George Richards, FHN Publisher
Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito is going to be busy the next few weeks as he and his management and scouting team really begin digging deep into potential players who may be available at the upcoming NHL Trade Deadline.
Zito and his small army will not just be looking at tape or scouring through the numbers.
They will be looking for players they think will fit in with what is already a pretty good Panthers team.
Zito has spent his time in Florida carefully crafting a team that not only has plenty of talent, but works well together on and off the ice.
Throughout this season, the Panthers have been quick to tell anyone who would listen how close this team is. It is obvious to anyone who has watched this team for even a little bit how much fun they are having just about every night.
And Zito knows the wrong addition — or subtraction — could affect things in a most negative way.
“The thing that really resonates is I believe we have a true team,’’ Zito told Florida Hockey Now on Friday afternoon.
“And I also believe that the way to win is to have a team in which the best collective effort is what is going to win. The important step toward our ultimate prize is to have a team in that room and I think we have accomplished that.
“They play for each other, they enjoy each other’s company. And it’s a real family atmosphere in that room with the training staff, the equipment staff, the coaching staff. It’s great. I think that’s fantastic.
“We’re doing a lot of work making sure that should someone come into the room, they will be a fit with our team.’’
Zito spoke about a variety of things with FHN including how he thinks his team has meshed, the play — and future contract negotiations — of Jonathan Huberdeau, and his thoughts on going into the trade deadline next month.
Read on for more:
The Panthers came into the All-Star break atop the NHL leader board with the league’s leading scorer in Huberdeau.
Zito knows you aren’t successful without talent, something the Panthers have in abundance.
But you cannot stress the quality of the people working together enough.
The Panthers genuinely enjoy coming to work each day and that teamwork is evident on a nightly basis.
“When you look back at the teams you were on that were real successful — from little league to high school — it was a real team,’’ Zito said.
“When I look back on the ones we were on and that’s the common denominator.
“We certainly have different individuals different personalities, different cultures. And somehow it’s working. And that’s a testament to the character of the guys.”
Zito will be buying at the trade deadline although it is not known how the market is going to shape up this year.
Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito speaks to fans at a pregame event at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise last weekend. // Roger Lee Photographer (561) 866-2000
Since Zito took over for Dale Tallon in 2020, he has shown he is not afraid to make a big move. His first trade was sending Mike Matheson to Pittsburgh for Patric Hornqvist, after all.
In his first trade deadline, he acquired Sam Bennett and Brandon Montour not to mention Nikita Gusev. He also got rid of Brett Connolly’s contract and found a pretty good defenseman in Lucas Carlsson (although Riley Stillman was a casualty in the salary dump).
Last summer, he sent a first round pick and goalie prospect Devon Levi to Buffalo for Sam Reinhart.
It takes a lot of work to make these kind of deals go down — and as Zito stresses, it’s not always about the talent or stats of a player. If they don’t think a certain player would be a fit with the Panthers, they stay away.
And, even if the Panthers find a player they really want, he may not be available or within the team’s price range.
Making deals is a cutthroat business in the high-stakes NHL game.
It’s not like you can find a team’s need on the shelves at Publix.
“You’re not going to a grocery store or a menu and selecting ala carte,” Zito said.
“You’re not saying ‘I need a first-line center, I’ll just grab one of those.’ You are addressing acquisitions at the trade deadline as a function of availability, right? What’s out there? When you see what’s out there, then you can adjust, adapt and see if that fits.”
A lot of players who would be available are so due to their contractual status. Players going into unrestricted free agency are usually the easiest to acquire.
The Panthers have a couple such players on their own roster in Mason Marchment and Maxim Mamin, players who have exceeded expectations.
Have the Panthers reached out to talk about a contract extension with either?
“We will talk to everybody at the appropriate time,’’ Zito said. “There’s so many balls in the air right now. So yeah, we’ll talk to the players and the agents at the appropriate time.”
Huberdeau, the NHL leader in scoring, is also due a big contract and could sign an extension this summer.
Florida signed Sasha Barkov to a franchise-record, eight-year, $80 million deal in October and some think Huberdeau would be expecting something considerable.
Does that keep Zito up at night?
“I don’t think worry is the right word,’’ Zito said. “I just know that we’ll do our best and I hope things work out. Just like Sasha, right?”
Huberdeau has been extremely impressive the past two seasons as his game has taken to new heights.
Not only is he scoring at a career clip, he has become a more all-around player and his leadership stature has grown.
“I’ve only been here a short period of time,’’ Zito said. “From the outside looking in, you were aware of his skill and his hockey sense. Pretty much from the moment I got here, I just saw this tremendously skilled guy. What did we start last year — 7-0? So it was pretty good from the start.
“He is hungry. … To me, he is just a fantastic hockey player. Since I have been here, the guy has been fantastic and he’s still fantastic. I can tell you the outside perception of him was that he is a pretty good hockey player.”
While Zito calls Barkov the team’s leader, Huberdeau’s place within the team has grown over the years.
“He has been our rock,’’ Zito said of Barkov. “It’s a 200-foot presence, his leadership in the room. Even when he was hurt, his work ethic and his diligence — I can’t say more about the way the guy works off the ice.
“I would extend that kind of leadership to Huby as well.
“You guys see this wizard. But behind the scenes, there’s all the things that he does for the team. He rallies the guys to do things together, ‘hey, let’s all go to the football game!’ He makes sure no one gets left out. He looks after the young guys and is a real friend to the young guys. He does a lot, an awful lot, and has really helped us become a true team.
“If you ask the callups who the two superstars on this team were, they wouldn’t know. You couldn’t pick them out. If we are all having dinner or grabbing a beer and I asked ‘which of these two guys are the NHL superstars,’ you would not know based on how they act.”
Both Barkov and Huberdeau live on the east side so they will have a shorter commute to the team’s new training facility being built at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale’s Holiday Park.
The Panthers plan on having the new twin surface hockey palace open this summer — just in time for the start of training camp.
“It’s going to be great. There will be so many things we can do, it gives us so much flexibility,’’ Zito said. “We can expand our footprint throughout the community, really grow hockey and do so much more in that community. We’re going to be able to pull in more kids, expose more people to the game.
“We have a lot of a lot of the players who live in that area so they are excited about the new facility. We will have two sheets there, three sheets in Coral Springs and one at the arena we can use. That really helps with big tournaments and other things we can do to grow the game.
“It’s a showcase for hockey but also a showcase for Fort Lauderdale. We’re really excited about it. It’s going to be nice.”
As for the status of interim coach Andrew Brunette, Zito spoke to FHN about that earlier in the week.
He seems pretty happy with how Brunette has grown as a coach in the few months he has been in his new job.
“I can tell you, I am not in the market for a coach right now,’’ Zito said. “We will address everything at the end of the season.
“But I reiterate, I am not looking. I am pretty comfortable with our All-Star coach.”
FLORIDA PANTHERS ON DECK
FLORIDA PANTHERS AT CAROLINA HURRICANES
- WHEN: Feb, 16, 7:30 p.m.
- WHERE: PNC Arena, Raleigh, N.C.
- TICKETS: CLICK HERE
- TV/STREAMING: TNT
- RADIO: WQAM 560-AM
- Last season: Carolina won 6-0-2
- All-time regular season series: Carolina leads 69-45-9, 11 ties
- This season: @Florida 5, Carolina 2 (Nov. 6), Florida 4, @Carolina 3 OT (Jan. 8)