Florida Panthers Bill Zito Finalist for GM of the Year … Again

For the fourth time in five years, Bill Zito of the Florida Panthers has been named a finalist for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, presented to the NHL’s top GM.

Jim Nill of the Dallas Stars, who has won it the past two seasons, is a finalist again in this one; Winnipeg’s Kevin Cheveldayoff is the other finalist.

The award is voted on by the NHL general managers and takes place after the second round of the playoffs.

Both the Panthers and Stars are in their respective conference finals for the third straight year; Winnipeg won the NHL Presidents’ Trophy but were knocked out of the second round by the Stars.

Florida is vying for a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final — and the defending champions currently hold a 2-0 lead on Carolina in the Eastern Conference finals.

Zito has been busy during his time with the Panthers — overturning the roster since taking over in 2020 with the team getting better each year.

Only four players remain with the Panthers since Zito was hired by the Panthers to replace Dale Tallon at the end of the 2019-20 season.

Those four: Sasha Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Eetu Luostarinen, and Sergei Bobrovsky.

This season, Zito not only helped keep the Stanley Cup champions together, but made numerous additions throughout the offseason and the 2024-25 campaign.

Aside from signing Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Dmitry Kulikov, and Anton Lundell to contract extensions, the Panthers brought in Tomas Nosek, AJ Greer, Nate Schmidt, Jaycob Megna, and Jesper Boqvist before the season.

At the NHL Trade Deadline, Florida acquired Seth Jones, Brad Marchand, Nico Sturm, and Vitek Vanecek.

2025 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: GAME 3

CAROLINA HURRICANES @ FLORIDA PANTHERS

Panthers lead Best-of-7 Series 2-0

• When: Saturday, 8 p.m. 
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• National TV: TNT/truTV
• National Streaming: Max
• Radio: WQAM 560-AM; WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Series Schedule (all games on TNT/tru, 8 p.m.) — Game 1: Florida 5, Carolina 2; Game 2: Florida 5, Carolina 0; Game 3: Saturday @Florida; Game 4: Monday @Florida; Game 5*: Wednesday @Carolina; Game 6*: Friday, May 30 @Florida; Game 7*: Sunday, June 1 @Carolina
• Regular Season: Panthers Won 2-1
• How They Got Here: Carolina d. New Jersey (5), Washington (5); Florida d. Tampa Bay (5), Toronto (7).
• All-Time Regular Season Series: Carolina/Hartford leads 74-49-10, 11 ties
• Postseason History: Florida 1-0 (2023 ECF in 4)