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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)<\/p>\n
NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito is well aware they\u2019re building something special in South Florida.<\/p>\n
The Panthers are two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and have become South Florida\u2019s 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 \u201ccommunal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zito, who has been with the Panthers since 2020 and has been the driving force behind building this roster, spoke of the evolution of \u201cPanthers culture\u201d in the past several years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s two layers to this, there\u2019s exposing people to the game of hockey and then these new fans who actually see and like it,\u201d said Zito in a one-on-one interview. \u201cMore and more kids are playing and we\u2019re 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 \u2013 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest word that resonates with the feeling of being a Panthers fan that Zito is \u201ccommunal.\u201d He brings up this sense of community when pointing to an example of Florida\u2019s first Stanley Cup parade back in 2024 under rain-soaked conditions on Fort Lauderdale beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was communal, it was community,\u201d said Zito of what he sensed at the Panthers\u2019 first Stanley Cup parade. \u201cEveryone 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\u2019ve ever worked, but I want you to have more fun than you\u2019ve ever had.\u2019 I think that defines our group. I think that defines our fan base as well. If you go to our games, it’s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
However, it took some humbling in the playoffs and a blockbuster trade acquisition of Tkachuk before they\u2019ve reached the level of becoming the NHL\u2019s 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 \u2013 which means they have several years left in their primes.<\/p>\n
When looking at the contract structures of their core players, most of them are locked in through the 2029-30 season \u2013 which means the Panthers aren\u2019t going away anytime soon.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re around the Panthers players and you speak to them, you sense the strong camaraderie that\u2019s present within the organization. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
In other words, it feels like a brotherhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to describe without sounding like a salesman, if you\u2019re around it and you get to spend any time with their interactions and you saw them together, it\u2019s easily identifiable,\u201d said Zito of the chemistry that the entire roster has. \u201cYou feel it when you\u2019re around them. We have the good fortune of a lot of extraordinary people who pull out the best in each other. I don\u2019t know of how many times I\u2019ve been around someone who pulled out some of my better qualities. In that moment, that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florida Panthers Auctioning Life-Sized Sculptures In Fight Against Cancer<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n