Panthers will play two games in hometown of team captain Sasha Barkov

The Florida Panthers will be hitting the road next season to take part in the NHL Global Series.

In November of 2024 the Panthers will travel to Tampere, Finland to face the Dallas Stars.

It’s the first time since 2018 that Florida will play a regular season game outside of North America.

This was first reported by David Pagnotta and Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period.

Florida has previously played four games in Finland, two back in 2018 against the Winnipeg Jets and a pair way back in 2009 against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Both trips saw the Panthers visiting Helsinki and each time Florida split the two games with their Western Conference opponents.

This time around, Florida will be playing in Tampere, which is the hometown of Panthers captain Sasha Barkov.

Four years ago, Barkov became a partial owner of Tampere’s professional Liiga team Tappara. It’s a club that both Barkov and his father played for.

Now Barkov will return with his Panthers.

This will mark the NHL’s second visit to Tampere. In November of 2022 the Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets played a pair of games at Nokia Arena, Tappara’s home rink.

Overall, these will be the tenth and eleventh NHL games to be played in Finland. 

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