“It means the world to me, to be honest,” Barkov said. “It’s Athlete of the Year in Finland, the country where I was born, where I was raised and grew up watching national teams play and cheering for them. To get that honor, it’s huge for me. I’m really, really happy and really thankful to be able to get that award.”

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov became the first hockey player to ever win Finland's Sportsman of the Year in a vote by the Finnish Association of Sports Journalists. Barkov, the first Finnish captain to win the Stanley Cup, was named Hockey Player of the Year at the annual Sports Gala on Thursday night.

Putting a cherry on top of an incredible year, Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov took home “Athlete of the Year” honors at the Finnish Sports Gala in Helsinki on Thursday. Given out annually since 1947, Barkov is the first hockey player to ever win the prestigious award.

On Thursday, Barkov became the first hockey player to be named Finland’s Sportsman of the Year. The award is voted on annually by the Finnish Sports Journalists’ Association and has been given out since 1947.

Aleksander Barkov has been selected as the 2024 Sports Personality of the Year, becoming the first ice hockey player to do so. In June last year, Barkov made history as the first Finnish captain to win the Stanley Cup after his Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers in a winner-take-all game seven.

Special teams success was the key to victory for the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night. The Red Wings dominated on the power play, scoring three times on just four shots to take down the Florida Panthers 5-2 at Amerant Bank Arena.

The Florida Panthers host the Boston Bruins after Jesper Boqvist's two-goal game against the Utah Hockey Club in the Panthers' 4-1 win.

In any sport, measuring yourself against the champion is commonplace, simply because the champion is a model of consistency and excellence. Therefore, it makes your performance against them the best barometer of your franchise’s progress toward the ultimate goal: championships.

The Utah Hockey Club recently lost one of its top forwards, Dylan Guenther, to a lower-body injury suffered against the Florida Panthers. The injury occurred when Guenther collided with Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov,

The Ducks, who had been goal-starved on this trek before scoring three in a shootout loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday, face Florida twice in a row in a home-and-home set that begins Saturday.

BOTTOM LINE: The Florida Panthers take on the Anaheim Ducks in a non-conference matchup. Florida is 26-17-3 overall and 12-9-2 at home. The Panthers have allowed 142 goals while scoring 146 for a +4 scoring differential.

The Panthers acquired Tarasenko from the Ottawa Senators at the trade deadline last season to add depth to their forward group as well as a veteran presence who had already been where the Panthers were trying to go. Tarasenko already had one Stanley Cup win under his belt, winning it all with the St. Louis Blues in 2019.