Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov named captain for Finland’s 4 Nations Face-Off team
The Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov last season became the first Finnish-born captain to lead a team to a Stanley Cup.
So it was only natural that on Thursday he was named the captain for Team Finland in next month’s 4 Nations Face-Off, the NHL’s first soiree into international hockey in nearly a decade and essentially serving as a tune-up for the 2026 Olympic Games — the first in which NHL players will be able to participate since the 2014 games.
Barkov, who has been the Panthers’ captain since the 2018-19 season, leads all active Finnish-born players in points (753) and assists (475) while ranking second in goals scored (278) and third in games played (779).
He is also one of just two players from Finland’s Olympic team in 2014 that won the bronze medal that is part of the country’s 4 Nations team. The other is the San Jose Sharks’ Mikael Granlund.
About the 4 Nations Face-Off
Four countries — the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden — will take part in the NHL-run seven-game tournament from Feb. 12-20, with games split between Montreal’s Bell Centre and Boston’s TD Garden. There will be a round-robin first round with each team playing each other before the top two teams play a one-game final on Feb. 20 in Boston to determine the winner.
Each team consists of 23 players (20 skaters, three goaltenders), all of whom are currently in the NHL.
The Panthers have eight players total slated to participate in the tournament: Four for Finland (Barkov, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola), two for Canada (Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett), one for the United States (Matthew Tkachuk) and one for Sweden (Gustav Forsling).
In addition to their players, five other members of the Panthers organization will be involved in the tournament.
Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito will be an assistant general manager for Team USA, while Florida’s head equipment manager Teddy Richards will be the United States’ equipment manager. Patric Hornqvist, who serves as a scouting and development consultant for the Panthers, will be an assistant general manager for Sweden. He’ll be joined by coach Myles Fee, who will serve as Sweden’s video coach. Finally, Panthers assistant coach Tuomo Ruutu will be an assistant coach for Finland.
4 Nations Face-Off schedule
Feb. 12: Canada vs. Sweden, Montreal’s Bell Centre, 8 p.m., TNT
Feb. 13: USA vs. Finland, Montreal’s Bell Centre, 8 p.m., ESPN
Feb. 15, Finland vs. Sweden, Montreal’s Bell Centre, 1 p.m., ABC
Feb. 15, USA vs. Canada, Montreal’s Bell Centre, 8 p.m., ABC
Feb. 17, Canada vs. Finland, Boston’s TD Garden, 1 p.m., TNT
Feb. 17, 8 p.m., Sweden vs. USA, Boston’s TD Garden, 8 p.m., TNT
Feb. 20, Championship Game, 8 p.m., ESPN
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