Matthew Tkachuk Puts On Recruiting Hat, Invites Minnesota Wild Players (And Mark Cuban) To Elbo Room

This season hasn't exactly been going according to plan for the Florida Panthers.

After winning their second straight Stanley Cup in June of last year, the Panthers re-signed all of their top pending free agents, namely Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and Brad Marchand.

With all the talent returning from a back-to-back championship-winning roster, it seemed like the good times were destined to roll in South Florida for the foreseeable future.

Then the injury bug jumped up and bit the Cats in the ass, and it's been all downhill ever since.

While the roster is still almost entirely intact for another playoff run next season, that hasn't stopped star forward Matthew Tkachuk from donning his recruiting hat and showing some potential stars a good time in the Sunshine State.

It started after the Winter Olympics, when the team's flight was rerouted to Miami thanks to a massive snowstorm in the New York area.

Tkachuk used this opportunity to show his fellow countrymen a great time in South Florida, surely getting in their ear about what a great place this is to play hockey in the winter.

READ: I Regret To Inform You That South Florida Is Now A Hockey Town

And it looks like Chucky is at it again.

With the Minnesota Wild in town for a Thursday game against the Panthers, Tkachuk decided to take some of their star players to one of his favorite old haunts, The Elbo Room, for a little R&R and, just maybe, a recruiting pitch.

Well well well, what do we have here?

You could make the argument that Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy, and Brock Faber are there because they're reminiscing about their gold medal win in Italy, but then why is Kirill Kaprizov along for the ride?

He wasn't even in Milan for the Olympics on account of being Russian, so is Tkachuk testing the waters to see if Kaprizov wants to make the move to Broward County?

We have a lot of Russians down here, as my trip to the Sawgrass Mills yesterday would indicate, so he'd fit right in.

I realize Kaprizov just signed a record-breaking $136 million extension to stay in the Twin Cities, but maybe that's why you can see Mark Cuban hanging out in the background.

Tkachuk needed a finance guy to make the numbers work to bring Kaprizov to SoFlo.

It all makes sense now, I say, as I readjust my tin foil hat.

In all seriousness, this is probably just a case of a bunch of Olympic teammates retelling war stories while their teams are in the same town, and Kaprizov is one of the best young players in the league right now, so, of course, he wanted to tag along for a night out on the beach with his boys.

But, if Florida somehow pulls off an insane offseason acquisition, and you see Quinn Hughes and Kirill Kaprizov wearing Panthers sweaters next season, you know where you heard it first.