The 25-year-old was at the forefront of Florida's run to the Stanley Cup Final, and a finalist for the Hart Trophy. What's next?
"When I used to play against him when he was in Calgary, I would have never thought that I'm going to like the guy," Barkov told ESPN this month."He was just, like, a pain in the ass. He was always in your face. Obviously, he's an unbelievable player but everything that came with him, all the scrums, I just never thought I'd like the guy so much. And then we met here and boom -- he's definitely one of the best guys to be around.
Mention that possibility to Tkachuk, though, and you'll get a deep wince. A sigh. And a staunch rebuttal laced with surprising humility from a player typecast by inherent bravado. Tkachuk got to team with his brother Brady in the 2023 All-Star Game -- and took home MVP honors for the event as well. Tkachuk was flying high at that stage, but the Panthers as a whole left something to be desired. Florida held a middling 24-22-6 record at the All-Star break, placing them fifth in the Atlantic Division and five points out of an Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot.
"I feel a sense of pride with knowing what we know from experience last year and what we gained from that," Tkachuk said."I think there's not a lot of people that are really giving us as fair of a chance as we think we have in this room. But that's okay. We don't care what anybody says. We are confident in what we have. We have a great locker room. Last year, we were written off the whole year. Part of that could be that Florida is just an underrated market.
That's where Tkachuk's story loops back into Barkov's, and culture, and how an unlikely odd couple are setting a tone for the Panthers to live by."I try to try to follow him in each of the drills to try to learn from him, because no one works harder on or off ice," said Tkachuk."He's a great guy for me to learn . He's unbelievable, really. Barkov is one of my favorite teammates I've ever played with, and our relationship is as good as it can get.
"He came in and right away, he's just like a main part of the team and just everyone sees how he acts," said Barkov."The things he does for the trainers, for the staff, for the players here in the room. Right away from the beginning, that was very impressive to see, and to have him here and to do what he does is just amazing."
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