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The NCAA and its schools are considering a proposed solution to one of the largest looming obstacles remaining for a landmark settlement of the association’s antitrust cases, which could shape the future of major collegiate sports in America.

With the college sports industry aiming to avoid future antitrust lawsuits, the terms of a settlement would establish an annual process giving new players a chance to opt in or object to revenue-sharing terms currently being negotiated as part of the emerging framework for the future business model of the NCAA’s top schools.

The NCAA and its most powerful conferences are in the thick of working toward settling the House v. NCAA case this month, with sources saying leagues are planning to vote on a proposed deal by May 23. ESPN spoke to more than a dozen legal and industry experts in college sports this week to better understand the ongoing negotiations.

The tentative terms of the settlement include the NCAA paying more than $2.7 billion in past damages as well as setting up a system for its most powerful conferences to share a portion of their revenue with athletes moving forward. One major obstacle to reaching a settlement has been finding a way for the NCAA and its schools to protect themselves from future lawsuits, including potential claims they would be colluding to cap player compensation without using a collective bargaining agreement.

Steve Berman, the co-lead counsel representing athletes in the House case, told ESPN he and his team have proposed a solution that would extend the class-action settlement on an annual basis. In this scenario, athletes would receive a notice each year providing them with the opportunity to object to the terms of the revenue-share agreement. Berman said those athletes would then have the chance to attend a hearing and persuade the judge that the revenue-share arrangement was unfair in order to push for a change.

“Each year we would have a hearing where any new athlete who wasn’t previously bound [by the settlement] can come and object,” Berman said. “They would have to come and say, ‘I don’t think this is fair.’ That would be a hard burden to prove.”

An NCAA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Some athlete organizers say they are skeptical a rolling annual opt-in mechanism would be enough to dissuade future players from filing lawsuits to push for a bigger share of money in future years.

Sources say revenue sharing with athletes would begin, at the earliest, in the summer of 2025. The settlement would also serve to resolve three other active antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA.

The details of a settlement and their implications on how schools spend their money remain in flux. But with leagues expected to vote within the next two weeks, details are growing more clear as leaders in the industry weigh their options and sort through several remaining questions about how a future business model will work.

Why would an annual hearing be necessary?

In professional sports, the amount of revenue a league shares with its players is typically negotiated through a collective bargaining agreement between the league and a players’ union. Collective bargaining agreements completed with a certified union are exempt from antitrust challenges in court. That legal protection would not apply, however, in college sports if athletes are not deemed to be employees when schools start sharing their revenue.

The NCAA and its schools have been firmly opposed to a model where athletes are viewed as employees.

There are multiple pending cases in front of the National Labor Relations Board where athletes and their advocates are arguing that players should be employees and have the right to unionize, but those cases could take years to reach a conclusion. Others such as the College Football Players Association — one of several groups seeking to organize college athletes — have proposed asking Congress to create a special status for college athletes that would allow them to collectively bargain without being employees. But again, Congress has been slow to reach consensus on any federal legislation that could help chart a course forward for college sports despite several years of requested help from the NCAA.

The current House case is a class-action lawsuit that applies to all current Division I college athletes. That means future college athletes would not be bound by the terms of a settlement reached this year. Berman and his colleagues are hoping that giving each incoming group of new players an option to join the class will provide the schools with enough confidence that their agreement will be hard to challenge with future litigation.

What are the chances of a settlement happening?

There are so many moving parts that nothing is definitive, but sources from both sides of the case appear to be optimistic they are making substantial progress toward a settlement.

The NCAA has worked furiously toward settling, including agreeing to pick up the more than $2.7 billion in past damages over the next 10 years. If the case goes to trial and a judge rules against the NCAA, the association and its schools could be on the hook for more than $4 billion in damages.

Sources told ESPN that NCAA president Charlie Baker was in Washington, D.C., on Thursday meeting with more than a half-dozen Senators, a previously scheduled trip where he’s staying engaged with current Senate leaders about potential future legislation.

The belief in the industry is that all the power conferences have the majority votes to settle, which will be up to their schools’ top administrators. There are a few individual schools that are skeptical of settling — some of those overlap with the schools that supported the idea of forming a new “super league” that would radically reshape the entire structure of college athletics. While some believe a more complete overhaul is needed, sources told ESPN there’s essentially zero chance of a super league emerging in the near future.

