George Richards, FHN Publisher
When Jonathan Huberdeau got his 420th point with the Florida Panthers, it was a big deal and treated as such. Last Monday night in Tampa, Sasha Barkov got his 420th point and it was quietly celebrated.
That certainly doesn’t diminish his accomplishment.
It just did not make Barkov the Florida Panthers’ all-time scoring leader.
Huberdeau’s 420th point did.
Barkov passed Olli Jokinen for sole possession of second place on the Panthers’ scoring list when he recorded an assist on Anthony Duclair’s seventh point (off his first goal) of his Florida career.
Jokinen was watching from his home in Parkland and fired off a text message he figured Barkov would see after the game.
”I wrote to him “Finally. What took you so long?’,” Jokinen said a few days later.
“He’s a good guy, a great player. I am proud of him. He is a guy who was highly drafted, is the face of the team and hopefully the team continues to do well. They have a great GM — Billy Zito, I know him personally very well and he is a great guy and a great hockey person.
”As for Barkov, there isn’t one bad thing you can say about the guy. He is an unbelievable player who puts the work in. Hopefully he can be on a winning team because then we’re talking about a Hall of Fame career. That’s the level he is playing at, that’s the level his career is headed. He is still a baby. Watch him in the next two or three years.”
Barkov said he appreciated the thoughts offered by Jokinen, a fellow countryman and, like Barkov, a captain of the Panthers.
“It did mean a lot to me to pass a guy like Olli Jokinen because he is one of the biggest names to play for this franchise,” Barkov said.
“He was a No. 1 center, captain of this team so it meant a lot to do it. It was nice to get a message from him.”
Later in that game against the Lightning, Barkov got his 421st point when he scored to give the Panthers a 5-2 lead in a game they ultimately won 6-4.
Winning the game was Barkov’s main concern and, based on his scoring prowess, it was only a matter of time before he passed Jokinen.
When Huberdeau was on the verge of eclipsing the franchise record last season, Jokinen said so himself.
“Listen, I left here in 2008 and I have had this record for 12 years,’’ Jokinen said a few days before Huberdeau got a goal and an assist in a blowout of Toronto to set the record.
“That shows there has been a lot of turnover but it is great to see a player get drafted here and take a leading position in the record book.
“I’m not going to catch him anymore, but Barky could. He’s going to be a 90-point guy for the next 15 years. Huberdeau will as well. Hopefully they stick around here a long, long time.”
Jokinen recently accepted his first professional coaching job and will be the new head coach of Mikkelin Jukurit in Liiga, the top Finnish league Liiga.
That makes him a new rival of Barkov.
Last summer, Barkov bought a piece of his hometown team, becoming the third-largest shareholder in the parent company of Tampere’s Tappara.
”I sent him a message congratulating him on the new job,’’ Barkov said of Jokinen. “I think it is great. We can figure out a way to stay on good terms.”
Barkov’s link to Tappara is long.
Not only did Barkov’s father Aleksander play for and later serve as an assistant coach with Tappara, but Barkov himself grew up playing for the Tappara youth teams.
Before being the second overall pick of the 2013 draft, Barkov spent two seasons with the Tappara senior team as well.
“This is a huge thing for me and my family,” Barkov said in June.
“That team is probably one of the most important things for my family. … I will never forget those years, playing and training with them every summer. I know the whole organization, the guys on the team.
“I always felt I was part of the team, but now, I feel honored to become one of the owners and hopefully bring something new and some knowledge to the organization moving forward.”
In Florida, Barkov just continues to score.
He and Huberdeau are now atop the franchise scoring list despite Huberdeau ranking seventh in games played and Barkov still 10 games away from tying Bill Lindsay to crack the top 10.
While Huberdeau holds a sizable lead on Barkov atop the scoring list, Barkov could become the Panthers’ all-time leader in goals scored perhaps as early as this season although it would take quite a tear.
After Monday night’s game against Dallas, Barkov now has 162 goals — just 26 behind Jokinen.
Huberdeau moved into sole possession of fourth on the all-time goals list last week when he passed Pavel Bure with his 153rd against the Lightning.
Barkov would at least have some bragging rights over Huberdeau when it comes to a franchise record.
As long as it comes in a game the Panthers win, Barkov will celebrate accordingly.
And that, perhaps, will be a bigger deal than the muted celebration which happened last week in Tampa.
“It was a huge win for us in Tampa, to beat a team like that gives us a lot of confidence and shows us we’re doing the right things here,” Barkov said.
“Records are nice, but that’s not the main goal for me. It is an accomplishment I will enjoy when my career is finished.”