FORT LAUDERDALE – Another trade deadline in the books.
After dealing veteran defenseman Jeff Petry to the Minnesota Wild for a conditional 2026 seventh-round pick on Thursday, the Florida Panthers made a pair of additions on Friday, acquiring forward Vinnie Hinostroza from the Wild in exchange for future considerations and then claiming forward Cole Reinhardt off of waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights.
Even though the season has been marred by injuries, the defending back-to-back Stanley Cup champions were never going to make moves at the deadline simply to make moves.
As always, there’s a plan in place.
“Different than other deadline days that we've had,” President of Hockey Operations & General Manager Bill Zito told the media during his post-deadline availability at Baptist Health IcePlex on Friday. “Our goal, every time we do this, is to make our team better and to pursue a course of action both in the short-term and the long-term.”
To see the highlights of Zito’s press conference, continue below.
QUESTION: With Hinostroza, what do you remember? Obviously, he was one of your groups from your first year [as general manager of the Panthers]. What can he bring?
ZITO: He's got a lot of speed. He's got some skill. He plays hard. He's kind of a jack-of-all-trades, not dissimilar from Roddy (Evan Rodrigues). I think Vinnie could play center. He could play wing. He could jump around the lineup, and he's fast. He's been here before, so that one was pretty seamless.
QUESTION: You've had conversations with agents about signing, wanting to keep your UFAs (unrestricted free agents). The fact that Sergei (Bobrovsky) is still here, how would you characterize where things stand on that front right now?
ZITO: Sergei is a part of our franchise, a part of our core, and we want to try to keep him. I think with almost any player, you always and I say this a lot, you always listen. When the phone rings, you answer it because you don't know what could happen. At the end of the day, we want to keep trying to get him signed, so that's what we're going to do, and we move forward.
QUESTION: You mentioned not doing deals for the sake of doing deals. When you look at how the year has gone, how do you chalk it up?
ZITO: I'm so proud of our guys. It's been such an extraordinary run with not just numbers of games, but hard games. We play a hard style of hockey, and I would have liked to help our guys more, but I just don't want to move players to have stuff to talk about today, right? If it's not making you better, then you make decisions and you choose the course of action that you think where you have a chance to make yourselves better, and I think we've done that.
QUESTION: From your perspective, was it (the deadline) different this year and how you were interacted with and how you dealt with other teams or anything like that?
ZITO: No, it was no different. The only thing, I don't think I went in saying I'm going to take a lot of risk or mortgage a lot of assets for the short term, but the actual the week, the process of this week and the weeks leading up to it were exactly the same as we've always done.
QUESTION: This is a unique season in the sense of the injuries you've dealt with. You've also learned A .J. Greer can play in the top-six if need be. You're seeing what you have in Sandis Vilmanis. Are there some things that you've learned about the current team that you have that maybe did play into how you handled the trade deadline this year?
ZITO: I think I'd be remiss if I said no. We've been together for a while, this club, so you understand the strengths and weaknesses of all the guys. I don't know that anything is, that I've really learned anything. That's not true. I learned a lot about our team, about our resilience, about the character of the guys. Also a little bit more about each player as a person, so to that extent, it's been very helpful.
QUESTION: What did you like about Cole Reinhart?
ZITO: He kind of can fit in almost anywhere. He's in a good organization. He's got another year in his deal, so we know we can hold on to him and keep him. I would feel comfortable bouncing him in and around almost any of the positions.
QUESTION: How much does your previous life help you in this role at this particular time? When you get to trade deadline time, when you can think as both an executive and an agent, how does that help you out?
ZITO: I think it helps me. I'm not sure. Might be self-serving. I would certainly approach so many of the situations and reflect upon, okay, remember, players are people, agents are people, everybody's doing their jobs. I think that helps. I think it might make me a better person some days, maybe a worse person other days, but I reflect on it a lot. It's important that you understand that we all concede things through different prisms, and it doesn't make us good or bad, just different, and it's understandable.
QUESTION: What's your goal for the last 20 (games)? What do you want to see?
ZITO: I think you saw last night that the competitive spirit of our guys is. They're competing. I’m going to meet with the coaches and see the extent it's possible to move forward and proceed. I'll also meet with Dr. McLellan and the sports science guys - what's the most prudent way to move forward in these 20 games? I don't think we're quitting on anything, but we're also realistic. We'll deploy players ice time and rest accordingly, and to be as prudent as we can be and as accurate in how we deploy those minutes.
QUESTION: With the team intact now for a long time looking forward, what's the excitement like for what this team can do in the next four to five years?
ZITO: The first thing that comes to my head is respect for the players, and everything that they have accomplished and the work. Not just the on-ice product, but the work all of them have done to make a team for themselves and a unit. It's exciting and humbling actually to be a part of it. You guys know who are here all the time, you know that tangible, atmospheric feeling you get when you're around them, and that's real. I think the future is bright. I'm excited and I can tell you that I’m hungry.