To the majority, the idea of a league deciding to battle Berman and fellow lead attorney Jeffrey Kessler in court and face billions in damages isn’t too appetizing — especially with the NCAA paying the back damages.

Here’s the breakdown of the landscape, according to multiple industry sources: The Big Ten is generally on board with settling. The SEC has some detractors of settling but is trending to a majority. The Big 12 is expected to follow along. There’s some dissension in the ACC, which has amplified why Florida State and Clemson are suing to leave the league, but sources say it’s unlikely the ACC will end up voting against it.

It’s also important to note here that a vote for settling doesn’t mean all of the key details will have been ironed out. The notion of capping the size of a team’s roster as part of this new business model, for example, has generated buzz in athletic director and coaching circles. But details like what a football roster would be capped at — and the fate of walk-ons — are not expected to be decided until after the vote, per sources.

“It’s so early in that conversation, it’s hard to speculate,” a source said. “There’s a lot more work there. You want to build consensus across multiple conferences.”

Also, any potential help from Congress that Baker is courting wouldn’t come until well after the settlement.

“It gives us a better hand to play with Congress,” an industry source said. “They were looking for something from us. This injects a lot in that conversation. This is a good start.”

How much money will schools be spending on future payments to athletes?

Sources told ESPN that while terms could change, the current proposal would create a spending cap for each power-conference school based on 22% of the average media rights, ticket sales and sponsorship revenue of each power-conference school. Sources say they expect that cap number to be nearly $20 million per school. Schools would not be required to spend that much money on their athletes but would have the option to share up to that $20 million figure with them.

The cap number could change every few years to reflect changes in the overall revenue of schools. It’s not clear whether some money the schools already provide to their athletes — such as an academic reward of roughly $6,000 commonly referred to as Alston payments — would count toward that cap. Multiple sources did tell ESPN that donations from boosters are not included in the revenue formula.

How will they divide that money among their athletes?

There are no specific provisions in the proposed settlement that spell out how schools should distribute money to athletes, according to sources. Each individual school would be responsible for deciding which athletes to pay and sorting through the uncertainty around how that money would apply to Title IX regulations, per multiple sources.

Title IX requires colleges to provide equal opportunities for men and women to compete in varsity sports and provide equitable benefits to those athletes. The law, written long before athletes were earning money beyond their scholarships, does not clearly state how the federal government views direct payments to athletes. Does equitable treatment require a school to give the same dollar amount to men and women athletes in the new revenue-share model? Or would the payments be viewed more as a benefit that could be proportional to the money generated by each sport? Would scholarship dollars and additional revenue-share dollars be considered in the same financial category when balancing the Title IX ledgers?

“The truth is, no one knows,” a source told ESPN on Friday.

While the Department of Education or Congress could provide answers proactively, neither has demonstrated any urgency to do so at this point. Specific interpretations of Title IX often come through litigation, and in this instance, a group of athletes might need to file a lawsuit about how their school is handling these direct payments to establish clarity.

Until then, the most conservative approach for schools to ensure Title IX compliance would mean evenly splitting the new revenue-share dollars between men and women athletes. Sources say some schools might try to balance the overall spending by increasing scholarship opportunities on their women’s teams, but it remains unclear whether that would satisfy Title IX regulations. Others might seek a competitive advantage in football recruiting, for example, by arguing that equitable treatment for athletes in the case of revenue sharing should be based on the revenue their sports generate.

Sources also said the settlement won’t require schools to share money with all athletes or share it evenly among athletes — leaving those decisions up to individual athletic departments as well.

What happens to collectives and NIL payments?

According to a source, the settlement does not include any provision that would put an end to the booster collectives that currently serve as the main vehicle for paying athletes. School officials hope a settlement will create a way to strengthen the NCAA’s ability to enforce its rules, including its rule that requires NIL payments to be for a player’s market value as opposed to the current system, which frequently serves as a workaround for “pay-for-play” arrangements. However, drawing a distinction between those two types of payments would remain a difficult, nebulous task. Any attempt to completely eliminate the NIL collective market would take a substantial change in federal law provided by Congress.

