Matthew Tkachuk's Assist-Fueled Start Puts Panthers Points Record in Play

Matthew Tkachuk is 13 games into the season with 20 points, and that total is already loud enough to make Panthers record books look like a reading assignment. On Tuesday at Canada Life Place, Florida beat the Winnipeg Jets, and Tkachuk recorded four points, all assists. It was his third multi-point game of the year.

Where the pace points

Tkachuk has now topped 100 points twice in his career, with 104 in 2021-22 and a career-high 109 in his first season in Florida, 2022-23. That 109 is still the second-best single-season total in franchise history. Ahead of it sits Jonathan Huberdeau's 115 from 2021-22, six points away.

Elite Prospects projects totals from a player's current production rate, and by that method Tkachuk is on pace for 129 points, which would set a new Panthers mark. Thirteen games is a small sample, and projections at this stage carry plenty of noise. Still, 20 points in 13 games works out to about 1.54 per game, and that's a rate that deserves attention rather than a shrug.

The goals are missing, and the assists are carrying

Here's the thing: this isn't the goal-scoring version of Tkachuk we've seen. Through 13 games he has four goals, which projects to roughly 26 over an 84-game schedule. In each of his previous two 100-point seasons, he scored at least 40. His 16 assists, good for 1.23 per game, are the reason the pace still looks elite.

That kind of profile tends to be steadier than a goal-dependent one. Goals swing with shooting percentage, and a few cold bounces can flatten a scorer's line for weeks. Playmaking production usually holds up better when the puck isn't going in, provided the linemates keep finishing. If the goals start to show up, the points pace gets much harder to argue with. If they don't, the assist total has to do all the work, and 100 helpers in a season is a number only a handful of players have ever reached.

How the start compares with his earlier seasons

The 2022-23 comparison is the one to watch. That year Tkachuk had points in his first six games, eight points in ten, and 17 in 13. Through 13 games he had five goals and 12 assists, which looks a lot like what he's producing now. The difference is discipline: he had 30 penalty minutes through 13 games that season, compared with just 14 this year. Fewer minutes in the box means more shifts with the puck on his stick, and that's a real reason the production has been steady.

He was also held without a point in three of those first 13 games in 2022-23. This season he has two pointless games so far. Fewer quiet nights is a meaningful gap, because a 1.54 points-per-game pace depends on avoiding long dry spells.

The 2021-22 season gives the opposite lesson. Tkachuk started slowly that year, with six goals and 11 points in 13 games, not even a point-per-game clip. He still finished with 42 goals and 104 points. A slow start doesn't rule out a big season, and a fast start doesn't guarantee one either.

Huberdeau's record-setting pace

Huberdeau spent 10 seasons as a key Panther and was the first player in club history to reach 100 points in a single season. His record-setting campaign started with three goals and 13 points in his first 13 games, a point per game. He had two multi-point games in that stretch, compared with three for Tkachuk so far this year.

Through the same number of games, Tkachuk has seven more points than Huberdeau did in 2021-22. That's a meaningful head start, but a head start in October isn't a record in April. Huberdeau's 115 points and his franchise-record 85 assists are the marks Tkachuk would need to pass, and his early assist pace makes the 85 look more reachable than it did a few weeks ago.

There's also a team piece here. The Panthers opened 2020-21 with a 10-2-1 record after a first-round playoff exit, and this season's group is 7-4-2 through 13 games. Individual totals can be matched or passed, but the kind of team start Florida had that year is harder to repeat, and the 2026-27 club is still building its own record.

Stacking points 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/tgNMMQrkup

— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) October 28, 2026

What the longer schedule changes

The NHL is expanding the regular season from 82 to 84 games. That gives Tkachuk two more chances to chase Huberdeau's franchise record, but it also adds more nights when production dips. Every long season has peaks and valleys, and an extra two games means one more stretch where the puck simply won't bounce his way.

Whether Tkachuk breaks the record or not, his start has made this season worth tracking closely. The number to watch is the goal total. If the scoring starts to catch up with the assists, a 129-point pace looks sustainable. If it doesn't, expect the Panthers to lean even harder on his playmaking, and expect the assist race with Huberdeau to be the storyline through the winter.