It’s another day, another game, and another natural hat trick. The Florida Panthers became the first team in NHL history to have players score three consecutive goals in three straight games, with Brady Tkachuk doing it against Columbus and Vancouver, and Carter Verhaeghe on Saturday against Seattle. Not only did Tkachuk become the first skater since Noel Acciari and Pavel Bure to score consecutive hat tricks in Panthers history, but he’s the only one to record back-to-back natural ones.
Florida Panthers are first NHL team ever to have three straight games with a natural hat trick
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 17, 2026
Brady Tkachuk last two...Carter Verhaeghe tonight
Insane https://t.co/lOQl3pYtXT
Although he didn’t become the only player in NHL history with three consecutive natural hat tricks, Verhaeghe joined the scoring party and registered his fifth career hatty, his fourth in a Panthers sweater. While Verhaeghe's latest three-goal performance added another chapter to the Panthers' record books, it also reminded everyone that he's one of only three players in franchise history to accomplish something even rarer.
Verhaeghe shares Panthers' single-game goals record
On Apr. 1, 2023, Verhaeghe scored four goals in a 7-0 blowout over Columbus, joining an exclusive club in Panthers history that includes Hall of Famer Pavel Bure and Mark Parrish. These three skaters are the only ones to ever score four goals in a single game, with everyone still chasing the franchise’s first five-goal game.
Parrish, a 12-year veteran who played two seasons with Florida, became the first player to ever record a four-goal game, tallying four against the Chicago Blackhawks in a 7-3 win on Oct. 30, 1998. Two years later, Bure duplicated the feat on Jan. 1, 2000, in a 7-5 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, then did it again a year later on Feb. 20, 2001, in a 7-3 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers.
After three four-goal games in three seasons, Panthers fans would have to wait 22 years for Verhaeghe to do it again.
How rare are four-goal games in NHL history?
According to NHL.com statistics, 325 players have scored four goals in a game, including Verhaeghe, Bure, and Parrish, the only Panthers on the list. However, if Verhaeghe does it again, he’d join Bure as the only Florida player to do it twice and become only the 89th player in league history with more than one four-goal game on his resume.
Of course, no one will ever catch Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux in four-goal games, as the two legends remain tied with 13 games apiece atop the NHL leaderboard, a record no one will ever overtake. Historically, Hall of Famer Joe Malone was the first player to reach double digits in this category, recording 12 four-goal games between 1918 and 1924.
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