Bill Zito knows what goes into creating a championship roster. He is the architect who has assembled this Florida Panthers team that has been to the Stanley Cup Final each of the past three years and won back-to-back titles.
While Zito is working his magic to have the Panthers in position to three-peat, something that hasn’t been done in the NHL’s salary cap era, he also has the opportunity to help create a championship team on an international level.
Zito is an assistant general manager for Team USA and will play a role in helping select the 25-player roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. The latest major step toward that came last week, when Team USA held its Olympic orientation camp in Plymouth, Michigan.
The two-day gathering was relatively informal. There was no organized on-ice activity. Rather, it served more as a team-building event and provided a glimpse at the talent the country has to choose from for the Olympics in February.
And Zito, whose tenure in the hockey world has come through the vantage point of an agent and front-office executive, is making sure to take in the whole experience.
“I never played in the NHL, and I was never in the Olympics,” Zito said. “To me, to even think about it, I get geeked out. To be there with all of those great players and coaches, and the beauty of it is we’re all good friends, so it’s almost like a family reunion where we get together.”
In total, 44 players were in attendance for the orientation camp, including 22 of the 23 players who were on Team USA for the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. The one notable absence was star Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk, who recently underwent surgery and will miss the start of the 2025-26 NHL season but anticipates being back for the Olympics.
Six players were already named to Team USA’s Olympic roster in June: Tkachuk, his brother Brady Tkachuk, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy. The other 19 will be decided in late December or early January.
There will be a lot to discuss during the next four months before deciding the final 19 players for the roster. The front office staff for Team USA that will be making those decisions includes general manager Bill Guerin along with assistant GMs Zito, Chris Drury and Tom Fitzgerald.
“Putting together teams and talking about players, seeing people put their egos aside, and seeing pretty strong-willed and opinionated people be willing to have discussions with others that probably would culminate in them not getting their way or not being hated in what they suggested, and being OK with it, and understanding and being open-minded and wanting to learn from others on the stand,” Zito said, “it’s like fantasy hockey 24/7 with wonderful people.”
Beyond Zito and Tkachuk, the Panthers figure to be well represented at the 2026 Olympics, the first one to include NHL players since 2014.
Three other current Panthers have already been named to Olympic rosters for their respective countries in Aleksander Barkov (Finland), Sam Reinhart (Canada) and Uvis Balinskis (Latvia).
Beyond them, Eetu Luostainen, Anton Lundell and Niko Mikkola seem like locks for Finland, as does Gustav Forsling for Sweden after all four played for their respective country in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe and Aaron Ekblad took part in Canada’s orientation camp in addition to Reinhart. Marchand, Bennett and Reinhart were part of Team Canada’s gold medal team at 4 Nations.
Seth Jones was part of Team USA’s orientation camp, and Tomas Nosek could also be a possibility for Czechia.