Aside from not being able to help the Panthers so far this season, Barkov was forced to miss the Olympics, which concluded on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Barkov was one of the first six players selected for Team Finland\u2019s preliminary roster last June and was expected to be his country’s captain, as he was at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February. Finland won the bronze medal with a 6-1 victory against Team Slovakia on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe season was going along fine, and then some of the guys were starting to skate in their Olympic gear, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Where\u2019s mine? I don\u2019t have any,'” Barkov said. “Them leaving was when it really hit me that I was going to miss the Olympics. … Hopefully, one day, I\u2019ll get the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there was one positive that has come out of Barkov\u2019s injury, it was his decision to make a sizable donation to his favorite cause.<\/p>\n
Since 2019, Barkov has donated more than $420,000 to the Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital here by pledging a financial contribution for each of his goals and assists, an amount that has increased over the years (currently $1,600 for a goal and $800 for an assist). Barkov also donates a luxury suite at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, for use by the hospital, allowing children, families, and health care workers to attend Panthers games.<\/p>\n
With Barkov unable to rack up any goals or assists this season, he said he and agent Todd Diamond went to the hospital with an idea. On Tuesday, it was announced that Barkov made a donation in excess of $1 million and that the hospital named its sports medicine program after him: Barkov Sports Medicine at Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n
Barkov won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which is awarded for leadership on and off the ice and contributions in the community, in part for his philanthropy last season. He became the first player to win both the King Clancy Memorial Trophy and Selke Trophy, which is awarded annually to the NHL\u2019s best defensive forward, in the same season.<\/p>\n
Children from the hospital surprised Barkov with both trophies last year during the playoffs, and, fittingly, the King Clancy was on display at Barkov\u2019s event on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I knew I would be out for a while, I couldn\u2019t score any goals or assists,\u201d Barkov said. \u201cThis is more than a dream for me to be able to be a small part of this great place. The years that I have been here working with Joe DiMaggio\u2019s has been amazing, but this is a next step that I never dreamed about. I am very honored, very thankful, and very happy to be doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barkov added that his interactions with the young patients at the hospital have helped him through some of the more difficult moments since being injured. If they can go through tough times, Barkov reasoned, so can he.<\/p>\n
\u201cTry and stay positive and find positive things through adversity,\u201d Barkov said. \u201cThere is always something good to look for. For me, when I got hurt and knew I would be out for however long, I just tried to find good things to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aside from not being able to help the Panthers so far this season, Barkov was forced to miss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-503139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}