Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito details the building of the “communal” culture in the franchise. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)
NHLI via Getty Images
Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito is well aware they’re building something special in South Florida.
The Panthers are two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and have become South Florida’s favorite sports team in recent years. The winning culture that the franchise has built, combined with likable franchise faces in Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Brad Marchand and more have made being a Panthers fan in South Florida feel “communal.”
Zito, who has been with the Panthers since 2020 and has been the driving force behind building this roster, spoke of the evolution of “Panthers culture” in the past several years.
“There’s two layers to this, there’s exposing people to the game of hockey and then these new fans who actually see and like it,” said Zito in a one-on-one interview. “More and more kids are playing and we’re growing our game. But it’s blown up. I can reflect on a silly example, but the first couple of years I was here — and I’m on a smaller scale of exposure – I go to the grocery store, for sure, people are going to say something and the players more and more. The community has really embraced the Panthers.”
The biggest word that resonates with the feeling of being a Panthers fan that Zito is “communal.” He brings up this sense of community when pointing to an example of Florida’s first Stanley Cup parade back in 2024 under rain-soaked conditions on Fort Lauderdale beach.
“It was communal, it was community,” said Zito of what he sensed at the Panthers’ first Stanley Cup parade. “Everyone was just having a good time. It was a nice essay of the co-existence of everyone as one. That was a feeling of community and lots of fun. Which is something that (head coach) Paul Maurice says frequently, ‘I want you to work harder than you’ve ever worked, but I want you to have more fun than you’ve ever had.’ I think that defines our group. I think that defines our fan base as well. If you go to our games, it’s fun.”
Although the Panthers have won the Stanley Cup in each of the last two seasons, the building blocks began before that. Florida already had posted the best record in the NHL during the 2021-22 season, with a league-high 122 points.
However, it took some humbling in the playoffs and a blockbuster trade acquisition of Tkachuk before they’ve reached the level of becoming the NHL’s first dynasty in years. The scary part about the Panthers is that most of their key players are no older than the age of 30 – which means they have several years left in their primes.
When looking at the contract structures of their core players, most of them are locked in through the 2029-30 season – which means the Panthers aren’t going away anytime soon.
If you’re around the Panthers players and you speak to them, you sense the strong camaraderie that’s present within the organization. It’s a major reason why all of their core players have re-upped to long term contracts over the past couple of years, in an effort to continue playing together.
In other words, it feels like a brotherhood.
“It’s hard to describe without sounding like a salesman, if you’re around it and you get to spend any time with their interactions and you saw them together, it’s easily identifiable,” said Zito of the chemistry that the entire roster has. “You feel it when you’re around them. We have the good fortune of a lot of extraordinary people who pull out the best in each other. I don’t know of how many times I’ve been around someone who pulled out some of my better qualities. In that moment, that’s when I realized what’s going on here — this is awesome. That is the situation we’re presented with. Same with the coaching staff and the trainers and we’re blessed.”
Florida Panthers Auctioning Life-Sized Sculptures In Fight Against Cancer
The Panthers are doing amazing things on the ice, but they also regularly do amazing things off of it. The organization is frequently involved in charitable causes in the local community and they collaborate often with the American Cancer Society.
For one of their latest off-ice causes, the Panthers are working with American Cancer Society to drive resources towards the fight against cancer with the auction of “Panthers On The Prowl” statues. More than 20 life-sized Panthers statues are being auctioned on Charitybuzz, with all of them being designed and inspired by notable figures such as NHL great Wayne Gretzky, music icon Michael Buble and there’s one even inspired by Zito himself.
Wayne Gretzky’s “The Great One” statue.
Charitybuzz
The idea of the life-sized sculptures actually is a bit of a spin-off of something similar they did in Chicago with cow-sized sculptures at an art exhibit back in the early 2000’s around 2003, Zito said. The beginning of putting this auction together for the Panthers started last summer.
San Francisco 49ers Nick Bosa’s statue “Gold Rush.”
Charitybuzz
The auction runs through Friday, Feb. 6 with the goal of raising one million dollars in the fight against cancer.
“Let’s get people interested, let them personalize them to purchase them to make a million dollars,” said Zito of the auction for the objective in the fight against cancer. “In the course of that, there’s a local artist named Romero Britto, who is a global icon. He said, ‘Let me do one and we can auction it.’ Michael Buble did one. We decided to do around 20 personalized celebrity Panthers that we’re now auctioning.
“We gotta blow this thing up, how do we get the word out about the auction, let’s keep the accelerator down and keep this thing going to raise as much money as we can in the fight against cancer,” Zito continued.
When asked what is his favorite statue from the collection, Zito said “it’s hard to pick one” and focuses on the beauty of each sculpture and how it benefits a great cause.
“This is going to sound like such a campaign thing to say, but each one has a little bit of love in it,” said Zito. “When you think about it, some of them are silly and fun. But the intent is to get out and fight this disease. I do think Michael’s (Buble) is special. I think that one might be the most moving one to me and it’s beautiful as well. But there are no bad ones. It’s hard to pick one.
Michael Buble’s Florida Panthers “Forever Now” statue being sold on Charitybuzz.
Charitybuzz
Zito obviously is very passionate about this – you can hear the emotion in his voice as he speaks — as it benefits a great cause.
“When we were in that room with survivors and artists and family members, the care that went into the passion and creation, it was very special,” said Zito. “It’s truly been a labor of love and urgency. We’re blessed to be able to do it and it’s very important that we do it.
“I had an oncologist who is in the breast cancer field just tell me, ‘It’s guaranteed if you give me this money, I have doctors, I have facilities, we will save more lives guaranteed. We just need more money,’” Zito continued to say. “Taking on the responsbility to do it, I have a tremendous amount of work on my part. We can use the platform (to help) – it’s a gift really.”