FORT LAUDERDALE — Aaron Ekblad has been Aleksander Barkov’s teammate longer than anyone on the Florida Panthers. Ekblad joined the team in 2014, a year after Barkov, while the franchise was in the midst of a 24-year stretch where it did not win a playoff series.
Getting out of the first round would have been a nice accomplishment. Winning a Stanley Cup? A pipe dream. But Ekblad knew the team had an ace in the hole.
“We’ve always had Sasha Barkov,” Ekblad said. “So there’s always hope.”
The hope was justified. Now a veteran team captain, Barkov has led his team to three straight Stanley Cup Finals. He lifted the Cup last year and may get to do it again in the coming weeks as the Panthers look to repeat as champions in a rematch with the Edmonton Oilers.
“I think that’s a dream for everyone,” Barkov said, “and it’s a huge accomplishment, obviously, to be in the Finals three years in a row. It’s not an easy thing to do, for sure, but we’re here, and we don’t really think about that. We just think about the next game. We want to play really good Game 1 in Edmonton, and we’ll be ready for that.”
Through those hundreds of regular-season and playoff games, Barkov has maintained his style of steady, quiet leadership. He never tried to be anything besides himself.
“I’m not going to be anyone else,” Barkov said. “I’m not going to be the loudest guy all the time in the room. I’m not doing that … but I live by my own example — on the ice, off ice. I try to be an example. So that’s just being myself.”
Barkov was named team captain in 2018. He is the 10th captain in franchise history and has held the title for the last seven seasons. He credited prior team captains with the Panthers and with his Finnish team, Tappara, for helping him learn how to lead a locker room.
“What I learned from them is they were just being themselves,” Barkov said.
Barkov’s been the continuous figure helping lead the Panthers. He has played under seven different head coaches — four as the team captain. But it’s the partnership with current coach Paul Maurice that has paid the most dividends: the franchise’s second-ever trip to the Final in 2023, a Stanley Cup title last year and a return to the championship round this season.
Maurice, who has coached more NHL games than all but one man in league history, gives the credit for those runs to the players. He praises the team’s leaders effusively for creating an atmosphere where everyone from superstars like Matthew Tkachuk to fourth-liners can flourish.
“Now I’m three years in, and I’m starting to understand it a little bit,” Maurice said. “I do not feel responsible for it. I don’t. It’s been fun to observe. … These guys are different.”
Maurice said Barkov sets that tone for the team.
“I think that’s all Barkov,” Maurice said during the Carolina series. “Truly, if you didn’t know the face and you walked into that locker room or walked on the airplane or watched him, you couldn’t tell who the star was in that room.”
“He’s just kind to everybody,” Maurice said Saturday.
Barkov has created a welcoming environment in the Panthers’ locker room, helping new players like Nate Schmidt and former Florida archenemy Brad Marchand quickly mesh with the team culture.
“He leads from the front. I think that’s the biggest thing I see about him is he’s a true professional,” Marchand said. “The way he conducts himself on and off the ice, the way he comes in and works every day — and it starts off the ice. He’s always doing something to get better, to prepare, and same on the ice. Always working on something to get better. And he’s a quiet leader, one of those guys, when he does speak up, you listen and it holds a lot of weight because he doesn’t speak up often. But he just leads in the way that he prepares and the way that he brings it every night.”
Schmidt said the moment new players arrive on the team, they notice the way Barkov sets the tone.
“I love the way he leads, too,” Schmidt said. “You kind of just see when you first get here, there’s a way that things are done. It doesn’t have to be … the old idea, like, ‘Oh, you gotta be vocal. You’ve got to be loud.’
“We have somebody that does it and you look over every day, like, ‘Okay, that’s it. Okay, that’s it. I’m not allowed to deviate from that type of that type of preparation.’ … I’m a big fan.”
Discussing Barkov’s leadership role should not take away from his on-ice ability. The 29-year-old center is the franchise leader in games played (802), goals (286) and assists (496). He’s second in team history in playoff goals (25) and first in playoff assists (51) and points (76). Barkov has done all that while also playing impeccable defense, winning a pair of Selke Trophies in 2021 and 2024; he is a finalist for the award, along with teammate Sam Reinhart, this season.
“He’s gotten physically stronger,” Ekblad said. “He’s gotten stronger on his skates, year-over-year, continuing. He’s gotten better with his stick, year-over-year, every year. He’s already one of the best in the world in terms of strength on a stick. He’s (top three) in the world at that and he continues to get better. And I think that’s something that the culture has been built among all of us, starting with him, to get better every year.”
Barkov showed off his skill in the clinching game against the Hurricanes, fending off defenseman Dmitry Orlov against the boards before feeding Carter Verhaeghe a perfect, backhanded pass to set up what would prove to be the conference-winning goal.
“What’s the great definition of our sport? It’s grace under violence,” Maurice said. “That’s a skill. The skill of that man, that powerful. Guys are hunting them. They’re … coming to hit. They’re coming to separate people from the puck. And then you see this incredible finesse play in an environment where everybody’s trying to run everybody. That’s what’s awesome about that.”
Barkov is THAT GUY pic.twitter.com/b5AdoPrmkt
— Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) May 29, 2025
Barkov is not the superstar who always fills up the stat sheet. He has not led the Panthers in goals since 2021-22. In each of the last three seasons, Barkov was fourth on the team in goals. But, Schmidt said, it’s the day-in, day-out work Barkov puts in that makes him one of the league’s best.
“You don’t really realize what he is until you get to sit in the same room with him and get to play on the same team as him,” Schmidt said. “I played against him a lot. I respected his game a ton. I didn’t respect his game enough, I think.
“What he could do offensively and defensively has been something that’s been celebrated in this league for a while, but it really is, I think, been put on a pedestal here the last couple years, which is where it should be. This guy, he’s played here for a long time, and I think now the hockey world is just starting to get a look into him this last couple of years, which is well deserved. He’s a heck of a player.”