Jagr's influence helped Barkov's rise with Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The impact Jaromir Jagr left on the Florida Panthers years ago is still being felt through the influence he had on Aleksander Barkov.

"I wouldn't be in the same position or situation without his arrival here and how much I learned from him just by watching him," Barkov, the Panthers center, told NHL.com.

Jagr was in the building for Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday, the teacher, if you will, watching his former student pick up two assists in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Amerant Bank Arena that evened the best-of-7 series at two games apiece.

Game 5 is at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).

Prior to Game 4, Jagr was reminiscing about his time with the Panthers from 2015-17, about playing on the same line as Barkov, then in his early 20s, not yet Florida's longest tenured captain, not yet its all-time leading scorer in the regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs, not yet a three-time Selke Trophy winner voted as the League's best defensive forward, not yet a Stanley Cup champion.

Jagr was asked if Barkov at 29 years old has become the player he thought he would turn into when he played with him and forward Jonathan Huberdeau all those years ago.

"Not really, no," Jagr told NHL.com.

Then he paused for almost 15 seconds to think about the question more, to analyze in his brilliant hockey mind the player Barkov is now, an elite two-way center and better than a point-per-game player (611 points in 552 games) since Jagr left Florida after the 2016-17 season.

"To be the best defensive player, and I played with Ron Francis, it's a gift," Jagr said. "It's also a gift to be an offensive guy with such skill and talent, but then to be the best defensive guy too, you have to sacrifice your offense for defense and not many guys want to do that. So it's kind of surprised me (what Barkov has become), but then I think about it and it doesn't surprise me, because remember, he was adjusting to me."

Jagr came to the Panthers via a trade with the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 26, 2015, 11 days after his 43rd birthday. He was always a player who would slow the game down, who would battle 1-on-1 along the boards, who would need his linemates to be close to him, not flying the zone.

Barkov at the time was 19. Huberdeau was 21.

"I couldn't adjust to them," Jagr said. "They were fast. They played a different game. But they knew that the way the line would click is they had to adjust to me because I could not speed up. They could slow down but I can't go the other way so they had to adjust to me and 'Barky' as the centerman had to do it."

Barkov was making a sacrifice to do that, Jagr said, and that sacrifice was proof he could be an unselfish player, exactly what is necessary to become the best defensive forward in the game.

Barkov won the Selke Trophy this season for the second straight time and third since 2020-21.

"If 'Barky' can adjust to me, it means he can adjust to the defense," Jagr said. "It means he can sacrifice himself. He can sacrifice offense for defense. It's a gift. You know, there's selfishness, but he's not selfish. … He had an attitude to adjust, which is pretty cool."

Jagr's influence on Barkov goes deeper; he showed him work ethic and taught him nuances in training that Barkov now has as part of his routine.

"Things like shooting a medicine ball into the wall," Barkov said. "Everything he did was to mimic everything he does on the ice. If you do squats with the bar, you don't do that on the ice. He probably did that, but he did a lot of things with his stick at the gym. He did a lot of things with his skates on at the gym."

Jagr still does all of that as a 53-year-old player/owner with his hometown team in Kladno, Czechia.

"I don't have skates on at the gym, but I do a lot of stuff with the stick in the summer," Barkov said. "I'll put some weight on the stick and walk around. It's core. It's stability. The stick is heavier so you feel like you need to be stronger. He used ankle weights when he skated in practices, weighted vests, and then you take it off you're so much lighter. I don't use them on the ice, but off the ice I do."

Jagr smiled when he was told Barkov still employs his training methods.

"That's an advantage and he's smart enough to figure it out," Jagr said. "When you get older you don't want to expend energy on something you don't 100 percent use on the ice, because it's a waste of energy. Before I do something I have to think about it and whatever I do is 100 percent related to hockey. And he already knows that now."

Barkov said he almost never left Jagr's side during his three seasons as a teammate.

"I was watching him all the time, every single second, what is he going to do?" Barkov said.

They would be at the rink working out for hours after practice or games. Jagr joked that their girlfriends at the time would be together waiting for them, not happy about how long they took to get showered and dressed.

"What's important is you could see he wants to get better so he listened and he worked," Jagr said. "Everything I did, he did it. For me, I needed a partner too to work with. To do it by myself, it's kind of tough. After practice, after a game, he was here maybe longer than me."

And then there were the lessons in mental toughness.

"One moment was so memorable," Barkov said. "We were kind of suffering there on the ice. Coach at the time, (Gerard) Gallant, came to tell us, 'Hey, you guys need to play better.' Jagr told me, 'Don't worry, we're going to score one goal in the third period and we're going to be heroes.' We scored one goal in the third period and everything was fine. What I learned from that is if you're having a bad game or some things are not going your way, there's always the next shift. Just concentrate on your next shift, the next thing you do."

Barkov was minus-4 through Games 1 and 2. In Game 3, he made the most important defensive play, forcing Edmonton defenseman John Klingberg into a turnover in the Oilers end that led to forward Sam Reinhart scoring to make it 3-1, the turning point in what became a 6-1 win.

He then had two assists in Game 4.

In a best-of-3 series now going into Game 5, the Panthers will lean heavily on Barkov in all situations, which means Barkov will continue to lean heavily on the lessons he learned from Jagr all those years ago.

"He does the right things," Jagr said. "He is sacrificing for something greater, to win the Cup."