How Bill Zito Built the Florida Panthers

By virtue of their convincing 5-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Florida Panthers won their second straight Stanley Cup championship, 4-2.

While the Cup was presented to captain Aleksander Barkov by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, he could have presented it to the architect of the team, general manager Bill Zito.

Zito was hired to replace Dale Tallon in September 2020. Zito helped craft a Florida roster which made the postseason in each of his five seasons with the club. The Panthers had franchise highs of 58 wins and 122 points in 2021-22 to win the Presidents' Trophy as the team with the best record in the regular season.

It was after they got bounced in the playoffs that year that Zito brought in head coach Paul Maurice to take over the club. All Maurice did was lead the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final each of his three years with the club and win two titles.

Zito came to the Panthers as a hot commodity. Since arriving in Sunrise he has been named a Jim Gregory GM of the Year finalist four times in the past five seasons, including each of the past three.

The Panthers had only 14 players return this past season from their Stanley Cup title team of 2024. Winger Brad Marchand was acquired prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on March 7. Marchand has playoff experience as he won the Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011. Forward Nico Sturm, who was not with the Panthers last season, won it with the Colorado Avalanche in 2022.

Zito signed 11 of the 23 players who played in the Stanley Cup playoffs through free agency. Seven were acquired by trade, while four were drafted by Florida in the NHL Draft. There was one player claimed off of waivers. Florida had 19 of 22 eligible skaters have at least one goal in the playoffs, according to NHL.com.

Zito will have his work cut out for him this offseason as he has until July 1 to convince Marchand, Conn Smythe Trophy winner Sam Bennett and defenseman Aaron Ekblad to re-sign with the Panthers and take a hometown discount instead of testing free agency.