Oct 26, 2026
People really love to hate the Tkuchuk brothers.
The night before Ottawa fans booed him every time he touched the puck, Brady Tkachuk sat down with a table of his former NHL Senators teammates — and paid for everyone’s meal.
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It was a classy move from a player who built a career as one of the NHL’s most irritating and polarizing opponents. It also raises a question many Canadians face when the bill lands on a crowded table: Who pays, and how much generosity can your budget actually handle before you offer to pay the tab?
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For a pro hockey player on a multimillion-dollar contract, covering dinner for a group is mere pocket change. For the average Canadian, the same gesture can blow a monthly budget or leave a balance on a credit card for months.
Tkachuk’s treat
Tkachuk was traded from the Ottawa Senators to the Florida Panthers in June 2026 after telling the Senators he wouldn’t sign an extension with them. The night before his Oct. 21 return to Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre, he had dinner with several former teammates and picked up the tab. Defenceman Jake Sanderson confirmed to reporters that Tkachuk treated the men.
It was Sanderson who organized the evening and hockey news site MarkerZone reported that as many as 10 current Senators players showed up. One notable absence was centre Tim Stützle, who explained he skipped it because “I have a chef.”
Tkachuk also had a plan for Ottawa fans still angry that he asked to leave the Sens. Throwing a departed star’s jersey onto the ice is a classic show of fan disapproval, so on his Wingmen podcast he said any No. 7 Senators jersey — the number Tkachuk wore while with the team — tossed during the game would be donated to the Boys and Girls Club in Ottawa. “So, I don’t recommend doing it,” he added.
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Why is the dinner bill such a money minefield?
Being the person who says ‘I’ll get that’ when the server comes with the bill sounds like a simple, nice thing to do, but it’s not necessarily the ‘gift’ it appears to be. When friends earn very different incomes, the pressure to pick up the bill next time can quietly push spending past what’s comfortable for people who can’t afford the same bill.
A recent survey from TD Bank Group found that 14% of Canadians say social pressure impacts their spending. That more than doubles to 32% for Gen Z, and dining out at trendy restaurants ranks among their favourite splurges.
The cost goes beyond the bill. Debt-relief firm GT Debt Solutions found that 2 in 5 Canadians have missed time with friends because of money, while 1 in 5 admitted to taking on debt in the past two years just to socialize, with the Gen X generation reporting the highest rate at 1 in 3.
When does it make sense to cover the whole table?
Treating the group can make sense when you’re hosting, marking a milestone or earning noticeably more than the people around you. The key difference is whether you have the cash to cover it or are taking on credit card debt you won’t easily be able to quickly clear.
For those feeling the pressure to spend and socialize, it helps to benchmark what others spend.
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According to GT Debt Solutions research, 59% of Canadians spend less than $100 on an outing with friends, and half of Gen Z keep it under $50. If your share of the bill regularly runs well above that, generosity may be turning into a bad money habit.
For the rest of the time, decide before anyone orders what you are and are not willing to contribute to the bill and discuss. These days it’s easy enough to ask your server for separate bills, divide the bill equally or, if you’re feeling real generous, to pay the whole thing.
For those NHL fans with a jersey they no longer want
Ottawa Senators fans have plenty of chances to offload their Tkachuk gear if they no longer want it. The Senators’ trade-in promotion offered 40% off new merchandise — and collected 261 Tkachuk jerseys, according to the Ottawa Business Journal.
A local baseball team, the Ottawa Titans, collected another 52 in its own swap.
Trading in, reselling or donating a jersey makes more sense than throwing it away, no matter how angry you may be with Tkachuk. Just don’t expect a tax break for it. Guidance from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) says used clothing of little value generally doesn’t qualify as a receiptable gift in kind. Cash gifts to registered charities do qualify, and the federal credit rises to 29% on donations above $200.
An NHL player, like Brady Tkachuk, can certainly afford to cover dinner for an entire table. For everyone else though, that kind of generosity can have long-ranging consequences. As TD’s Jeet Dhillon put it, the trick is having “a clear sense of what you value.”
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Leslie Kennedy served as an editor at Thomson Reuters and for Star Media Group, followed by a number of years as a writer and editor and content manager in marketing communications, before returning to her editorial roots. She is a graduate of Humber College’s post-graduate journalism program and has been a professional writer and editor ever since.
