Matthew Tkachuk is doing his best to hook up one of his teammates.
Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov was on Instagram Live this week and told a funny story. He says that he has two names in his Instagram search bar: Sam Reinhart and model Sommer Ray. He says Ray’s name got in there “by mistake.”
“I have two names in the search column in my Instagram, but one is by mistake. … Sommer Ray and Sam Reinhart. It’s an accident. Like, I wanted to write Sam Reinhart, but it came up like as Sommer Ray. So I accidentally pressed there,” he said.
“There’s two things on my instagram search Summer Rae and Sam Reinhart”
— Ryan Sobol (@Sobolslam) June 20, 2025
– Sasha Barkov on IG Live pic.twitter.com/mR3K9keMg0
Hockey social media account Puck Empire turned that quote from Barkov into a graphic and shared it via X. That led Matthew Tkachuk to see the comment and weigh in. He was trying to put in the good word for teammate Anton Lundell.
“Sorry for bothering you SommerRay… but our friend Anton Lundell says hi!! Great guy,” Tkachuck wrote on X.
Sorry for bothering you @SommerRay … but our friend Anton Lundell says hi!! Great guy https://t.co/1IIO2zryse
— Matthew Tkachuk (@TKACHUKycheese_) June 20, 2025
Lundell can add two-time Stanley Cup champion to his resume, which should be a strong selling point for Ray. Ray has over 23 million followers on Instagram and is a very popular figure on social media. Tkachuk might need some help from Panthers fans to help get the attention of Ray on behalf of Lundell.
