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      Quenneville Availability: 9/3/20

      SUNRISE, Fla. - It was roughly a decade ago that Bill Zito first popped up on Joel Quenneville's radar.
      At the time, Quenneville was the head coach of a soon-to-be dynasty in Chicago, while Zito was making a name for himself in NHL circles as the founder of one the league's top agencies, ACME World Sports.
      Now working side by side in South Florida, Quenneville, a future Hall of Famer who is coming off his first season behind the bench with the Panthers, said he's looking forward to finally getting an opportunity to team up with Zito, who was introduced as the 11th general manager in franchise history on Wednesday.

      "I look forward to getting to know him a lot better. I probably coached a lot of his players. I don't know if that's good or bad," Quenneville said with a chuckle during a Zoom teleconference on Thursday. "We've certainly got a lot of things to do]. We're looking forward to getting more familiar with each other in terms of what we are, what we're really looking for in identifying players and how we can get better."
      Likewise, Zito said he's itching to pick Quenneville's brain in the coming weeks and months.
      "It is humbling to even think about working with Joel," Zito said of the three-time Stanley Cup champion head coach. "I was still an agent when Chicago won their first Cup in 2010 and had some players on that team. I spent a lot of time watching them. I have nothing but the utmost respect [for him], and the excitement to learn from him."
      Prior to joining the Panthers, Zito was serving as the vice president of hockey operations in Columbus, a role he stepped into last summer after initially joining the Blue Jackets as an assistant general manager in 2013. From 2015-19, he also cut his teeth as the general manager of the club's AHL affiliate in Cleveland.
      In his first season running the show in the AHL, Zito helped guide the Monsters to the 2016 Calder Cup.
      "We're happy to have him join the Panther organization," Quenneville said. "He's excited as heck. He's been looking for this opportunity for some time now. I think he's got a really good feel for the league, players, the situation as far as where we're at. I think he's excited to welcome the challenge.
      [Territory Talk: Florida Panthers Podcast

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      "He's been around some coaches, he's been around players, and he's been around management putting teams together in Columbus. He did a fine job with the big club as well as Cleveland. Here we are in a situation where he's excited to put it all together and get us back to being a playoff contender."
      Given his diverse background in hockey, Quenneville said Zito is coming in with a "fresh look" at things.
      "We're not sure exactly what the top priorities are going to be, but I think the bottom line is that we want to get better as a team across the board," Quenneville said. "I think he's got a real good feel for players in the league. How he's going to set up the structure of the organization."
      As they begin their new partnership within the Panthers front office, Quenneville said the symbiotic relationship between himself and Zito will boil down to two very key factors: trust and communication.
      "You don't have to agree with everything, but you march forward together in unison as far as how you expect to be moving forward when you're looking at the next decision," Quenneville said. "He's the one exploring and doing the talking and things. As a coaching staff, we're here to coach and be supportive in any way that we can to Bill, and I'm sure Bill's idea is exactly the same as helping and supporting the coaching staff as well."
      Going 35-26-8 before the NHL season was paused due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Panthers entered the NHL's "Return to Play" tournament as the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference, but were bounced from the best-of-five Stanley Cup Qualifiers by the seventh-seeded Islanders in four games.
      With a foundation built around several young stars such as Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad already in place, Quenneville said he's eager to see how Zito adjusts the roster going into the 2020-21 campaign and beyond as the organization aims to become a perennial playoff contender.
      Like the ending of Casablanca, this looks like "the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
      "I'm sure there's a lot of work ahead of us and him and putting it all together," Quenneville said. "I look forward to his new ideas, how he sees the game, what he's looking for and what he wants. I think I'm pretty flexible are far as being able to work with different people. His enthusiasm is very high-end."