George Richards, FHN Publisher
It has been a wild few weeks for Bill Zito as he dove headfirst into his new role as GM of the Florida Panthers.
After spending the past seven years in the front office of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Zito has the keys to his own organization for the first time — and he has been doing lots of driving.
Since taking the Panthers general manager’s job on Sept. 1, Zito has not only reworked the front office with a slew of new hirings, but he also swung a major trade.
Last week, Zito pulled two-time Stanley Cup champ Patric Hornqvist from Pittsburgh in exchange for Mike Matheson and Colton Sceviour.
He is not close to being done.
Coming up this week: Preparing for the NHL Draft (which will be held virtually starting next Tuesday) as well as the opening of the free agency period Oct. 9 at noon.
“It’s like putting together a bunch of puzzles at the same time,” Zito said, “and then putting those puzzles into a bigger puzzle.’’
In a compressed offseason (one that seems endless but the draft and free agency is now knocking on the door), Zito has had a lot of work to do in a short time.
That includes dealing with internal issues.
With five unrestricted free agents, Zito and his staff have to make a decision on what offers will be made and to whom in an uncertain market.
One of Florida’s top young defensemen (MacKenzie Weegar) is a restricted free agent so that has to be dealt with as well.
Zito has been meeting with scouts, agents and the like while splitting time between his new offices at the Panthers’ training facility in Coral Springs as well as the BB&T Center in Sunrise.
The hours have been long and the stakes, in trying to get the Panthers on the right track, are high.
With so much swirling around him, Zito has not had time to look for a place to live in South Florida for him and his family.
“That’s not on the horizon anytime soon,’’ he said with an exasperated sigh.
That will have to wait until things calm down. And it will.
For right now, Zito has pressing work to do in running the Panthers. He is doing so all while living out of a suitcase at a hotel.
On Monday afternoon, Zito spoke with FloridaHockeyNow.com about the Hornqvist trade, his new additions to the front office and much more.
We asked how aggressive he would be going into his first draft from the lead chair at the table and he paused.
“I am going to be as aggressive as I need to be,” said Zito, whose team has the No. 12 pick in the first round next Tuesday.
“That’s my job, right? I have to be thorough and inquisitive and make sure that all options that are available to improve the Florida Panthers are pursued and investigated.”
Would you trade the 12th overall pick, Bill Zito, if the right deal came along?
“I would do anything.”
Going into Tuesday, the Panthers are close to $22 million under the salary cap (per CapFriendly.com) even with $4 million in retention and dead money is factored in.
This is the time when the future of the Panthers will come into focus.
Having fun?
“At first, it was not fun,’’ Zito said. “It was just such a whirlwind.
“I’d say, in the last 10 days, it’s starting to get really fun. Yeah.”
Catching up with Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito
What do you think Patric Hornqvist — a guy you saw a lot of while in Columbus — brings to your team?
I think I would say the same thing most people, who have had the displeasure of playing against him: This is a guy who just competes like a warrior. He is a veteran competitor.
I can’t tell you how many texts I got from friends and people who know him just saying ‘you’re getting a first-class human being.’ He is a first-class competitor who was so well loved — not well liked — well loved in the room, in the organization, in the community.
We are looking for leadership, we’re looking for compete, we’re looking for people who want to win. He’s a winner. That’s the best way to describe it right? He’s just a winner.
It’s funny because we were just in the bubble and we were watching him. He’s a contributor, he can play up and down the lineup. He can make the players around him better. He’s smart. He can score.
I mean there’s so much and if it sounds like I’m gushing, well, I kind of am.
I just think it’s a great fit for this team right now. And we’re gonna lean on him a lot.
The trade was initially reported on Wednesday and didn’t get done until Thursday. Was it close to being off?
Well, these things take time. And, you know, from our perspective, patience is a virtue, right? We certainly had an eye on this player and we were willing to be patient and be understanding. At the end of the day, everything worked out.
I think a lot of times, for people not necessarily involved in the negotiations or in the discussions, trades can take a lot longer than people think. I have been involved in trades that were three months in the making. There’s a number of dynamics and a number of factors that go into them. Sometimes they just take a little while.
One of the issues was getting the three years insured. Did that get done?
Those types of nuances … I don’t really want to go there, OK? But, no, it wasn’t. I can tell you that in every trade, at least every trade that I’ve ever been a part of, there’s a due diligence that you go through. You go through a due diligence to make sure you dot the I’s and cross the T’s.
You traded Mike Matheson and Colton Sceviour to Pittsburgh. Do you talk with coach Joel Quenneville before a deal like this?
Personnel decisions are made in the best interest of the Panthers and I absolutely kept Joel abreast of everything that was going on. But the decisions are made for the Panthers and are not based on any one person, one way or the other. But, yeah, I certainly got input from from Joel.
Looking at the moves you made to the front office — bringing in Rickey Dudley, Paul Fenton, Gregory Campbell, etc. — was it important to bring in some more “fresh eyes” to the organization?
As I had contemplated that this opportunity might present itself to me at some point, I had always thought about who might be available to support me.
There were a number of guys around the league who helped me: John Davidson, Jarmo (Kekalainen) did a hell of a job helping me along. Jarmo always made the point in telling me, ‘listen, don’t think you know everything.’
Surround yourself with good people. Look around the successful people, and they’re all surrounded by good people. So I always kind of thought, OK, well who’s out there?
Duds I have known for years and years. He’s like an encyclopedia of hockey, right? He is a guy who can help us on so many different levels.
He is so multifaceted in what he brings. He’ll probably do any number of things, he’ll do amateur (scouting), he’ll do pro. He can help with the coaches on the day-to-day, there’s so many different things he can do.
I’m sure if there is a specific need, I will apply him to that. If not, I’ll kind of spread him across the board. And some of it will be what he wants to do.
And Paul is similar. You know his experience and then his sort of pedigree with regard to the draft was something that I thought was particularly applicable in this instance.
Blake Geoffrion and Gregory Campbell are two guys who helped me in Cleveland and helped me build that and helped me start the development model. They really were significant contributors to the whole development end of the Columbus draft-and-development model. And so that was the thought process.
The draft is in a week. Who is running it?
I’m going to spearhead the draft. We’re going to do it collectively, but I will oversee it. I didn’t do that much amateur (scouting) so probably Jari (Kekalainen) will be the point guy. But we will be organizing it by committee. we’re having meetings all week.
You cannot speak on players with other teams, but have you started working on your own free agents yet?
I started reaching out to agents, am ticking off the boxes. I have been sort of apologizing to some of them saying, ‘look, sorry but I’m trying to do this in an orderly fashion. I don’t want to call and tell you nothing.’
So I’m trying to get my ducks in order so that when I do call the agents, I actually have some substance to deliver as part of my message.
Will you be making any offers to your free agents?
Potentially, yeah.
Hoffman, Dadonov …
I’m not going to comment individually, but I’m going through in an orderly fashion trying to get to everybody.
At the same time, trying to organize the depth charts, trying to organize the budget, trying to organize the what-ifs. If A then B, then C then D, you know?
MacKenzie Weegar is RFA. Any update?
Same thing. Going through the arb, going through the potential awards … my phone’s ringing off the hook and I’m trying to address as many things as I can.
The staff is here, we’re preparing for the draft. We’ve put in a lot of hours. And we’re prepared now to move forward in short order as far as the draft and reaching out to our own players. We are also ready to field calls when it comes to trades, free agents, all of that.