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Panthers' latest trade could make them play like NHL's most hated team
Garnet Hathaway. John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

Panthers' latest trade could make them play like NHL's most hated team

The Florida Panthers should be one of the NHL's best teams during the 2026-27 season, especially after adding Brady Tkachuk this past weekend in a blockbuster trade with the Ottawa Senators.

The addition of Tkachuk, combined with the return of a healthy Aleksander Barkov after he missed the entirety of the 2025-26 season, should help give the Panthers one of the NHL's deepest groups of forwards. 

They made another, smaller, trade on Thursday, acquiring Garnet Hathaway from the Philadelphia Flyers for a couple of draft picks. While that trade is not going to really raise eyebrows from a talent perspective, it is going to get the attention of the rest of the league for what it is going to mean for the Panthers' style of play.

Teams are going to hate the Panthers — and they're going to hate playing against them. 

Panthers are going to be one of NHL's most hated teams to play against

The 34-year-old Hathaway managed just a single goal and two assists in 66 games this past season for the Flyers, and he has never really been known for his offensive ability or skill with the puck. But he is one of the league's most physical players, along with being one of its most penalized.

When you add him to a team that already includes the Tkachuk brothers (Brady and Matthew), Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett, you are going to have one of the league's most physical teams. 

And perhaps even its dirtiest team. 

All of the players mentioned here, including Hathaway, have a track record for not only playing an aggressively physical style of hockey, but also racking up penalty minutes and toeing the line between hard-hitting and dirty. They oftentimes leap over it. 

Over the past three seasons alone, Brady Tkachuk, Bennett and Hathaway are among the 15 most penalized players in the league, while Matthew Tkachuk and defenseman Nikko Mikkola both crack the top 50. Marchand is just on the outside of the top 50 in the 56th spot. 

That is a lot of penalty minutes — and a lot of agitating players in one locker room. 

That does not even get into the extensive list of suspensions that group has accumulated throughout their careers. 

Marchand alone is one of the most disciplined players in league history, having been suspended eight different times for more than 20 games, while Bennett and Tkachuk (Matthew) have both earned multiple suspensions of their own. 

They do not just want to beat teams on the scoreboard; they also apparently want to beat them up as well.

If nothing else, the Panthers better hope their goaltending (where they do not yet have anybody under contract for the season) and penalty-killing unit are up to the challenge they are about to get. 

Adam Gretz

Adam Gretz is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh. He covers the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA. Baseball is his favorite sport -- he is nearly halfway through his goal of seeing a game in every MLB ballpark. Catch him on X @AGretz

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