A player that epitomizes the Panthers' success? Look no further than Aleksander Barkov

Miami Herald

3 days ago

In a span of eight seconds, Aleksander Barkov showcased just about everything that makes him one of the National Hockey League's top players and the epitome of the Florida Panthers' recent run of success.
Barkov receives the puck from Sam Reinhart along the right wall and begins his magic. As he moves around the boards, going behind the net and looking for open space, Barkov muscles his way past Dmitry Orlov, stops and spins. With a couple taps of his stick, he eludes another defender in Eric Robinson and makes his way to the front of the net. And then, in one swift motion, he sends the puck across the goalmouth, just beyond the reach of Alexander Nikishin's stick, to Carter Verhaeghe, who roofs a tough-angle shot into the net for the Panthers' game-winning — and Eastern Conference final-clinch — goal against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.
'Such a great player,' Verhaeghe said. 'It was such a great play by him. It was all him.'
Added Reinhart: 'He's got so much strength. Big players make big plays at the biggest moments when you need them, and he's certainly the leader of this team.'
Barkov is as fitting of a player to fit that role. The Panthers are a team that preaches selflessness. Every player on the team — from Barkov and stars such as Matthew Tkachuk, Sergei Bobrovsky and Brad Marchand to players fighting for playing time in Uvis Balinskis, Jesper Boqvist and Nico Sturm — is treated equally. No one is bigger than anyone else in the dressing room.
The camaraderie of the team's core along with the integration of newcomers to round out the roster each year has fed into Florida's success, which has the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final for a third consecutive year and in a position to repeat as champions.
It's a position Barkov longed to see. He was here during the team's lean years. Florida made the postseason just once in Barkov's first six seasons before things finally started to turn over the past half-dozen years. There were doubts Florida would ever consistently make the playoffs, let alone be annual Stanley Cup contenders.
That's a thing of the past now.
'I think it was a long time coming,' Barkov said. 'Obviously, there's been a lot of work put in by this organization to become better and reach the level where we want to win Stanley Cups, we want to compete for Stanley Cups every single year. There are 31 other teams in the league, and it's hard every single year. They want to do that too, so it's not easy. But we've managed to do it three years in a row, which is, I think, an incredible achievement so far.'
For that success to occur, the respect and trust has to be established from the top. There had to be a driving force inside the room to establish the foundation and keep the drive and hunger going.
That is Aleksander Barkov.
'Sasha has almost become like a planet, with the energy that comes from him,' said Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito, who took over ahead of the 2020-21 season and has said multiple times how fortunate he was to already have Barkov as a franchise cornerstone. 'How caring he is as a human and a teammate — he forces you to want to be better. It cannot be overstated the grace of each of our guys. If you came into the meal room you wouldn't know who just scored the winning goal and who didn't play.'
Barkov doesn't need the praise — and frankly, he doesn't want it. That's not how he operates. Ever since the Panthers selected him second overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Level Draft, the elite two-way center from Finland has done his best to make as much of an impact for the Panthers without making waves.
Even after taking over as captain ahead of the 2018-19 season, Barkov didn't change his approach.
Why would he?
'Just being myself,' Barkov said, 'and doing my job as good as possible.'
That's more than enough to command the attention and respect of his teammates. Barkov owns basically every record of merit for a skater in Panthers franchise history — games played (804), goals (286), assists (496), points (782), power-play goals (84), game-winning goals (52), multipoint games (209), multigoal games (33), the list keeps going.
He became the first Finnish-born player to captain his team to a Stanley Cup when Florida beat Edmonton in seven games last year.
And through all the success, he remains humble. He's still one of the first on the ice every day at practice, a regular during optional workouts because he knows the example he sets by being on the ice.
He twice has won the Selke Trophy given annually to the league's top defensive forward and is nominated for the award again this year.
'He's just trying to do everything right, by the book,' said defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who is in his second stint with the Panthers and was on that 2013-14 roster when Barkov was a rookie. 'He doesn't cheat the the game. He's an honest player. He just works his bag off and obviously has a lot of skill to complement his hard work. When you see a guy like that, your captain, being the hardest working guy, that brings everybody with him.'
Added Tkachuk: 'That's the stuff that fires us up the most is the little battles, the little stick lifts, the 1-on-1 wins, the little plays, the skills that maybe the average fan doesn't notice, but we definitely notice. He's the full package. I've seen it here for almost three years now. It's an honor to play with him, so lucky to share the ice with him.'
Oops. There's more praise. Barkov would probably want that spread around to the rest of the team.
There's good reason for that, especially on this current playoff run.
Consider this: The Panthers enter the Stanley Cup Final with 19 players who have scored at least one goal and 10 players who have produced at least 11 points this postseason — with Barkov leading with 17 points (six goals, 11 assists). Florida's balance and depth has been its calling card all season, something that was only amplified at the trade deadline when the Panthers added Marchand and defenseman Seth Jones into the mix.
That said, the success starts somewhere. It starts with the leader who makes everyone feel appreciated, the player who knows how to say a lot without really needing to say anything.
It starts with Aleksander Barkov.
'We are getting contributions from everybody,' Tkachuk said, 'but he has definitely been been leading the charge, and we're so lucky to be able to follow him.'