George Richards, FHN Publisher
For the first time in his long hockey career as a player agent and executive with the Blue Jackets, Bill Zito finally gets to see the team he put together on the ice when the Florida Panthers open up training camp.
On Sunday, the players will officially report for physicals with the first practice coming Monday morning in Sunrise.
“The reason we all work in the sport is to be around the hockey part of it,’’ Zito said.
“I feel a little bit like a kid in a candy store. I think perhaps all you do as well. We’re just excited to be fortunate enough to be able to be back and be around hockey and be around the game and and have that air of anticipation.
“Just the anticipation that hockey’s back in the air, and then it’s a little extra, a little extra special for me I think maybe. It’s my first training camp. It’s exciting and I really look forward to it.”
Unlike past years, the Panthers will hold the entirety of their training camp at the BB&T Center instead of their training facility in Coral Springs.
By moving to the arena, Zito explains, the Panthers can spread out a lot more during training camp.
They can also do more outside — they are moving the weight room outdoors — like hold meetings and meals in the sunshine.
The Panthers have 39 players in camp, including goalie Scott Darling and defenseman Kevin Connauton, in on a PTO.
With 23 roster players and a possible six-man taxi squad, that would mean 10 cuts between now and the opener. Perhaps more.
Two players who will not be at camp include Aleksi Saarela and Henrik Borgstrom who will, at least for now, remain playing in Finland.
The Panthers were not expecting Borgstrom to be on the team this season (more on that later) but Saarela is a bit of a surprise. He was a player whose stock seemed to be growing within the team.
At the end of the day, however, it just appeared he was more comfortable playing in his homeland where he is in the midst of a pretty good season in the Liiga.
On Saarela, Zito said he had a number of conversations with the player’s agent — Saarela remains an RFA without a contract — but he couldn’t get much done.
“I had spoken to the agent for Saarela and he expressed an interest in staying,’’ Zito said.
“We had talked to him a little bit about coming back and it didn’t really get a lot of traction. He was having a good year. And so that kind of ended that discussion.’’
When it comes to Borgstrom, the Panthers are treading lightly and want things to go right for him in his development.
There was a thought Borgstrom definitely took a downturn last year when he lost his job centering Florida’s third line in the opening month of the season and was demoted to the AHL.
Borgstrom’s play did not exactly set the world on fire in Springfield, so Zito hopes playing at home for the first time since he left for the University of Denver (where he was one of the top collegiate players in the nation and led the Pioneers to a national title) will help get him going.
“With regard to Borgstrom, we had a lot of discussions about what might be the best for him to jumpstart his career,’’ Zito said.
“To get a restart and a positive focus moving forward. He was injured early on. He started with IFK a little bit later and has been playing. We’ve been in touch on a very regular basis with both he and his agent on when the best time for him to come back is with some solid hockey behind him, where everything’s positive.
“We had even discussed possibly having him play a whole year there, maybe get to the World Championships, build up his hockey, make it a real positive experience for him, come in on his terms, and make a return. That is a sort of a collective decision.”
Zito also said both Saarela and Borgstrom could join the team at a later date.
“We’re not closing the door on anything,’’ Zito said. “It is pretty simple: Just go play hockey, have fun. Make hockey a great positive experience. And when the time is right to come back, let’s do that. Let’s work together, let’s do everything we can to make this work the best for everybody and try to get you here in the best possible scenario that we can.”
Zito touched on a number of subjects Saturday aside from the arena setup (the Panthers do plan on having fans at their home games including the season-opener Jan. 14 against Dallas).
Here is what Bill Zito had to say about the State of the Panthers going into the 2021 season:
After building up this team, how excited are you to see them on the ice together for the start of training camp?
BILL ZITO: Pretty excited. The reason we all work in the sport is to be around the hockey part of it. I feel a little bit like a kid in a candy store. I think perhaps all you do as well. We’re just excited to be fortunate enough to be able to be back and be around hockey and be around the game and and have that air of anticipation.
