LAS VEGAS – Bill Zito has one word to describe his week.
“Busy.”
No kidding.
Just a few days after hoisting the Stanley Cup over his head at Amerant Bank Arena, the Florida Panthers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager sat at a podium at Sphere in Las Vegas just before the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft kicked off on Friday.
On Sunday, he’ll be back in Fort Lauderdale at the team’s championship parade.
On Monday, he’ll be manning the War Room on the first day of free agency.
No rest for the champions.
“It’s been crazy,” said Zito, flashing a big smile as he opened his media availability. “I joked to someone that I felt like a wedding planner, where you’re just trying to make sure that whatever happens next is as good as it can be for the players so they can really enjoy it.”
From the draft to free agency and everything in between, continue below for key updates from Zito.
On planning for the draft and free agency during the run to the Stanley Cup
“All through the playoffs, you work. It was a little bit probably less efficient the deeper we went, but we had prepared. We had the luxury of last year’s experience [going to the Stanley Cup Final], knowing we have to stay on this, at least on the pro side. A lot of that work had been done in advance.”
On where contract talks are with pending free agent Sam Reinhart
“I don’t want to say anything other than we really hope to have him back. We’re trying to keep as many of the guys as we possibly can. I’m optimistic, and we’ll see.”
On how he’s managing going into free agency with double-digit free agents
“You can make fun of me later, but it’s like when you go fishing. I’m going to go fish over here, but there’s a lot of boats. I don’t know. For the most part, we plan it out in advance. We do our thing and whatever happens, happens. We have a real solid core, I think. I’m hopeful we can keep as many of the guys that want to be there and keep going.”
On the possibility of some players testing free agency
“We’re going to spend to the cap. I’m going to spend it all. If you want this and we don’t have it, we can’t manufacture it. It’s frustrating. It’s harder, perhaps. There’s really nothing you can do.”
On finding time to enjoy winning the Stanley Cup in the midst of a busy week
“That first night was surreal. I can’t express how much better it was than I ever could’ve imagined. The last few days have kind of been a pain [smiles]. It’s just hard. I mean, it’s not hard. There’s people working hard every single day, but it’s challenging. You’re trying to be the wedding planner and make sure that the guys have the Cup things, they’re OK and everyone is all right. Then you handle free agency and prepare for the draft.”
On the wild journey the Stanley Cup has been on the past few days in South Florida
“To be honest, and this shows how busy we’ve been, I haven’t had a chance to go through just regular Twitter to find out what’s going on in the world. I was fortunate as an agent to experience it 20 times through my clients, so I sort of knew and was able to anticipate what was going to happen with the guys. It’s really fun. It’s neat to see the Cup in these new environments and the power that it has. It’s South Florida. It’s Broward County. People are losing their marbles. It’s the first time they’ve seen it. It’s beautiful and majestic. It has that energy. It’s just a hunk of silver, but somehow it isn’t. That’s really been fun. We had a coaches’ dinner for a couple hours. I think the players napped [smiles]. We were on the intercoastal, and boats came by. All the sudden they see it and they know. They circle back and get on the radio. All of the sudden it’s a boat parade. It was really neat.”
On what it means for Broward County to get to experience winning the Stanley Cup
“I think Broward County is a special place. I’ve only been here four years, but I know it’s a place you can live in and very quickly call it home. You can very quickly develop a pride of, ‘Yeah, we live here. It’s awesome.’ It’s important for the fans. The feeling certainly around this is that we’re all in ,and the community has a little bit of ownership of it.”
On the importance of finding players later in the draft with five picks on Day 2
“That’s it. That’s the lifeline. It’s something that we have to pay attention to. I have such an appreciation for our scouting staff that works its tail off. The last few years we’ve been gutted [through trades] and we have some holes. It’s important.”