The NCAA has created new rules this spring that allow schools to be more directly involved in finding NIL deals for their athletes. New state laws are also opening doors for the schools to use their own money to pay for an athlete’s NIL rights as opposed to those funds coming from a third party. The extent to which each school continues to be involved in finding NIL opportunities for its athletes in a future with revenue sharing could vary significantly.

“The feeling in the industry is that collectives are going to be forced to stay outside the universities, and it will become more of a discrepancy of the haves and have-nots,” said an industry source. “If you bring collectives in, any money raised would count toward the cap. But schools can hit the cap and still have collectives as third parties. That’s the fear, and why there needs to be regulation.”

What does this mean for major college basketball and leagues outside power conferences?

It’s still relatively uncertain how this would impact major college basketball schools outside of the power conferences.

Schools in the Big East, which is the most prominent basketball-forward league in the country, haven’t been given any formal guidance on how a settlement would trickle down to their level.

The prevailing sentiment is that leagues outside the power conferences named in the lawsuit, including basketball-forward leagues, will have the opportunity to opt into the same 22% revenue-share formula, which would be applied to their specific revenue.

The most expensive men’s college basketball rosters heading into next season are commanding $5 million to $7 million in NIL payments, per sources. It’s too early to determine whether leagues outside the power football conferences will be able to pay that much through revenue sharing.

The uncertainty about how the power conferences will settle the antitrust claims is leaving many administrators outside those leagues in what they describe as a difficult situation.

“All of the Group of 5 is in a wait-and-see mode, which is a precarious situation,” one source told ESPN. “It is extremely tough to lead athletic departments, universities and conferences and plan for the future — whether that be facilities, NIL, etc. — when you have no seat at the table to make the rules that will impact you.”

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Stanley Cup conference finals preview: Goalie confidence ratings, X factors for NHL’s final four

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Stanley Cup conference finals preview: Goalie confidence ratings, X factors for NHL's final four

The 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs field is down to the final four. The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers face off in a rematch of the 2023 Eastern Conference finals, while the Western Conference finals are a return bout from 2024 between the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers.

Which two teams will make it to the Stanley Cup Final? Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton are here with intel on all four teams, including goaltender confidence ratings, what we’ve learned so far about each team, X factors and more.


How they got here: Defeated Avalanche 4-3, defeated Jets 4-2

Goalie confidence rating: 9/10

Think about the number of teams that have had to shuffle through goaltenders this postseason — whether because of injuries or inconsistencies. It’s part of what makes Jake Oettinger so vital for the Stars.

No goalie has faced more shots, made more saves and logged more minutes than Oettinger during the 2025 playoffs. Oettinger has provided the Stars with a level of stability that has played a major role in why they’ve advanced to a third straight conference final. He has had several moments this postseason in which his value has been amplified. Maybe the strongest example of that would be the fact that the Stars are 3-0 in overtime, with two of those wins coming in series-clinching games.

What we’ve learned about the Stars so far

Other than that it was worth mortgaging the future to trade for and sign Mikko Rantanen, one of the best wingers in the game, to a long-term contract — and then watch him become the front-runner to win the Conn Smythe?

It’s the fact that the Stars have shown they are adaptable. They opened the first round with questions about getting past the Avalanche given that two of their best players, Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson, were out injured. Even now as they’re in the conference finals, the Stars have yet to receive consistent offensive contributions from certain players (see below), and their depth could be greatly tested against what might be the deepest team in the playoffs.

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Thomas Harley sends Stars to West finals with OT winner

The Dallas Stars crowd goes wild as Thomas Harley’s goal seals a 2-1 overtime win to clinch the series over the Winnipeg Jets.

X factor for the conference finals

Will it be the 81% — or will the 19% make its mark? There’s a reason for such a cryptic question, and it comes back to how scoring has worked for the Stars this postseason.

Five players have scored 26 of Dallas’ 32 goals (i.e. 81% of them) entering the Western Conference finals: Rantanen, Roope Hintz, Thomas Harley, Wyatt Johnston and Mikael Granlund.

