Panthers' Aleksander Barkov becomes the first Stanley Cup-winning captain from Finland

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — A Finnish flag waved prominently in the stands as the Florida Panthers celebrated with the Stanley Cup. Aleksander Barkov held his 2-year-old child in his arms minutes after getting the trophy from Commissioner Gary Bettman.

The first championship in franchise history was made possible by a handful of Finns, none more effective than Barkov, who became the first captain from his country to be presented and then hoist the Cup.

“I was young when I came here, so I never thought I could celebrate someday with my kid,” Barkov said. “Unreal feeling.”

Asked during the series about being the first Finnish Stanley Cup-winning captain, the 28-year-old responded: “I don’t know what it would mean for the country. It would mean a lot for me.”

Barkov led the way with a dominant two-way postseason, tying for the team lead with 22 points in 24 games and defensively shutting down star opponents throughout the run, from Boston's David Pastrnak to New York's Artemi Panarin and eventually Edmonton's Connor McDavid, who had no points in Games 6 and 7 of the final.

“It starts with Barkov and filters down,” coach Paul Maurice said.

Barkov led a team full of Canadians, Swedes, Russians, Americans — and was one of four Finns in the lineup for the Cup clincher, along with forwards Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen and defenseman Niko Mikkola. One of Maurice's assistants, former player Tuomo Ruutu, is also Finnish.

Maurice said Ruutu is “harder on those guys than the rest.” Barkov is the guy Lundell, 22, and Luostarinen, 25, idolize.

“Everybody who grows up playing hockey in Finland, they look up to guys here, and Sasha’s one guy we all want to be one day,” Lundell said. “You grow up watching his highlights. You go to practice, you want to do (drills) the same way he does them. We all have idols, but I have to say, I think he’s the biggest idol in Finland.”

Mom Olga Barkova, still could not believe it in the aftermath of the Game 7 win.

“It’s been really exciting for the whole family,” she said. “We support each other. So happy this was the last game and they won. Maybe I understand this tomorrow when I see all the pictures.”

Barkov's picture-perfect postseason came on the heels of earning Selke Trophy honors as the best defensive forward in the NHL.

Veteran Kyle Okposo, who joined Florida at the trade deadline, admired him as an opponent for just how suffocating he is defensively and compared Barkov to six-time Selke winner Patrice Bergeron.

“Just the way that he thinks about the game, you don’t see many players that have that (who) are so talented offensively,” Okposo said. “When (Bergeron) hung up his skates in Boston, he was the other guy that never cheated the game. That’s not something that a lot of special offensive players have in their game.”

One play in Game 3 crystallized how much of an impact Barkov can have. He forced Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard to lose the puck, outworked him to get it and set up Florida's goal that silenced the raucous crowd in Edmonton.

“Doesn’t try to make a skilled play, just takes it up the wall, fends him off, turns up, finds a late guy and ends up in the back of the net,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “Simple playoff hockey and he’s (done) a great job for us all playoffs long.”

While McDavid won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, Barkov was second after carrying the Panthers through the Lightning, Bruins, Rangers and Oilers. He was one of only a few homegrown players on Florida's roster.

“He’s our leader,” forward Sam Bennett said. “He plays the game the right way. It’s pretty special to see a guy so committed, as gifted as he is offensively, he’s so committed to playing defense and shutting guys down, blocking shots. When you have your All-Star captain playing that way, it carries on to every single guy in the locker room."

Barkov is just the fifth European captain to hoist the Cup after Nicklas Lidstrom with Detroit in 2008, Zdeno Chara with Boston in 2011, Alex Ovechkin with Washington in 2018 and Gabriel Landeskog with Colorado in 2022.

An incorrect photo that previously was linked to this story has been removed.

