Matthew Tkachuk pulls off something only Gretzky, 2 others ever did with 100-point season

The Florida Panthers got a rare opportunity in the offseason when the Flames made Matthew Tkachuk available in a trade and they gave up a haul to make sure they could bring to Sunrise.

The trade — sending Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar and a future first-round pick to Calgary — wound up being one of the biggest blockbusters in recent history. For the first time this century, two players coming off 100-point seasons, Tkachuk and Huberdeau, were traded for each other. In fact, only four players since 2000 have recorded 100 points in one season and then started the next year with a different team, and half of those occurrences happened because of this one trade.

It gave Tkachuk a chance to join rare company this year and now he has. After recording a hat trick in the Panthers’ 5-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, the All-Star right wing joined Wayne Gretzky as one of only four players in NHL history to log 100 points in back-to-back seasons with two different teams.

“It’s pretty cool,” Tkachuk said Thursday when informed of his place next to the Hockey Hall of Famer on this exclusive list, “but probably the last time I’ll ever be in the same sentence as him.”

Tkachuk hits 100 points, Panthers keep playoff hopes alive with 2nd straight win in Canada

Really, it’s basically because Gretzky is on a plane all his own, though. Tkachuk, 25, has ascended to true superstar status this year, could be a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy and stake a claim as the best American player in the league.

The others on the exclusive list are former All-Star center Jimmy Carson and former center Mike Rogers, and Tkachuk is almost certain to wind up with the second most points of this group, behind only Gretzky, who had 114 points in his first year with the Kings during the 1988-89 NHL season.

At 101 points with six games to go, Tkachuk is on pace to top his single-season career best of 104, which he set last year, and finish the year with the fourth most points in the NHL.