Barkov healthy, raring to go for Panthers after missing last season

LAS VEGAS -- Aleksander Barkov is champing at the bit for the start of training camp and what lies ahead for the Florida Panthers.

The Florida captain has no concerns about his right knee, which he injured last September on the first day of training camp for the 2025-26 season. He had surgery the next day to repair his MCL and ACL, missing the entire season and watching helplessly as the Panthers fell short of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2019 and ended their bid to three-peat as champions.

“I'm really excited about going into the new season,” Barkov said at the NHL/NHLPA North American Player Media Tour on Tuesday. 

The Panthers open the regular season Sept. 29 at the Carolina Hurricanes, the reigning Stanley Cup champions.

Barkov’s burgeoning excitement comes from the test run he got at the 2026 IIHF World Championship after getting the green light to play for Finland in the end-of-season tournament in Switzerland in May. He served as captain and had 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in 10 games for the Finns, who won gold for the first time in four years. 

It marked a third straight season in which Barkov won the final game, which is all a hockey player wants.

Barkov said he knew the first time he took the ice for the first game at the Worlds that he was fully back, his intensive rehabilitation paying off better than he imagined. 

“That was the main worry, that if I will be able to play free and not to think too much, and once the first game started, I wasn't thinking about it at all,” Barkov said.

The confidence has carried forward to this season, even with training camp, which begins Sept. 17, being shortened per the new collective bargaining agreement.

“I have a better feeling going toward this camp knowing that I played some hockey, meaningful hockey, and felt good there,” he said. “Especially the more we played, the better I felt. I was really happy about that.”

It is news that does not make the rest of the NHL happy.

Florida, after a longer-than-desired offseason, welcomes back its spiritual leader and one of the best 200-foot players in the League to a team that is relatively unchanged from the one that defeated the Edmonton Oilers in the Final two seasons ago. 

The 31-year-old center had 71 points (20 goals, 51 assists) in 67 regular-season games that season. In the playoffs, he had 22 points (six goals, 16 assists) in 23 games. After the season, he was voted the winner of the Selke Trophy, given to the NHL’s best defensive forward, for the third time in his career.

The Panthers return their core from the back-to-back championship teams but have changed in some places.

They will have a new goalie this season. Sergei Bobrovsky, the last line of defense in each Cup win, joined the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent, signing a three-year contract. He has been replaced by Jacob Markstrom, who was obtained June 30 in a trade that sent forwards Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist and Ben Steeves to the New Jersey Devils.

Markstrom spent the first four seasons of his career with the Panthers, including Barkov’s rookie season of 2013-14.  

“I know him really well from that time and when I first saw him back here, it feels like he never left,” Barkov said. "He's a great guy, great goalie, so we're really, really happy to have him back.”

The other big change is the arrival of Brady Tkachuk, the younger brother of fellow forward Matthew Tkachuk, who joined the Panthers four seasons ago. Brady Tkachuk came over in a trade June 21 that netted the Ottawa Senators two first-round picks in the 2026 NHL Draft, a first-round pick in the 2029 NHL Draft and a second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. 

“I was very excited about hearing that he's going to be on our team,” Barkov said, “and whenever you add a guy like that, that's a high-profile guy, to have on your team is way better than to have him on other opposing teams.”

Brady Tkachuk is also happy to collaborate with Barkov instead of competing against him. 

“I don’t even think 10 out of 10 can describe (how happy I am),” Tkachuk said. “Every day in practice, I’m just watching him, learning, just trying to emulate what he does, because even in practice, he is one of the top three players in the world. It’s fun to see, and it’s going to be fun to learn from him.

“If I can pick his brain and learn something from him skill-wise, in an aspect of leadership that he provides, I’ll be very lucky to get that knowledge.”

The way Barkov sees it, the Panthers have reloaded and are well rested. They are ready to once again challenge for the Cup and believe they can play in the Final for the fourth time in five seasons. 

The time for rest and rehab is finished.

“I think all hockey players, professionals, we want to play hockey as much as possible,” he said. "It's all about trying to play hockey and for as long as possible and as many meaningful games as possible.”