Aleksander Barkov takes pride in wearing the 'C' as captain of the Florida Panthers. So, he appreciates the meaning of being able to also do it while representing his country.
Barkov was named captain for Team Finland for the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday.
"Of course, it's a huge honor," Barkov said. "I never really dreamed about that thing, but, like I said, it's a huge honor. I'm really thankful for that opportunity to be a captain of the national team and I can't wait to get going in the tournament."
The 4 Nations Face-Off is an international tournament featuring teams made up of only NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States. The teams will play each other once in a round-robin format starting on Feb. 12 at Bell Centre in Montreal. The final day of the round robin is Feb. 17 at TD Garden in Boston, with the two top teams advancing to the championship game on Feb. 20 in Boston.
It will be the first best-on-best tournament in hockey since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, which Barkov played in when he was 21 years old. Finland opens the competition against the United States on Feb. 13 in Montreal (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS).
"We're really excited," Barkov said. "I know we've been talking about this tournament for a long time and now it's here in a couple weeks. So, we're really excited about that, excited about the opportunity to play against the best players in the world and, at the same time, we're excited to be able to play with each other as a Team Finland. We know each other really well. It's a small country. I think everyone has at some point played with each other or been somewhere in the same room or same place with each other.
"So, we have a good group of guys and really everyone wants to win."
Barkov became the first Finnish captain to hoist the Stanley Cup in June after the Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. The 29-year-old center tied for the Panthers lead in points in the playoffs with 22 (eight goals, 14 assists) in 24 games.
Barkov, who has been the Panthers captain since Sept. 17, 2018, will be joined on Finland's leadership group by assistant captains Sebastian Aho and Mikko Rantanen of the Carolina Hurricanes, and Mikael Granlund of the San Jose Sharks.