Florida Panthers: Top Front Office in the NHL? Peers Say Yes

The Florida Panthers have been the most successful organization in the NHL over the past three seasons, making it to the Stanley Cup Final three straight years and winning the last two championships.

So, it would stand to reason that the Panthers have the best front office in the league, right?

Apparently their peers agree.

On Wednesday, The Athletic released its poll of 37 NHL front office members spanning 27 different teams — they say it was “general managers, assistant GMs, senior advisers and scouting directors” — on the top five front offices in the game.

The Panthers took the top spot.

And it was not even close.

Per The Athletic, the Panthers received 25 of the 37 first-place votes (which were worth 10 points each) and ended with 311 points.

One voter left the Panthers completely off their ballot. It could have been someone from the Panthers themselves.

Or not.

The Dallas Stars got six first-place votes and 212 total points.

The Tampa Bay Lightning (97 points), Winnipeg Jets (77), and Vegas Golden Knights (76) rounded out the top five.

According to The Athletic, the poll was conducted from Sept. 1 until Sunday.

This is the second such poll The Athletic has done; last year, the Panthers finished third in the voting with nine first-place votes out of 40.

The voting was done anonymously so executives could speak freely about teams.

“As unlikeable as they are,” one Eastern Conference executive said per the report, “you have to give them credit.”

An assistant GM of a Western Conference team gave the Panthers a pretty glowing review.

Why not?

“Bill and his team have done an exemplary job in pro scouting, asset management and team building,” the executive said. “They find undervalued players and pay rock-bottom acquisition costs.

“It’s one thing to consistently find value like they have. But they know who their team is and how they want to play, and they’ve done a better job than most in supporting their superstars with like-minded and similar-styled support players.”

General manager Bill Zito, who has been a finalist for the NHL GM of the Year Award four times in his five completed seasons but has yet to win, has completely transformed the Florida roster since taking over for Dale Tallon in 2020.

Florida currently has four players — Sasha Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Eetu Luostarinen — remaining from the 2020 team that lost to the New York Islanders in the 2020 Toronto bubble.

Luostarinen did not play in those Toronto games.

Since then, Zito and his front office have traded for the likes of Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Seth Jones, Brad Marchand, Brandon Montour, and Patrik Hornqvist.

Florida signed Carter Verhaeghe, Evan Rodrigues, Niko Mikkola, Anthony Duclair, Ryan Lomberg, A.J. Greer, Jonah Gadjovich, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nate Schmidt, Anthony Stolarz, Alex Lyon, and Dmitry Kulikov.

The team also drafted Anton Lundell and Mackie Samoskevich, while finding Gus Forsling (waivers) and Uvis Balinskis (Czech league).

Most of those players are also sticking around; the Panthers have 11 players signed through the 2029-30 season with Bobrovsky due a new contract.

Feel free to point out those who we have missed.

The Panthers have also had three coaches during that span with Andrew Brunette guiding the team to the 2022 Presidents’ Trophy after replacing Joel Quenneville upon his forced resignation eight games into the season.

Paul Maurice was brought on to coach the team in 2022 — and the Panthers have not had a long offseason since.

ON DECK: GAME No. 9

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS at FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise 
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
• Radio: WQAM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Season Series — At Florida: Thursday. At Pittsburgh: April 4, April 5.
• Last Season: Panthers won 2-1
• All-time Regular Season Series: Penguins lead 57-39-9, 4 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. Vegas Golden Knights, 6 p.m.