CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -- Aleksander Barkov set a low bar for Matthew Tkachuk.
At least, before they became Florida Panthers teammates.
"When I used to play against him when he was in Calgary, I would have never thought that I'm going to like the guy," Barkov told ESPN this month. "He was just, like, a pain in the ass. He was always in your face. Obviously, he's an unbelievable player but everything that came with him, all the scrums, I just never thought I'd like the guy so much. And then we met here [in Florida] and boom -- he's definitely one of the best guys to be around.