SALT LAKE CITY – Months after teasing a story about sending his teammates to an ‘unforgettable’ meal in Salt Lake City, Matthew Tkachuk offers more details on his hijinks.
Matthew used the podcast he hosts with his NHL brother Brady Tkachuk, Wingmen with Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, to elaborate on the story he first shared while the Panthers were playing for their second consecutive Stanley Cup title last June.
After arriving in Salt Lake for the first time with his Florida Panthers teammates, some of the boys decided to head out for lunch. Not knowing anything about the new NHL city, Tkachuk offered to solicit advice from Utah Captain Clayton Keller.
Always looking for his next prank, Tkachuk thought to himself, “I want them to have a terrible experience today.”
RELATED: Matthew Tkachuk Pranked Panther Pals When Team Visited Salt Lake
Matthew Tkachuk reveals that he pranked his teammates last season by sending them on a 29 minute walk to the Red Lotus Bistro when they played Utah for the first time.
He convinced them that Clayton Keller had recommended it as the best restaurant in town. https://t.co/nsJXabMWFq
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) December 17, 2025
Tkachuk remembers going online to research restaurants in the area, “I pick a place that’s walkable, that has not a great menu, that has not very good reviews. I text them back, ‘Clayton Keller just sent me this restaurant, said it’s the best in town.’”
One 29-minute walk later, his teammates knew they had been had the moment they walked in the door.
The experience was so memorable that the team’s poker group chat is still named after the restaurant to this day.
“Ever since that, everything I say, they, they don’t necessarily believe me, they take it with a grain of salt,” the clever forward laughed.
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