George Richards, FHN Publisher
SUNRISE — When it came to the NHL Trade Deadline, the Florida Panthers made a lot of additions without too many subtractions and that made general manager Bill Zito quite happy.
One of Zito’s main objectives going into the deadline was making his team as strong as possible without affecting his team’s chemistry.
To do that, he wanted to add as much as he could without taking away from the team already built.
By all accounts, this NHL Trade Deadline was a rousing success for Zito — and for the Panthers who are all, for the most part, still intact in a quest to bring the Stanley Cup to South Florida.
And not just for a visit.
”It’s exciting,” Zito said Monday afternoon.
Yeah it is.
Florida added three players to its roster over the past week.
Zito acquired Claude Giroux, Ben Chiarot and Robert Hagg. Florida only lost Frank Vatrano from the main group with Owen Tippett, who has not been with the team in a month, also traded away.
The Panthers gave up a lot of draft capital in their moves — two first-round picks as well as some others not to mention prospect Ty Smilanic — but the team Florida fans have grown to love is still right here.
“We took a lot of time and effort to make sure the pieces we brought in would be consistent with our group,” Zito said after the NHL Trade Deadline ended on Monday.
The moves solidified Florida’s place not only as a top Stanley Cup contender but as a true NHL destination.
As was the case in the summer when Joe Thornton chose to chase the Cup with the Panthers, Giroux threw his lot in with them as well.
“I’m here to win, am here to help the team win,’’ Giroux said Monday afternoon. “That’s the reason why this trade happened. This team has a great chance to go far in the playoffs. There are a lot of great teams in the east. But coming to this team, I think I can help. It’s time to go to work.’’
With a full no-trade clause, Giroux controlled where the disappointing Flyers were going to send him — and he would only waive that for Florida.
While he would not confirm that, Philadelphia did.
Giroux made it clear why he wanted to play for the Panthers.
“It was always coming down to Florida,’’ Giroux said. “It is something that just feels like it was meant to be. … When we were kind of out of the playoffs, that’s when I started thinking, ‘where could I go, what would be a good place, a good fit for me to go and play and win a Cup?’
“I was looking around the teams and there was something about Florida. Every time I tuned into one of their games, I liked the way they played. For me, I just thought it would be a perfect fit.’’
For Zito, bringing in a player of Giroux’s ilk — he’s another future Hall of Famer on a team with at least a couple of them, or at least trending in that direction — is a boost for a team with high internal expectations.
“We love the fact that he wants to win,’’ Zito said. “I got a text from someone who played with him saying he was the ‘ultimate competitor.’ … He’s going to fit in real well. Across the board, he is a guy who checks a lot of boxes. That is so exciting.’’
Zito, while joking that players do not want to join the Panthers “to hang out with me,” do want to hang out with the players he has assembled.
Florida’s roster has been completely turned over since he replaced Dale Tallon in 2020 — although Zito has made sure to thank Tallon for leaving him with the kind of players he could build around.
Zito, when looking at joining the Panthers, was intrigued by the opportunity players such as Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad offered.
He has only added to the talent pool in Sunrise.
Since Zito took over, those three have been surrounded by players such as Sam Reinhart, Anthony Duclair, Sam Bennett, Patric Hornqvist, Anton Lundell and Gus Forsling.
Now, they get Giroux and Chiarot to join the gang as Florida works toward heights this franchise has not seen in a very long time.
”Look at our roster and who wouldn’t want to come to a team and play with those guys,’’ Zito said. “Fans are coming to see them; players are coming to be part of that group. It’s fun. We all know, you’ve watched them play, it is exciting. It’s not just how they play, but it’s the way they’re a team. You can see the energy. Players want to be a part of that. The weather isn’t bad, either.”
Being able to add at the deadline without giving up too much is not easy with salary cap constraints.
The Panthers would have likely had to part with more than just Vatrano from the big roster had Ekblad not gotten injured Friday night in Anaheim.
Losing Vatrano, Zito has said numerous times, was not ideal.
”That was tough, Frankie was a big part of the team,’’ Zito said. “That was hard. We didn’t want to lose players. We were fortunate to keep them all together.”
With Ekblad out of the lineup for the coming weeks, the Panthers were able to place him on LTIR and take his $7.5 million to use on other pieces.
Zito said the Panthers could have made the Giroux deal work with Ekblad’s money counting against the cap, but it would have been really close, especially since Chiarot’s money wasn’t part of the equation because he is still on the reserve list until his immigration gets worked out this week.
The Panthers would have had to lose someone and Noel Acciari and his $1.7 million may have been a casualty.
With the newfound money on the cap, Zito was able to not only keep the band together, but add some assets as well.
“It certainly made things a lot easier,” he said.