I admit it. I was wrong.
When GM Dale Tallon selected Finnish center Aleksander Barkov with the 2nd pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, I was angry. I felt we blew it by passing on phenom defenseman, Seth Jones. Who knows maybe in time Panthers fans will indeed think we made the wrong pick, but by the looks of things it is highly doubtful.
The writing is on the wall in Sunrise, and it never looked so good...
...Aleksander Barkov is a beast in the making.
Just barely 18 years old and with another 20-30 lbs. to gain, the future could not be any brighter for a player and a team badly needing each other.
On many other teams Barkov might have been stashed in the AHL for a year to learn the American game. Other teams might have let him learn the ropes on the third and fourth lines for months to get his feet wet. But in Florida, for better or worse, he has received a lot of playing time.
For practically a decade the Panthers were embarrassingly weak down the middle. Now with Barkov and fellow emerging star Nick Bjugstad throwing their size and skill around, the Panthers are suddenly a new team. It's only a matter of time and experience before these two will center two very powerful lines for the Cats.
Barkov has 13 points over the last 15 games, which includes the fastest goal of the season Tuesday night against the Islanders 32 seconds in.
His poise and maturity at this point in his young career is certainly a result of playing in the Finnish Elite League for the last two seasons with some of the best hockey players in the world. His size and hockey smarts thrust him into an arena where he could do nothing but grow and succeed with his natural talent.
And here he is.
- Leading the Florida Panthers in points, on only 70 shots.
- Arguably the best two-way forward on the team.
- Brilliant with his passes and cunning with his shot location all at the same time.
And all of this while trying to acclimate to the smaller rinks in the NHL and learn English and get used to warm weather and develop chemistry with NHL talent and absorb a brutal travel schedule and take interviews and...it goes on and on and on...
To this point, there is no question Tallon made the right pick. Scoring has been the issue for years with this club. Barkov is a serious boost to those efforts.
Many teams had Barkov as the best player on the board going into last year's draft, but because of where he played and the lack of tangible evidence of what he could do, fans were in the dark about him.
Those days are over.
He isn't even a diamond in the rough anymore. If healthy, Barkov will blow away even the expectations of Panthers brass when they picked him. He isn't only the real deal. He is arguably the biggest piece in the Panthers revival for the long term.
Dan Spiegel
Florida Panthers Media
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