Panthers’ Bill Zito misses out on GM of the Year Award for second time in three years
Bill Zito has been a finalist for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award in two of his three seasons with the Florida Panthers, but still can’t take home the hardware.
For the second time in three years, Zito lost out on the trophy despite being one of three finalists for the award.
Stars general manager Jim Nill won the Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award instead after Dallas finished second in the Central Division and made the Western Conference finals. Zito finished third with Bruins general manager Don Sweeney finishing second.
Zito’s case for the award was mostly based on the Panthers’ success in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs. Unlike with every other NHL award, voting for the Jim Gregory Award takes place after the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, meaning the winner is almost always an executive whose team makes at least the NHL Conference Finals. It’s how Zito became a finalist despite Florida barely sneaking into the Cup playoffs and finishing the regular season with only the 17th best record in the NHL.
Although their points plummeted from 122 in the 2021-22 NHL season all the way down to 92 last year, the Panthers reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 27 years and two offseason additions fueled their run through the playoffs.
First, he hired coach Paul Maurice, who has more losses than any other coach in NHL history, because he thought a more experienced, defensive-minded coach was what his high-powered team needed. A few weeks later, he traded star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau and star defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to the Flames for Matthew Tkachuk, breaking up the core of one of the best teams in the NHL because he felt the superstar right wing was an even better fit with this roster and would bring an edge the Panthers needed.
Even though Zito was vindicated by Florida’s run to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, a disappointing regular season was still part of the equation in trying to sort out the winner of this award and Zito’s case wasn’t quite strong enough.
