraken
- Venue: Amerant Bank Arena
- Faceoff: 6 p.m. ET Saturday
- Broadcast: Prime Video, SCRIPPS and KONG
His latest outburst carried another historical wrinkle. Both of Tkachuk’s hat tricks have been natural hat tricks, with the goals coming consecutively for Florida. He is only the third NHL player to produce natural hat tricks in back-to-back games.
- Cy Denneny, Ottawa Senators, Feb. 21-24, 1923
- Petri Skriko, Vancouver Canucks, Nov. 18-21, 1986
- Brady Tkachuk, Florida Panthers, 2026
“Today was pretty special,” Tkachuk said after Thursday’s game. “To do it in front of this crowd, but of course, it’s not just one guy out there. It took a group effort.”
Near misses on the road to history
Eight players have reached a third game after consecutive hat tricks and settled for two goals, leaving them one finish shy of the elusive three-game sweep. The most recent was Teemu Selanne with the Winnipeg Jets in 1993.
- Cy Denneny, Ottawa Senators, 1917
- Joe Malone, Hamilton Tigers, 1921
- Punch Broadbent, Ottawa Senators, 1922
- Phil Esposito, Boston Bruins, 1974
- Claude Larose, Montreal Canadiens, 1974
- Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers, 1984
- Alexander Mogilny, Buffalo Sabres, 1992-93
- Teemu Selanne, Winnipeg Jets, 1993
Selanne piled up nine goals in three games during his burst. On March 4, 1993, he scored twice in Winnipeg’s 5-3 road win over Edmonton, including his 56th goal of the season at 18:08 of the third period. Earlier, on a breakaway against Oilers goaltender Bill Ranford, Selanne rang a shot off one post and then the other before the puck stayed out.
Keith Tkachuk, then Selanne’s fellow rookie and Brady’s father, scored in each of those three games.
“Selanne does everything, if not more,” Keith Tkachuk said after the Edmonton game. “He’s the one that’s getting us here. The press doesn’t bother me. I just go about my business, play well, and play hard.”
Mogilny nearly added a fourth hat trick in a five-game stretch on Jan. 3, 1993. He fired over the net early against St. Louis Blues goalie Guy Hebert before Buffalo claimed a 6-5 overtime victory. The Sabres winger tied former captain Mike Foligno’s club mark with goals in eight consecutive games.
“I haven’t been thinking about hat tricks,” Mogilny said. “I didn’t know Mike had a record like that. I’m not looking at anything or anyone. I’m just trying to get as many goals as I can.”
Heavy scorers have made their mark
The players who have come closest to a third consecutive hat trick were producing at a remarkable pace well beyond the two-game bursts.
| Player | Goal run |
|---|---|
| Teemu Selanne | 9 goals in 3 games |
| Alexander Mogilny | 13 goals in 5 games |
| Wayne Gretzky | 9 goals in 3 games |
| Phil Esposito | 8 goals in 3 games |
| Claude Larose | 9 goals in 3 games |
| Punch Broadbent | 14 goals in 6 games |
| Joe Malone | 16 goals in 6 games |
| Cy Denneny | 12 goals in 4 games |
Malone, one of the League’s first great goal scorers, recorded consecutive hat tricks four times from 1917 through 1922 while playing for the Montreal Canadiens and Hamilton Tigers. He remains the lone NHL player to score seven goals in one game, doing so for the Quebec Bulldogs on Jan. 31, 1920.
Gretzky recorded back-to-back hat tricks three times with Edmonton from 1981 through 1984. Alex Ovechkin also has three such streaks, achieved with Washington between 2017 and 2020.
A dozen other players have done it twice:
- Cy Denneny, Ottawa Senators, 1917-23
- Reg Noble, Toronto Arenas, 1917-18
- Newsy Lalonde, Montreal Canadiens, 1917-19
- Odie Cleghorn, Montreal Canadiens, 1920-22
- Babe Dye, Toronto St. Patricks, 1921-22
- Aurel Joliat, Montreal Canadiens, 1924-27
- Darryl Sittler, Toronto Maple Leafs, 1980
- Mike Bossy, New York Islanders, 1980-81
- Kent Nilsson, Calgary Flames, 1981-83
- Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins, 1993-95
- Alex Kovalev, Pittsburgh Penguins, 2001
- Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs, 2023-24
Playoff and family connections
Only three players have produced consecutive hat tricks in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: Doug Bentley for the Chicago Black Hawks in 1944, Jari Kurri for Edmonton in 1985 and Mikko Rantanen for the Dallas Stars in 2025.
The Stastny brothers authored perhaps the most unusual chapter in this scoring history. Peter and Anton Stastny, both in their first NHL season with the Quebec Nordiques after leaving Czechoslovakia, each scored hat tricks in the same two games. They combined for 28 points over those contests.
- Feb. 20, 1981, at Vancouver: Peter and Anton each had 3 goals and 3 assists. Anton set up two of Peter’s goals, while Peter assisted twice on Anton’s.
- Feb. 22, 1981, at Washington: Peter posted 4 goals and 4 assists, and Anton had 3 goals and 5 assists. Each brother assisted on every goal scored by the other.
There is a Tkachuk family note in Brady’s own two-game run. Matthew Tkachuk assisted on all three of Brady’s goals in Columbus on Tuesday. Saturday’s visit from Seattle gives Brady Tkachuk the chance to put his own name alone at the top of the NHL’s hat-trick history book.