The remaining 19% have come from key players such as Jamie Benn, Evgenii Dadonov, Mason Marchment and Tyler Seguin. Those four have combined to score five goals this postseason, while Matt Duchene hasn’t scored at all.

Keep in mind they are heading into a series against a defensive structure that shut out the Vegas Golden Knights for two straight games. Again, depth will matter.

Has the experience of the past two years prepared the Stars to take the next step?

A third straight conference finals appearance reaffirms that the Stars are in a championship window. But is this the year in which the Stars reach the Stanley Cup Final and possibly win it all?

The first of their three trips, in 2023, let them learn what it meant to win in overtime given they lost two games to the Golden Knights in the extra frame. Their second trip — last season against the Oilers — saw them struggle to find consistency against a team that could use the whole of its parts after falling into a 2-1 series hole.

This postseason has included winning multiple overtime games, finally winning the first game of a series, fending off an opponent trying to force a Game 7, managing without two of their best players and extending Peter DeBoer’s Game 7 streak to 9-0. But will all of that be enough? — Clark


How they got here: Defeated Kings 4-2, defeated Golden Knights 4-1

Goalie confidence rating: 8/10

Everything the Oilers’ defensive structure accomplished in the regular season was met with the disconnect of inconsistent goaltending. It appeared to be an issue through the first two games of the playoffs, which is why Kris Knoblauch had Calvin Pickard replace Stuart Skinner en route to beating the Kings in the opening round.

But when Pickard sustained an injury, Skinner returned … and shut out the Golden Knights for the final two games of the second round. For all of the criticism Skinner has faced — and continues to face — he has the Oilers four wins away from a second consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearance. But above all, whether it be Pickard or Skinner, the Oilers now have the defensive cohesion that has eluded them at times, which is helpful to any netminder.

What we’ve learned about the Oilers so far

That they might be the best and deepest team in the playoffs. There’s no denying the advantage they have with Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, who are first and second on the team in points this postseason. But this current iteration of the Oilers continues to prove how they are more than just their generational superstars.

Waiver pickup Kasperi Kapanen went from being a healthy scratch at the outset of the postseason to scoring a second-round series-clinching goal. Corey Perry has had one of the strongest playoffs by a player in their age-39 season. More than a dozen forwards have scored at least one goal.

The Oilers once again went through goalie issues, and found solutions on multiple occasions. In total, they have nine players who have scored more than three goals, all while finding defensive cohesion at a time when Mattias Ekholm has been out of the lineup.

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Oilers call series after Kasperi Kapanen scores OT winner

Kasperi Kapanen somehow gets his stick on the puck last on a scramble in overtime as the Oilers clinch the series vs. the Golden Knights.

X factor for the conference finals

Special teams. The Oilers had the best penalty kill in the 2024 playoffs, at 94%, which is one of the best rates in Stanley Cup playoff history. Couple that with what was the second-best power play, and it’s what made the Oilers a threat in every situation last spring.

This postseason, however, has been different. On the whole, their power play is still succeeding at a rate of 25%, which is good enough for sixth among all 16 playoff teams. Their penalty kill is 14th, at 66.7% — by far the worst of the remaining four teams.

Can they make the necessary adjustments? They had the worst power play of any team in the second round, with a 9.1% success rate on the extra-skater advantage, while their PK was tied for the second-lowest mark of the eight teams, at 76.9%.

Is the series win over the Golden Knights a sign of things to come?

The Oilers earned a return to the conference finals by tapping into every part of their roster. But one of the byproducts of using everyone is how they’ve reduced opponents into facing a depth crisis of their own.

The Golden Knights had 11 players finish with more than 10 goals in the regular season, while 11 players had more than 30 points. Against the Oilers, however, star center Jack Eichel was held without a goal, while the trio of Ivan Barbashev, Tomas Hertl and Brett Howden went from scoring a combined 78 goals in the regular season to scoring zero against Edmonton. Even the Golden Knights’ defensemen went from having 35 goals in the regular season to just one goal in the playoffs.

