It’s over.
No, not the Stanley Cup Final, although that’s over, too. Congratulations to the Florida Panthers, who narrowly held off Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, avoiding a historic collapse and capturing the franchise’s first championship. It caps off a three-year stretch that saw the Panthers win the 2022 Presidents’ Trophy and follow it up with back-to-back Eastern Conference championships. With a Stanley Cup banner now set to fly in Florida, it’s been a truly dominant stretch, one that’s worthy of all the praise that will be thrown its way in the days and weeks ahead.
No, what’s over is the narrative. You know the one, about how winning NHL teams have to be built. You’re familiar with all the beats. Let’s recite them together.
The salary cap makes trading too hard.
Free agency is a fool’s game.
This is a draft-and-develop league.
You don’t make a change just for the sake of making a change.
You can’t do anything during the season, because it’s too complicated.
You bottom out, you hope for a few lottery wins and you draft your core. Then you stick with it, with maybe a few small moves around the margins, because that’s all you can do in the modern NHL, and anyone who tries to tell you differently just doesn’t get it.
And most importantly: Your favorite team’s GM has a hard job. Don’t expect too much. Go easy on him. He’s doing his best, even if his best looks an awful lot like always taking the path of least resistance.
We’ve heard some variation of that story for years, from all around the league. We got it from the GMs themselves, obviously. But we also got it from the broadcasters and the insiders and the beat writers, who’ve always been a little too eager to accept it. And these days we even hear it from the fans, many of whom have internalized this idea so thoroughly that they’ll get legitimately angry at any suggestions that their team should do … well, anything.
It’s too hard, guys. Be reasonable.
And then along came the Florida Panthers to call B.S. on the whole charade.
Let’s start with the core. Yes, they bottomed out and drafted Aaron Ekblad with the No. 1 pick in 2014. In hindsight, he wasn’t the best player in that draft, or even all that close, but he’s been a reliable top-pair guy ever since. And they hit a moonshot home run with Sasha Barkov, picked No. 2 in 2013.
But as far as the draft goes, that’s pretty much it. The only other regular on the playoff roster who was acquired through the draft was Anton Lundell. (They also drafted Dmitry Kulikov back in 2009, but he had stops with seven NHL teams before returning to Florida this season.) The rest of the roster was pieced together in all those ways that are supposed to be impossible, or at least unreasonable.
Big-ticket free agents? That would be Sergei Bobrovsky, the veteran who got the second-biggest salary of the cap era among goalies, a contract that seemed like an overpay until he re-emerged as a Vezina candidate over the last two years.
Panthers GM Bill Zito wasn’t timid in acquiring Sam Reinhart, who scored 57 goals this season, from the Sabres in 2021. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Midseason trades? They weren’t “too complicated” for Bill Zito in 2021 when he acquired Brandon Montour and Sam Bennett, two deadline rentals who became part of the long-term plan.
A few months after those two moves, Zito landed Sam Reinhart from the Buffalo Sabres for a first and a top prospect. It was a risky win-now move, with no guarantees they’d keep Reinhart for more than one season; a timid GM could have talked themselves into a more patient approach. Zito wasn’t timid, and he got a 57-goal scorer because of it.
And then there’s the big one: The Matthew Tkachuk trade, a true blockbuster from the 2022 offseason. Remember the context there — with Tkachuk making clear that he wanted out of Calgary, a handful of teams lined up to hem and haw about just how much they could reasonably give up for a potential franchise player. Then Zito elbowed his way to the front of the line with a monster offer, one that felt too good to be true for the Flames. It cost him a 100-point forward and one of his best defensemen along with a first-round pick that still hasn’t even come due yet. The hockey world was shocked by how much the Panthers gave up. Anyone think they’d like a do-over right now?
Zito’s also had a knack for finding prime value around the edges, like signing Carter Verhaeghe as a free agent and plucking Gustav Forsling off waivers. Those moves matter, obviously. But the story of this Panthers championship is the story of a team that’s been willing to make big, gutsy moves. The exact sort of moves that most teams don’t seem to have the stomach for.
And yes, there are a million other excuses you could offer about why your team couldn’t be expected to conduct business this way. The weather is warmer. The taxes are lower. Players like Tkachuk are never available, except when they are. What if those moves hadn’t worked? What then?
It’s the sort of pushback we’re used to hearing. Believe me, your favorite team’s front office knows it well, and they’re really hoping you’re lining up to recite it in their defense.
The alternative is that you, or the media, or (heaven forbid) the owner might look at everything the Panthers have spent the last few years doing and wonder if the GM who’s making millions really does have such a tough job; that the easy way is the only way.
To be clear, none of this means the long view can’t lead to success, or even championships. A three-year plan can work. A five-year plan can work. A Steve Yzerman in Detroit plan can work. Maybe this time next year, we’re talking about a Cup champion who did the patient draft-and-develop thing, stayed laser-focused on the long-term plan, didn’t take any chances, and saw it all pay off in a parade.
It could happen. There’s more than one way to win a championship.
But that’s the point the Panthers have just proven: There’s more than one way. Timid, conservative and patient is one way. It’s not the only one, no matter how many times you’ve been scolded about it.
That’s worth keeping in mind, especially right now, as the NHL embarks on a ridiculously condensed offseason that will see most of the action play out over the next week or so. If you’re a fan of one of the many teams that fell short of expectations this year, this is what you’ve been waiting for. This is the time for your team to get to work and make the sort of big, bold moves that can change a franchise’s trajectory.
Some of them will. And some of them won’t, sticking instead to a more basic approach. A minor deal here, some careful spending there, draft a few we-can’t-believe-they-were-still-there-when-we-picked prospects and call it a summer. See you in September, everyone, don’t forget to renew those season tickets.
And then, when anyone dares to question that approach, they’ll roll their eyes and start in on the lectures. What do you think this is, fantasy hockey? Do you want them to make a move just for the sake of it? Don’t you know that there’s a salary cap? We were in on some names, we were kicking tires, we were listening but not shopping, and it just didn’t work out. What do you want the front office to do, you fools? Their job?
Don’t buy it. Or at least, don’t buy that it’s the only option. It never has been, unless you were a GM more concerned with his own job security than in winning anything.
Bill Zito and the Panthers have proven it, and now they’re busy frolicking in the ocean with the Stanley Cup because of it. That’s what can happen when a team decides that the path of least resistance won’t lead them to where they say they want to go.
You’re not being unreasonable, or some sort of bad fan, to ask your favorite team what they’re doing to keep up.
(Top photo of Panthers president and GM Bill Zito hoisting the Stanley Cup: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
