HOLLYWOOD — When the Florida Panthers drafted Aleksander Barkov in 2013, the team was mired in mediocrity, and star players tended not to stick around for long.
Thirteen years later, the Finland native is the team captain, a two-time Stanley Cup champion and an embraced South Floridian. His commitment to the local community showed Tuesday, as he gave a large donation to Hollywood’s Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. The hospital, in turn, named its sports medicine program after him: Barkov Sports Medicine at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
“This is more than a dream to be able to be in some part of this great, great place,” Barkov said during a ceremony at the hospital on Tuesday. “Obviously, the years that I’ve been here working with Joe DiMaggio has been amazing, but this is (the) next step that I never even dreamed about. … So I’m very honored. Just very thankful and very happy to be doing that.”
Barkov added: “This place is my home now. Like I said in the speech that (I) was drafted here in 2013, and if you would have told me 13 years later this will happen here, I would have probably never believed. So very, very happy, very thankful, very honored that this happened. And I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes us.”
Barkov has been donating to the hospital since 2019. Now he donates $1,600 to the hospital for every goal he scores and $800 for every assist he records. He had donated more than $420,000 since 2019, according to the Panthers, and his latest donation is over $1 million.
“The world knows Sasha as an elite athlete, and here at Joe DiMaggio, we know him differently,” said Kelley Morris, the president of the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and Memorial Foundations. “We know him for his heart and we are incredibly grateful. … The Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation is incredibly grateful to Sasha for his generosity and we will proudly add his name, Barkov Sports Medicine, to our U-18 program.”
Barkov said his own injury — a knee injury that has kept him off the ice all season — helped inspire him to keep supporting the hospital.
“I knew (I was) going to be out for a while, so I couldn’t score any goals or assists,” Barkov said.
Barkov has been steadily working his way back from his injury. He skated before the team’s practice on Tuesday.
“I’m really happy where I am right now. I know the schedule,” Barkov said. “I know I’m in good hands. … We have great people working for the Panthers — surgeons and physical therapists and doctors. So trust them, and they will always make the right decision. And I know hopefully, very soon, I’ll be back with the team.”
Barkov said watching his teammates go to Italy and play in the Olympics was tough. The Panthers captain would have played for his native Finland if not for the knee injury.
“The whole season, it’s been fine. And then when you see that … some guys are skating in Olympic gear already in the practice, and where’s mine? I don’t have it,” Barkov said. “Them leaving there was kind of where it really hit me, that I’m going to miss Olympics. Then obviously, like, Olympic opening ceremony, that was pretty cool to watch. And I was just hoping that maybe, hopefully, one day again I’ll get a chance. But then, watching games, it was just … so high level that it was fun to watch.”
The Panthers’ season restarts on Thursday with a crucial game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Sunrise. Florida is currently far out of the playoff picture, eight points behind the second wild card, the Boston Bruins.
Panthers general manager Bill Zito said Tuesday that the star center is on schedule but could not pinpoint when — or if — Barkov could return this season. But if Florida could get him back, he would be a massive addition.
“Even if you just take the emotional part out of that question — and that part is huge — I can make an argument that Barkov’s the best player in the world,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “You may not agree with it. There are other guys who get more points. But he’s won three Selkes, two Stanley Cups. He’s a pretty good player. So just on that alone, on athlete alone, we’d be a little better team.”
Florida Panthers Captain Aleksander “Sasha” Barkov, a longtime supporter of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, signs an autograph for David Goodis,14, of Parkland , during a special party for pediatric patients and their families at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood on Tuesday, February 24, 2026. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)