Florida Panthers close to hiring Blue Jackets executive Bill Zito as new GM, report
The Florida Panthers are reportedly about to have a new general manager and Dale Tallon’s replacement has long been considered one of the NHL executives best poised to make the leap to a GM job.
Bill Zito, who has been part of the Columbus Blue Jackets organization since 2013 and the general manager of AHL Cleveland since 2015, is heading to South Florida as the 11th general manager in Panthers history, Sportsnet reported Tuesday.
Florida is expected to officially announce the hire Wednesday.
A Milwaukee native, Zito played for the Yale Bulldogs, then founded one of hockey’s most powerful agencies.
He joined Columbus’ front office in 2013 and became a key fixture in the Blue Jackets’ development of young players, running the Cleveland Monsters, who won the American Hockey League in 2016 when they were called the Lake Erie Monsters.
With Zito’s help, the Blue Jackets reached the Stanley Cup playoffs for the fourth consecutive season this year after qualifying just twice in their first 15 seasons of existence.
Homegrown talent has been key to Columbus’ success in this time period. Two of the Blue Jackets’ five All-Stars the past three seasons came through Cleveland and 11 players on current roster were drafted by the team while Zito was part of the organization.
Florida has struggled to develop homegrown talent beyond defenseman Aaron Ekblad, center Aleksander Barkov and All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau, all of whom were top-three picks for the Panthers.
Zito, 55, is Florida’s second major addition from Columbus in as many offseasons. Last year, the Panthers signed goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to a seven-year, $70 million deal after he won a pair of Vezina Trophies while playing in Ohio.
Zito replaces Tallon, who spent 10 years in the role while failing to lead the Panthers beyond the first round of the Cup playoffs and only even qualifying three times.
This season, Florida fell short of the traditional 16-team postseason after losing to the New York Islanders in the qualifying round last month.
The Panthers parted ways with Tallon, whose contract was expiring, three days later. The NHL has since opened up an investigation into Tallon over the alleged use of a racial slur while he was with the team in Toronto for the expanded postseason earlier this summer.
