Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito greets fans upon arrival at Miami International Airport on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in Miami, after returning from Milan following the Americans’ gold-medal victory over Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy.
Alie Skowronski
askowronski@miamiherald.com
Florida Panthers president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Zito was still in the midst of the euphoria on Sunday, yet he was already thinking ahead.
Zito served as an assistant general manager for the United States men’s hockey team that had just won gold at the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1980 with a thrilling 2-1 overtime win against Canada in Milan. The team’s celebration lasted well through the night until their early morning flight on Monday, an 11-plus-hour trek to Miami.
It’s not lost on him what he just witnessed, what he helped create.
“It’s like, ‘Wow, are we lucky,’’ Zito said Tuesday from the Panthers’ practice complex at the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale. “So that’s really what you’re filled with, and then really an appreciation, honestly — I’m saying this sincerely — of what we have here, the similarities and how special our group [with the Panthers] is [with the United States team]. It’s invigorating, exciting, humbling, and just have a lot of real joy and appreciation for the players and getting a little reward like that.”
It’s also not lost on him how quickly he has to turn the page to his day job.
The Panthers resume their season on Thursday when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs, and they have an uphill climb to try to get back into the Stanley Cup playoffs and have a chance to compete for a third consecutive championship.
“Sunday night, I was already like, ‘How do we get guys back? What are we doing? What’s happening?’” Zito said. “Yeah, we’re ready to go. Of course, the coaching staff and the guys who weren’t over there have been practicing, and guys are trickling back into town, but we’re poised and ready to go.”
Florida Panthers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Zito arrives to loanDepot for his team’s Winter Classic outdoor hockey game against the New York Rangers on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, in Miami, Fla. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com
Florida has held three practices since Saturday but with what can be considered a relatively skeleton group.
That’s to be expected when the Panthers sent a team-high 10 players to the Olympics — Matthew Tkachuk playing for the United States, three each on Canada (Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Sam Reinhart) and Finland (Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola), Gustav Forsling for Sweden and two for Latvia (Uvis Balinskis and Sandis Vilmanis).
Vilmanis practiced on Tuesday. The rest most likely won’t take the ice until the team’s morning skate on Thursday but Zito and Panthers coach Paul Maurice both said they expect all 10 to be ready to go for the first game back of their 25-game sprint to finish the season.
And Florida needs it. The Panthers are eight points back of a wild card spot and need a strong showing early. The NHL trade deadline is at 3 p.m. March 6. How the Panthers fare in their five games before the deadline will tilt the direction in which the team goes in terms of trying to supplement the roster, staying pat or trading away players.
“It’s a very important time,” Zito said of the next week and a half. “We may have easy questions to answer at the end of it, we may have real difficult ones.
“We’re prepared, I think, to handle whatever scenario we’re dealt.”
Zito knows this team is capable of performing better than it has.
But he also understands the circumstances they have dealt with.
The Panthers have been without captain and top-line center Aleksander Barkov all season. They haven’t had fourth-line center Tomas Nosek for a game either. Tkachuk missed the first 47 games while recovering from offseason surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia. Veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov played just two games before sustaining a shoulder injury and forward Jonah Gadjovich has been out since late October. Defenseman Seth Jones has been out since Jan. 2 due to a broken collarbone sustained by blocking a shot during the Winter Classic.
It has been one hit after another.
“It’s exciting to consider what we might be if we are able to field the complete roster, a healthy roster,” Zito said. “Just see what we can be, what can be accomplished.”
Time is running out for that this season.
Thursday will be the start of the final push to see if there’s any chance for that to be a reality.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 1:03 PM.
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Miami Herald
Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.