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The craziest week of Bill Zito’s professional career is best illustrated by how few beers he drank out of the Stanley Cup.
He didn’t imbibe at all after his Florida Panthers edged the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 to win the franchise’s first championship last June — at least if you don’t count the various drinks poured over his head during the celebration inside Amerant Bank Arena.
While the players kept the party going all through the night and the following day, parading the Cup through the Elbo Room, across Fort Lauderdale Beach and even into the Atlantic Ocean, their general manager was back in the office working the phones.
Zito had no choice because of the abnormally late finish to the Final. The clock was already ticking loudly on some of the most important league business a front office faces each offseason.
“It was nuts,” Zito told The Athletic in an interview. “I remember catching myself the night of Game 7 driving home at 5 in the morning from the rink. At 7:30, I was here in the office and we had to get going.”
The Panthers won the Stanley Cup on June 24. Zito traveled across the continent and oversaw the team’s draft table in Las Vegas on June 28 and 29. The championship parade was held back at home June 30 in the pouring rain along A1A.
And when free agency opened on July 1, Florida said goodbye to two top-six defensemen, its backup goaltender, four of its bottom-six forwards and virtually all of the depth that fueled the championship run.
Ten months on, the Panthers are still thriving. They’re one of eight NHL teams standing as the second round gets underway against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday, and oddsmakers have them favoured to reach a third straight Stanley Cup Final.
Basically, the top of Florida’s lineup made sure the bottom didn’t fall out after last summer’s exodus.
“It’s the talent level of the core and then the character of the core,” Zito said.
Ironically, the next opponent in their way was a beneficiary of last year’s Stanley Cup run and the salary-cap squeeze that followed. The Leafs signed veteran defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson away from Florida on July 1 as part of a significant blue-line overhaul and brought in goaltender Anthony Stolarz the following day.
Stolarz was signed to platoon with Joseph Woll and wound up seizing the No. 1 job with a superlative regular season. He played every minute of a Round 1 victory over the Ottawa Senators.
“I had to run to Staples the day after the parade to get the contract signed,” said Stolarz, who knew he wouldn’t be back with the Panthers after going through an exit meeting. “Everything happened fast.”
Before the summer was out, the Leafs also grabbed fourth-liner Steven Lorentz from their Atlantic Division rival. Lorentz was in and out of the lineup for the Panthers, playing 16 of 24 games during last year’s playoffs, but carved out an everyday role in Toronto and now plays with Scott Laughton and Calle Järnkrok on the team’s identity line. Lorentz credits his former coach, Paul Maurice, for helping him take that step.
Steven Lorentz celebrates after winning the Stanley Cup with the Panthers last June. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
“I think I truly learned under him how to be a full-time NHL player and what I had to do every single day to buy in,” said Lorentz. “It took time. I was scratched early on in the season. He didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear, he told me what I needed to hear, and that was ‘You’ve got to get harder. You’re not going to be a guy that’s going to go out and try and score a hat trick after being out of the lineup for a few games.’
“‘You just have to play consistently: Hit, finish your checks and then try to turn pucks over,’ and I think that’s what I’ve had success (with) here this season.”
In order to try to steel themselves to go toe-to-toe with the best, Toronto clearly didn’t mind borrowing from the best. The Leafs were aggressive in their pursuit of those Panthers free agents, plus shutdown defenceman Chris Tanev, whom they signed away from a Dallas Stars team coming off a trip to the Western Conference final.
Meanwhile, Ekman-Larsson said the scale of Florida’s Stanley Cup celebrations in the last week of June outpaced anything he’d seen back home during the famous midsommar ragers held across Sweden at that same time.
As he recalls it, there wasn’t much talk about the impending business at hand, even with a roster full of players about to hit free agency. He landed in Toronto on a four-year deal carrying a $3.5 million cap hit.
“We had three or four days that we were just spending time together and partying and having fun,” Ekman-Larsson said. “Then it was time to pack up the house.
“You know what? It was the perfect time to pack up the stuff and kind of think about what’s next, what’s ahead. I’m always a guy that goes with the gut feeling and that’s what I went with this time, too.”
In addition to the free agents that landed in Toronto, the Panthers also saw second-pair defenseman Brandon Montour land a $50 million, seven-year contract with the Seattle Kraken. Depth forwards Kevin Stenlund (Utah HC), Ryan Lomberg (Calgary Flames), Vladimir Tarasenko (Detroit Red Wings) and Josh Mahura (Seattle) all found new jobs in the opening days of free agency, while Nick Cousins left for the Ottawa Senators in August.
They all enjoyed a send-off together during a victory parade that produced a massive turnout despite a downpour. It was their final chance to get lost in the moment before reality hit.
“At that time, I didn’t really think about anything other than having a good time,” said Ekman-Larsson. “It was special. There were a lot of fans there and it was so much fun. It’s a memory for life.”
Zito was at the parade, too, although once again he didn’t allow himself to be engulfed by the party raging around him. In those final hours before free agency, he was still on the clock.
“You had this really special moment where an entire community decided to go out in the rain and have a beer and celebrate each other,” Zito said. “I remember having my phone on, not having a beer and not being fully immersed in the celebration because we had work to do.
“So that was weird.”
The first call he made the morning after the Cup win was to Craig Oster, Sam Reinhart’s agent. Reinhart scored 67 goals as a pending UFA, including the game-winner in Game 7 against Edmonton.
The Panthers managed to sign Reinhart to an eight-year extension carrying an $8.625 million cap hit the morning of July 1, keeping a cornerstone piece in place. The rest of that day was largely dedicated to goodbyes.
While Zito had hoped to keep the door open to more returns, he was also realistic. A former player agent before he made the jump to management, he understood how much opportunity knocked elsewhere.
“They’re not bad guys,” said Zito. “(You might say) ‘Oh, he left for the money.’ Well, of course he’s going to. He didn’t leave for 10 bucks, he left for $50 million dollars. While you lament not being able to keep everybody, you understand that it’s a reality of a cap system, and you just have to keep going and wish everyone the best and be happy for them.”
Those warm feelings will be put on hold for the next two weeks with a berth in the Eastern Conference final on the line.
This is a series in which players are not only on a first-name basis with each other, they’ve also recently shared the rare joy that can only come from enduring a difficult two-month run together that ends with a champagne-soaked championship.
“The hockey world is not that big,” Ekman-Larsson said. “You have good buddies, but when you step on the ice, it’s business, and that’s what I love about the league.
“You battle hard, then after, in the handshake line, it’s respect.”
(Photo of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Anton Lundell: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)