Knowing they have a more than capable blueprint, how will the Oilers use what they did in the second round against what has been a top-heavy Stars team to this point? — Clark


How they got here: Defeated Devils 4-1, defeated Capitals 4-1

Goalie confidence rating: 9.5/10

Frederik Andersen is having an eye-popping playoff run. His absurd numbers — a .937 save percentage and 1.36 goals-against average — lead the entire postseason field of goaltenders, as he has allowed just 12 goals over nine games. And it’s not like Andersen hasn’t been challenged. He turned aside 30 of 31 high-danger chances from Washington in Carolina’s second-round series, and gave up just four even-strength goals in five games.

Andersen also paces all playoff goalies in high-danger saves, while boasting the best goal differential (+15) as well. Basically, if there’s a category to measure goaltending greatness, Andersen is head of the class.

Carolina’s only real concern when it comes to Andersen is availability — he did miss time in the first round against New Jersey with an injury. Andersen’s lengthy injury history has to be in the back of the Hurricanes’ minds, but when Andersen is good to go, there’s not a goaltender playing better than he is right now.

What we’ve learned about the Hurricanes so far

The Hurricanes are like midsummer humidity — absolutely smothering. Carolina’s pressure is a full-team effort, leaving little open ice for any opponent to operate. The Canes have allowed the second-fewest shots on net this postseason (just 24 per game) thanks in large part to the way they have controlled play in the offensive zone and generated an excellent cycle game that has worn down the competition.

The Hurricanes are so good using their sticks to break up plays and rush opportunities, making it hard to even gain their zone. And a stout defense — led by Jaccob Slavin and Brent Burns — doesn’t let anyone linger for long in Carolina’s end.

Add to that an offensive attack led by Andrei Svechnikov‘s eight goals in 10 games — not to mention Andersen’s outstanding performance so far — and it’s no wonder the Hurricanes were first to punch their ticket back to the Eastern Conference finals.

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Andrei Svechnikov puts Canes on the brink with late goal

Andrei Svechnikov lights the lamp to give the Hurricanes a lead late in the third period.

X factor for the conference finals

Rod Brind’Amour. Carolina’s longtime coach brought his team to this precipice just two years ago — and they were swept away in four games. Now he’s facing the challenge of matching wits with another Stanley Cup-winning bench boss, Florida’s Paul Maurice, and it’s critical that Brind’Amour bring his A game.

The Hurricanes have stuck with him for a reason, and Brind’Amour has guided Carolina through a sensational 10 games to date this postseason. This is when the real work starts, though. Whether it’s deploying the right matchups, making adjustments on the fly or simply keeping the pulse of his team in check, Brind’Amour has to make this round his best coaching job yet. And the experience he has with this group in particular is critical.

The Hurricanes have grown since that last conference finals loss. Given this second opportunity in three years to potentially push through to a Stanley Cup Final, Brind’Amour’s leadership is more valuable than ever in ensuring the Hurricanes stick to their game to finally break through.

Does it matter that Carolina hasn’t exactly faced adversity yet in the postseason?

The Hurricanes were dominant in both series to date. Neither of their losses were particularly egregious. Now they’re up against an opponent that has had to claw its way back into the fight a time or two.

Florida has needed to cultivate some desperation in a way Carolina hasn’t, and that can be an asset as the stakes climb higher. How will the Hurricanes respond if things don’t immediately go their way?

We’ve seen it before, where teams cruise through a round (or two) and then crumble against a more urgent opponent that has gained confidence through resiliency. If the Hurricanes wind up in their own heads, that could spell trouble for a team that has made quick work of its playoff assignments to this point. — Shilton


How they got here: Defeated Lightning 4-1, defeated Maple Leafs 4-3

Goalie confidence rating: 8.5/10

Sergei Bobrovsky hasn’t had a flawless postseason — but he does come through in the clutch. That’s what Florida needed most from its No. 1 netminder to reach a third straight Eastern Conference finals.

Bobrovsky especially delivered in the Panthers’ second-round series against Toronto. He recovered from a mediocre start through the first three games — allowing 13 total goals — to give up just four goals in Games 4-7 for a .957% SV% and 1.01 GAA.

That’s the momentum Bobrovsky is taking into this latest clash with Carolina, where he’ll be going toe-to-toe with perhaps this postseason’s best goaltender in Frederik Andersen. Bobrovsky shouldn’t be intimidated by the matchup, though. He has something Andersen doesn’t: Cup-winning experience. Bobrovsky has carried his club through to consecutive Cup Finals and knows how to weather the highs and lows of a long run like this. There’s nothing the Hurricanes can throw at Bobrovsky that should rattle him.

