'I hate Tampa': Feisty former Flame Matthew Tkachuk introduced in Florida

The easiest thing for the Florida Panthers this summer would have been to maintain the status quo, especially after posting the NHL's best record.

The Panthers went a different way.

Matthew Tkachuk was introduced Monday as the team's newest addition, three days after the Panthers and Calgary completed a trade that sent Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, prospect Cole Schwindt and a conditional first-round draft pick to the Flames.

It was the latest big move for Florida, which earlier this summer hired Paul Maurice to take over for Andrew Brunette — a coach of the year finalist as an interim for the Panthers this past season — and now parts ways with both the franchise's all-time leading scorer in Huberdeau and a defenceman in Weegar who led the team in skater minutes over the past two seasons.

The Panthers believe extraordinary is the right word for Tkachuk, a 24-year-old coming off his first 100-point season. The organization will never speak in anything but superlatives with regard to Huberdeau — Zito made sure to laud both him and Weegar in his opening remarks Monday — but Tkachuk brings a different style, one that Florida thinks it may have been lacking.

"I bring a certain swagger," Tkachuk said.

He had Florida at the top of his list of preferred destinations when deciding that he wouldn't sign a long-term extension with Calgary. The Panthers were a top pick for many reasons: young core, the chance to play alongside Florida captain Aleksander Barkov ("top-two player in the NHL, and that's a fact," Tkachuk said), and even the chance to wear flip-flops to work most days.

Barkov is under contract for eight years. So is Tkachuk.

"I don't think it's a secret that obviously some of the attributes that Matthew brings are