If the Detroit Red Wings have a chance to add Brady Tkachuk to their lineup, they should go all in.

The Ottawa Senators captain is just days removed from being swept out of the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes. Tkachuk, 26, had no points in the four games the Hurricanes needed to demolish the Senators.

That’s not a great look, but the Hurricanes are a beast expected to go far into the playoffs, far outmatching the Senators. That the Senators didn’t win a game isn’t a reflection on Tkachuk so much as the better roster fielded by the Hurricanes.

If Tkachuk, an American player and the brother of two-time Stanley Cup champion Matthew Tkachuk (of the Florida Panthers), wants out of playing in Canada, the Wings would be well served to explore landing him.

Tkachuk has become a hot topic of trade speculation after he missed the team’s locker cleanout/postmortem in Ottawa to be with wife Emma in the U.S. for the birth of the couple’s second child.

Tkachuk is signed to a seven-year, $57.5 million  contract with the Ottawa Senators, which runs through the 2027-28 season. The deal, signed on Oct. 14, 2021, carries an average cap hit of $8.2 million. That’s well within the Wings’ cap space (which is nearly $33 million for next season, though that’s before re-signing some key impending unrestricted free agents).

Just imagine Tkachuk on the left wing with Dylan Larkin at center and Lucas Raymond at right wing. Tkachuk is a tremendous scorer (463 points in 572 career NHL games, all with the Senators since they drafted him at No. 4 in 2018) as well as a physical impact player, with the second-most hits (1,921) and penalty minutes (821) in the NHL since his 2018 debut.

He’s a clutch international performer as well, with five points in six games for the U.S. men’s hockey team that won the gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The Senators would want a ransom in return – think first-round pick (the Wings don’t have theirs this year because it was used to bring in Justin Faulk) and top prospects. Add on to that the prospect of convincing the Senators to trade their leader within the division (especially after the Alex DeBrincat trade a few years back).

But after 10 years of playoff ignominy, it’s time to think big. If there’s any chance of Tkachuk being available, the Wings would immediately look much better with him on their roster.