Dave Hyde: Bill Zito has made Florida Panthers the best show in town
The Panthers return to the Eastern Conference finals Wednesday with hopes of a second-straight Stanley Cup Final. How'd a dismal franchise for a quarter-century find such success? It starts with two words: Bill Zito.
FORT LAUDERDALE — You ask Bill Zito if this is the Florida Panthers roster he envisioned, if this second trip to the Eastern Conference finals confirms his good decisions, and he walks to a door at the team’s new War Memorial training center.
“Let me show you something,” he says.
He opens the door and points across the hallway. Coach Paul Maurice sits in the middle of a long table with assistants around him. Computers are open, papers spread out. A coaches’ meeting is in session.
“We had separate offices for these guys and they moved out of their offices and now all sit at the same table in that room,” he said. “They’re a team, these coaches. They’re really a team. They sit around all day like old men having coffee. There they are.
“What does that have to do with what we were talking about this roster, these players, being good? Well, these (coaches) are united. They’re sincere. You trust them.”
He points down the hall.
“Then you walk down there and there’s (Aleksander Barkov) and Matthew (Tkachuk) and all they want to do is win. They don’t care about individual agenda. That’s all they want, to win, probably as different people for different reasons. (Barkov) wants everyone to be happy. He does. He just wants people to be happy. And Matthew wants everyone to be happy because they’re more fun.”
Zito closes the door and sits down again.
“This isn’t about me at all,” he said.
The Panthers start the Eastern Conference Finals in New York on Wednesday and continue their dramatic U-turn from a quarter-century of dysfunction into becoming the model sports franchise. You can circle the time the big change began, too.
When former Panthers coach Joel Quenneville was pushed out of hockey in 2021 this franchise was set to go down another black hole — but Zito, took over in early in the 2020 season, instead showed what one big mind can do.
This team is his creation, his roster. He changed the culture of a losing organization. He shaped the team’s personality. He built out the team’s core by finding good players stuck in bad situations. Sam Reinhart. Sam Bennett. Brandon Montour. Carter Verhaeghe. Big move after big move.
Gustav Forsling had been released by Carolina after being traded by Chicago.
“When I was in Columbus, we had a scout who covered Chicago, Blake Geoffrion, who actually was here with us and kept saying, ‘This Forsling is good,’ ” Zito said.
He mentions other scouts, Paul Krepelka and Rick Dudley, who repeated the idea so when Carolina released Forsling in 2021 it’s like Zito had no say in signing him. Now Forsling has the best plus-minus rating in hockey. Now Maurice mentions him as a Norris Trophy candidate as the league’s best defenseman.
“Believe me, it’s not lost on me how self-serving it’d be to say, ‘Oh, it’s so great to see these moves …’ ” he said. “But I’m telling you, 100 percent sincerity, it’s more of looking at these guys as people. You see these guys go through what they have, all the time and effort, ups and downs and … you’re just happy for their success.”
He’s asked how the Panthers became a get-well station for players’ careers after decades of it not working that way. He talks about being a Milwaukee Brewers’ batboy, back in the 1980s, and seeing rare personalities allowed to flourish. He talked of his career as a players agent who saw teams doubt a 5-foot-10 defenseman, Brian Rafalski, could play big enough until he won three Stanley Cups.
“Somebody figured out, ‘Well, let’s think about all the good things he can do instead of being too small,” he said. “So maybe that was a little bit of an evolution, seeing what happens when you focus on what people can do.”
Everyone likes to play Fantasy General Manager with mock drafts or free-agent buys. But how many have the vision on how to set a franchise’s culture or the career courage to take a team from good to great?
The Panthers were a fun, high-scoring team two years ago with the NHL’s best record and their first playoff series win in 25 years. Zito said it wasn’t good enough. He convinced owner Vinnie Viola, too. The coaching change was made to Maurice to win in the playoffs. All Maurice has done is win with this team.
Zito also doubled down that summer by trading popular Jonathan Huberdeau for rugged winger Tkachuk. This became a centerpiece of his moves. Tkachuk set the personality of the team, became the physical bookend to Barkov’s skill set on how these Panthers would play.
“There’s no preconceived expectations for anyone on the team other than to work,” Zito said. “You have to work. You can’t fake it. Everyone here works.”
It’s back to work Wednesday night in Madison Square Garden. Zito’s heavy lifting is done by now. No roster moves to make, little advise to give. He puts his postseason duties down as making coffee, saying a few words, staying out of the way and … he holds up his ringing phone at one point.
“Oz Pearlman,” the phone number reads.
He’s a mentalist who performs for NFL teams, among others. Zito is considering getting him to talk to the Panthers on an off day.
“Anything to help,” says the man who has helped find the coach, find the players and find the path for this franchise to have the kind of success it’s never had.