Bill Zito is the architect that has built the Florida Panthers into back-to-back Stanley Cup champions and has the team in position to continue contending for years to come.

But that, apparently, still hasn’t been enough for him to be named the league’s top general manager.

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Zito finished second in voting for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, which was announced Friday on Day 1 of the NHL Draft in Los Angeles. The Dallas Stars’ Jim Nill won the award for a third consecutive season.

Zito, who has been a finalist each of the past three years and four times total in his five seasons with the Panthers, received 12 first-place votes and was on 30 of 42 total ballots. Voting was done by NHL general managers along with a panel of league executives, print and broadcast media after the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Under Zito’s direction, the Panthers have turned into consistent winners and are showing no signs of stopping with the majority of the team’s core inked to long-term deals.

After the team agreed to terms Friday with Sam Bennett on an eight-year deal, Florida now has eight key players under contract through at least the 2029-30 season.

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Three of those players — forwards Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe — signed their extensions either last offseason or at the start of the season. Panthers coach Paul Maurice, who was in the final year of his deal, also signed a five-year contract extension during season.

This year, Zito also had to restock his roster after losing several key players — most notably defensemen Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson plus depth forwards Kevin Stenlund, Ryan Lomberg, Nick Cousins, Steven Lorentz and Kyle Okposo — from last season’s Stanley Cup champion team. He did that by signing defenseman Nate Schmidt and forwards A.J. Greer, Jesper Boqvist, Tomas Nosek.

Zito then struck gold at the trade deadline, acquiring defenseman Seth Jones plus forwards Brad Marchand and Nico Sturm along with backup goaltender Vitek Vanecek to fortify the roster for another playoff push.

It led to Florida winning its second consecutive Stanley Cup, becoming just the seventh team in the Expansion Era to do so.