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The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics will serve as the best opportunity that Team USA has to notch gold in a long while. They will have NHL stars on the roster for the first time since 2014. However, a certain Florida Panthers star has been suffering from a rough injury which may prevent him from giving his all on the ice. Brady Tkachuk noted that his brother, Matthew Tkachuk, will show out despite concerns about his health.
Will the Panthers winger be in form?
Notably, Matthew suffered a torn adductor muscle along with a hernia. The Panthers star would then undergo surgery to repair those two and prevent him from playing for about five months. He then made his return against the San Jose Sharks and spent 20:58 minutes on ice. Since then, he has only played four games for the 2025-26 NHL season and notched three assists.
There is still a lot of time for him to recover and get his groove back with the Panthers before representing Team USA at the Milano Cortina Olympics. While a lot of doubters think that he would not be fit by that time, Brady expressed his belief in Matthew's injury recovery timeline. The Ottawa Senators star also stated that the Panthers winger would shine at Milan, via Tom Gulitti of NHL.com.
“I have no doubt about him, and I don't think anybody should have any doubts about him because of the way he plays. Those big moments, he always shows up. I just know how much work he put in, how much he's been able to sacrifice to get to that next level after he's already achieved the pinnacle of our sport and winning back-to-back Stanley Cups and how he just wants more," Brady declared. "I wouldn't be worried about his on-ice performance because I know wholeheartedly he’s going to give everything that he has and he's going to show up in a big moment for us."
There are still a long list of teams that Matthew has to go through before starting their Winter Olympics campaign for Team USA. He will get to hit the ice against the Utah Mammoth, St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets, Buffalo Sabres, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Boston Bruins first before worrying about the gold medal in Milan.
English (US)