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL

Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov (16) hoists the NHL hockey Stanley Cup in front of fans after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in Sunrise, Fla., Monday, June 24, 2024. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov hoists the NHL hockey Stanley Cup after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in Sunrise, Fla., Monday, June 24, 2024. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov hoists the NHL hockey Stanley Cup after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in Sunrise, Fla., Monday, June 24, 2024. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, left, presents Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov (16) with the NHL hockey Stanley Cup after winning the Final against the Edmonton Oilers in Sunrise, Fla., Monday, June 24, 2024. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Florida Panthers team captain Aleksander Barkov (16) raises the Stanley Cup trophy after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. The Panthers defeated the Oilers 2-1. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (16) receives the Stanley Cup trophy from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman after Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. The Panthers defeated the Oilers 2-1 to win the Stanley Cup. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov hoists the Stanley Cup after the Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov hoists the Stanley Cup after the Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, left, presents the Stanley Cup to Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov after the Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (16) lifts the Stanley Cup trophy after Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. The Panthers defeated the Oilers 2-1. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov lifts the Stanley Cup trophy after Game 7 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. The Panthers defeated the Oilers 2-1. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran confirmed Wednesday that the next round of nuclear talks with the United States will be held in Rome after earlier confusion over where the negotiations would be held.

The announcement by Iranian state television came as Iran 's president formally approved the resignation of one of his vice presidents who served as Tehran's key negotiator in its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, just as the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog arrived in the Islamic Republic on Wednesday.

President Masoud Pezeshkian's announcement late Tuesday regarding Mohammad Javad Zarif preceded the state TV announcement, which said Oman will again mediate the talks. Oman's foreign minister served as an interlocutor between the two sides at talks last weekend in Muscat, the sultanate's capital.

Officials initially on Monday identified Rome as hosting the negotiations, only for Iran to insist early Tuesday they would return to Oman. American officials so far haven’t said where the talks will be held, though Trump did call Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq on Tuesday while the ruler was on a trip to the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, the visit by Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, may include negotiations over just what access his inspectors can get under any proposed deal.

The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Zarif served as a key supporter of Pezeshkian in his election last year but drew criticism from hard-liners within Iran's Shiite theocracy, who long have alleged Zarif gave away too much in negotiations.

In March, Zarif tendered his resignation to Pezeshkian. However, the president did not immediately respond to the letter. Zarif has used resignation announcements in the past in his political career as leverage, including in a dispute last year over the composition of Pezeshkian’s Cabinet. The president had rejected that resignation.

But on late Tuesday, a statement from the presidency said Pezeshkian wrote Zarif a letter praising him but accepting his resignation.

“Pezeshkian emphasized that due to certain issues, his administration can no longer benefit from Zarif’s valuable knowledge and expertise,” a statement from the presidency said.

The president in a decree appointed Mohsen Ismaili, 59, to be his new vice president for strategic affairs. In Iran's political system, the president has multiple vice presidents. Ismaili is known as a political moderate and a legal expert.

Grossi arrived in Tehran for meetings with Pezeshkian and others.

Since the nuclear deal’s collapse in 2018 with Trump's unilateral withdraw of the U.S. from the accord, Iran has abandoned all limits on its program, and enriches uranium to up to 60% purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Surveillance cameras installed by the IAEA have been disrupted, while Iran has barred some of the Vienna-based agency’s most experienced inspectors. Iranian officials also have increasingly threatened that they could pursue atomic weapons, something the West and the IAEA have been worried about for years since Tehran abandoned an organized weapons program in 2003.

Any possible deal between Iran and the U.S. likely would need to rely on the IAEA's expertise to ensure Tehran's compliance. And despite tensions between Iran and the agency, its access has not been entirely revoked.

Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday warned the U.S. about taking contradictory stances in the talks.

That likely refers to comments from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who this week initially suggested a deal could see Iran go back to 3.67% uranium enrichment — like in the 2015 deal reached by the Obama administration. Witkoff then followed up with saying "a deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal.”

“Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program,” he wrote on the social platform X. “It is imperative for the world that we create a tough, fair deal that will endure, and that is what President Trump has asked me to do.”

Araghchi warned America about taking any “contradictory and opposing stances” in the talks.

“Enrichment is a real and accepted issue, and we are ready for trust building about possible concerns," Araghchi said. But losing the right to enrich at all "is not negotiable.”

Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran.

FILE - US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, listens to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, as they walk in the city of Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 14, 2015, during a bilateral meeting ahead of the next round of nuclear discussions. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini, File)

FILE - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at United Nations headquarters, on Sept. 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

FILE - Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif smiles during a meeting with students on a climate change forum at the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University, in Santa Cruz Bolivia, on July 23, 2019. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)