Just the anticipation that hockey’s back in the air, and then it’s a little extra, a little extra special for me I think maybe. It’s my first training camp. It’s exciting and I really look forward to it.
How confident are you with the NHL protocols, your team’s protocols that you’re going to be able to get through this training camp and start the season on a healthy note?
BZ: Well I’m not a doctor or a scientist so I can only go through history, and my experience with the NHL protocols in the bubble. It was outstanding. Our staff, (athletic trainer) David Dinapoli, this guy, I don’t know if he ever sleeps. But we’ve been thorough and rigid in our preparation.
I can’t speak to that because I’m not a health professional and I don’t know but I know we’ve done everything we possibly can. I’m confident that we will continue to do so. I know that our facility has won awards for the preparedness for the fans and for the people entering the facility. I think our club is has been excellent.
Holding training camp at BB&T Center is it just easier keeping one locker room clean than having to clean two?
BZ: I think it was simpler than you think. There’s not a lot going on over there right now and it was a function of a lot of factors all weighed in. But it was rather simple.
Rather than have two facilities and go back and forth … there was really not a significant reason to utilize two when we could just use one. There was more space, it was easier to social distance. For example, little things like in our locker rooms. Some of the locker rooms I think only have three or four players in them.
So we are we’re distancing anybody and everybody as much as we can. Being as prudent as we can with our spacing. We are pursuing some pretty novel concepts. Our weight room will be outdoors, which is kind of neat. And I think the players will enjoy that.
We are going to have meetings and meals outside, whenever and wherever possible. Coaches meetings will be outside, whenever possible. So we’re able to do a lot of things with that facility and that was really the main gist of it.
A smaller camp eliminated the need for multiple sheets as much, you know you can make do with one. It’s a little bit easier with your players so a lot of the reasons wrapped into one. Health, safety, convenience and efficiency probably were the main factors.
How do you think Joel Quenneville will ramp things up in camp since there are no preseason games?
BZ: We’ve spoken every day for some time now. You know there’s certainly going to be a modification to the way traditional training camp has been held. And both the physical and mental preparation of the players has to be altered a little bit, as well as the chance to evaluate.
There’s all kinds of little things that go into what each club’s final teams may be. Traditionally, you may look at the waiver wire and say ‘wow there’s going to be some pretty good players on some of the better teams,’ for lack of a better word, and you’ll scout the preseason games and watch, you know, who has extra D or whatever.
There are no preseason games. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens that way over time.
How much have you thought about the construction of the roster and will you carry 23 players plus the full compliment of taxi squad?
BZ: Well, it hasn’t been decided yet. We have actually, even this morning, had a discussion as far as all the various scenarios. You could go 20 and six or 23 and six … how to handle it, making room for injuries and dealing with the salary cap nuances … trying to save to save some money for the for the back end. That’s probably an economics class in and of itself. So, yeah, it’s yet to be determined.
How do you see roster battles shaping up now that there’s a taxi squad?
BZ: I think it makes for more battles because of the taxi squad. You can have more players readily available on a day-to-day basis, up and down. And so, if you’re not the guy who is necessarily pulling his own weight or if the coach wanted to replace you in the lineup, you could sit out without being actually taken off the 23. You could call someone up from the taxi squad he could replace you very readily. And so I think, best players play, and it creates a far more competitive roster.
Do you know how many fans you’ll have and how will that affect you since some teams will not have fans in their building?
BZ: I’m sorry I don’t know the specific number. … I think at least here, it will have a really positive effect on players. I haven’t interacted with them that much but one of the things that they’ve told me when I have interacted with them, is how how passionate the fans here really are and how much they do appreciate the fans. At least for our group, it will make a difference, and it will help them.
What do you feel like Patric Hornqvist at this point in his career can still bring to the ice?
BZ: His character, his leadership, his competitiveness and his on-ice ability. He can still play and all those things make him a winner. For me, that’s something as a manager you value. As a fan you adore. And as a person you admire. It was easy equation for a guy like Patric.