What we’ve learned about the Panthers so far

The Panthers are the definition of killer instinct. It’s ingrained in their game. Their ability to make adjustments that expose an opponent’s weakness without sacrificing their own strengths is impressive.

So is Florida’s depth. The Panthers have had 17 goal scorers in the postseason, including seven defensemen who have combined for 11 tallies. Florida is fourth overall in the postseason field offensively (averaging 3.75 goals per game) but its defensive effort and penalty kill have perhaps outshined the work upfront.

The Panthers have been the second-stingiest team in the playoffs (after, naturally, their next foe in Carolina) with just 2.42 goals against per game, they’ve given up the second-fewest shots (23.8 per game) and they have the second-best penalty kill (89.5%).

Florida has a resilience built from its success over the past two seasons that comes through in the team’s confidence. Regardless of the situation — leading, tied or trailing — the Panthers are calm and collected. The balance they’ve created at both ends of the ice makes Florida tough to crack, and the Panthers don’t offer up opportunities freely. It’s a battle-tested group that knows when and how to strike.

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2:09

Panthers throttle Maple Leafs in Game 7 to advance to ECF

The Panthers dash the Maple Leafs’ hopes in Game 7, scoring six goals in two periods to advance to play the Hurricanes.

X factor for the conference finals

The Panthers have benefitted from that aforementioned depth to get this far — but Florida’s stars were eerily quiet in the second round. That needs to change against Carolina.

Matthew Tkachuk had zero goals and four assists against the Leafs, Aleksander Barkov nabbed two goals and five points, while Sam Reinhart has 41 shots in the postseason but just four goals through 12 games. It feels like there could be a breakout performance coming from somewhere.

The Panthers will have to work for every inch of open ice when the Hurricanes deploy their suffocating defense, but the Panthers do have an edge over the competition in terms of elite, top-end scoring talent. But it’s those exact skaters who have to show up for Florida now, in order to throw an elite goaltender like Andersen off his game.

The Panthers do an excellent job getting bodies in front of the net and creating shooting lanes. This is the series where they’ll most need to take advantage of those windows — and see certain skaters put their mark on this postseason push with some key contributions to the scoresheet.

Will Florida have to beat Carolina at its own game?

The Hurricanes and Panthers are essentially 1-2 in every defensive category this postseason, and their special teams are on par. Florida has the edge offensively, but Carolina has enjoyed timely scoring in a big way — think Andrei Svechnikov‘s game-winning goal in the final two minutes of regulation to send Washington packing in the second round — and that can be a weapon too.

The Panthers have an innate ability to adapt when the circumstances dictate it. That’s going to be imperative here. The Panthers pounded Carolina in a four-game sweep during their meeting in the conference finals two years ago. That’s not something the Hurricanes can easily forget, and Florida can lean on that too in figuring out how to dismantle a Carolina team that has made quick work of its first two challengers in these playoffs.

It’s on Florida to crack the code against a team that does many of the same things the Panthers do really, really well. — Shilton

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NHL referee Rooney OK, hopes for playoff return

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NHL referee Rooney OK, hopes for playoff return

NHL referee Chris Rooney is hoping to resume duties during the Stanley Cup playoffs after taking a high stick to the eye in Game 7 of the second-round Eastern Conference playoff series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers on Sunday night.

Rooney was left with a black eye but no lasting damage, sources confirmed to ESPN on Monday. TSN was first to report news on Rooney’s status a day after the game.

The veteran official was injured 13 seconds into the second period of Sunday’s game when Panthers’ defenseman Niko Mikkola caught him with the end of his stick while battling for a puck. Rooney was down on the ice before being tended to by trainers from both teams.

A stretcher was brought out, but the bloodied official was able to leave the ice under his own power. Rooney received stitches for his injury and was ruled out for the rest of the game. He was replaced by Garrett Rank, who was on standby in case a situation like Rooney’s happened.

The East finals begin Tuesday when the Carolina Hurricanes host the Panthers.