Even in the short time that he’s been here, his offseason workouts, the way that he comports himself, the way that he treats people. It’s just been been great to have here and we’re very lucky to have him.
You have a history in our relationship with Sergei Bobrovsky and have you spoken to him? What’s the attitude you feel that he is bringing into this camp based off of last season?
BZ: When I first came he was helping me kind of adjust to South Florida asking did I need help finding a neighborhood … just in general. We talked a little bit about hockey but not that much actually. I’m really not concerned.
I said this a number of times, I’m not concerned about Sergei’s bounce-back if you will and what have you. It’s been written ad nauseum about his professionalism, his attention to detail, his preparation, his competitiveness. I have no doubt that he will examine the things he needs examined, respond to them and he’ll be just fine.
And I think he’s going to have fun and be a real, real solid player for us.
What excites you about rookies Owen Tippett and Grigori Denisenko going into camp?
BZ: Well, Tippett can shoot the puck and he can score goals. He is a guy that really has that two-dimensional scoring touch.
Denisenko is more of an all-around player with the skating, the sense, the skill. A couple of veterans have compared him to Kovalchuk. I don’t want to. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. He is very mature.
When I first came here, I was living in a hotel so I was pretty much here every day. Early in the morning to late at night. One Saturday, I was here and I heard some stuff going on in the gym and I went down there and he was down there by himself on a Saturday, practicing his stickhandling. I said ‘what are you doing here? Guys are at the beach?’ And he said, ‘no, I want to be in the NHL.’
He is very driven, great sense of humor, big smile every day. I’m really excited about those two, they’ve been here working. Our strength coach Mike Donahue speaks very highly of both their work ethic. The guys all like them. So we’re very excited about both of those guys.
Devon Levi has had a great world juniors so how exciting has it been as a GM to watch his rise here these last couple weeks?
BZ: It’s been really exciting particularly because Roberto Luongo wanted to take him pretty much through the draft. … Kudos to him because he had identified Devon and never wavered. So it’s exciting. It’s exciting for Roberto and for Devon and it’s great.
Any thoughts or concerns on how player development will be affected this year?
BZ: All kinds of thoughts, it’s been a topic of discussion daily. We’re trying to figure out a way, especially for the younger players, to not lose a year of their development and to provide them as much support as we can, given this difficult landscape, and to try to keep it in perspective where we are as a society as well.
It’s going to be difficult to provide games, it’s going to be difficult to provide that high level of competition that many of them need. So we’re trying to figure out, in a prudent economic model as well, ways to help these young players get games or develop.
So yeah, it’s been a constant topic of discussion with a myriad of different scenarios that we’ve come up with. And hopefully we’ll come up with something that works and I think we will.
How do you see rivalries starting with the new schedule and divisions?
BZ: I think the division changes obvious is a reaction (to) economics and COVID. I completely understand it. We’re going to do what we have to do. The multiple games, the eight games, is going to be interesting. I do think it’s going to create rivalries. I do think it’s going to create a heightened competition in certain instances.
As far as multiple games in a row … I mean, we did it in college. So I don’t know how dramatic it’s going to be. We have had back-to-backs for years, (playing) in Columbus then Detroit. I don’t know how much edgier the second game will be from the first.
But certainly, I think, eight games against some teams there will be some heightened competitiveness. Should be fun.
Where do you think, where this roster is now, your team will be in the end? And what would you consider a success?
BZ: I don’t know, I can’t handicap it. And for me the success is going to be if we can get the team to play the right way. I don’t know, and I’m not being coy, I don’t know that we could measure it in points. I’d love to sit here and tell you that. But it’s going to be a function of a consistent, competitive effort night in and night out and playing the game the right way. That’s the goal.
How much have you guys talked about what the lines are going to look like, what the defensive pairings are going to be going into Day 1 of a short camp?
BZ: A moderate amount because of the flexibility of so many of those forwards. You can mix and match and cut and paste so many of the different ones that it really kind of has to flush out with a shortened camp. The coaches are going to have obviously less time to experiment. So I would say we’ve had moderate discussion.