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Panthers’ roster adds have been ‘as advertised’

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Panthers' roster adds have been 'as advertised'

SUNRISE, Fla. — So far in these playoffs, nobody on the Florida Panthers roster has collected more points than Brad Marchand and no skater has logged more ice time than Seth Jones. Meet the latest examples of Bill Zito pushing all the right buttons.

The Panthers’ general manager and president of hockey operations made perhaps the biggest splashes at the NHL trade deadline, landing Marchand from Boston and Jones from Chicago with hopes of giving the defending Stanley Cup champions their best possible chance at winning the title again this year.

It’s obvious that the moves were the right ones. Marchand has 12 points so far in the playoffs, tied with Eetu Luostarinen for the team lead. Jones had the first goal in Florida’s 6-1 win at Toronto in Game 7 of that Eastern Conference semifinals series Sunday night. And on Tuesday night, when the Panthers take on the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the East finals, Marchand and Jones will be a featured part of the Florida attack.

“On the ice, they’ve been, shall I say, as advertised,” Zito said.

Few would have thought pulling off such moves was possible. Jones had five years left on his Chicago contract, and even with the Blackhawks retaining 26% it still means that Florida has committed about $35 million to the defenseman.

In the short term, it helped that the Panthers were able to gain some salary cap space when defenseman Aaron Ekblad was suspended 20 games without pay for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA performance enhancing substances program. Ekblad’s $7.5 million salary did not count against the salary cap while he was suspended. And now, in the postseason, where there are no cap restrictions on NHL rosters, Jones and Ekblad, two elite defensemen, are both in the lineup.

Marchand, meanwhile, had spent his career in Boston, a rival of Florida’s, and it’s reasonable to think that the Bruins weren’t clamoring to help the Panthers this spring.

Jones and Marchand were made to feel like lifetime Panthers from day one. Zito insisted that would be the case.

“One of the main things that surprised me was it’s easy to be complacent, especially after they won a Cup and I wasn’t sure how that was going to feel, but coming in you can just feel the drive to win another one and just be better every single day,” Jones said. “And that’s individually, each guy, all the way from our best players, our first-liners to our fourth-liners. Every guy wants to get better and learn and play for one another so It’s awesome to be a part of.”

Zito didn’t just get Marchand and Jones because they’re big names and big-time players who would lead to splashy headlines. The Panthers had specific needs as the season progressed and penalty killing was identified as the top priority.

Zito went to work. The result: a third straight trip to the Eastern Conference finals, four wins away from a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

“You credit Bill Zito and his group,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We went into the trade deadline feeling that was the place that we need to get better. Again, we lost some important killers from our team last year. And he delivered.”

But this is what Zito does — and has done since he was hired by the Panthers in 2020. He was at the Panthers’ championship parade last June, in a tremendous downpour with thunder and lightning, knowing that his roster was going to change in less than 24 hours. Some players were leaving. He had some candidates to replace them in mind. Cap space was at a premium. The deals he was about to strike had to work, or else the chances of defending the title would take a big hit.

So far, so good. He signed Nate Schmidt, a defenseman who has become a big part of the Panthers’ core. He signed A.J. Greer, who had a team-best seven hits in Game 7 at Toronto (along with Sam Bennett). He signed Tomas Nosek, who had a huge part in the rally from 3-1 down in Game 3 against Toronto that probably saved the series. And he did all that while figuring out how to give players such as Sam Reinhart, Dmitry Kulikov, Anton Lundell extensions last summer and then another to Carter Verhaeghe last fall.

Those are just some of the moves over the most recent few months of Zito’s body of work, which also includes things such as landing Matthew Tkachuk from Calgary, luring Maurice out of what might be best described as semi-retirement and locking up captain Aleksander Barkov on a deal that could keep him in Florida for the entirety of his career. The result is a club that is sound defensively, potent offensively and as deep as any.

“We just weren’t on the same page, and [the Panthers] get a couple goals, and momentum like that, and then you’re chasing the game,” Toronto captain Auston Matthews said Sunday night. “And it’s hard to get it back, when you’re down three against a good team that plays sound defensively like them.”

Zito has been a GM of the year candidate before and should be a strong — if not the strongest — candidate again this year. But he is also quick to insist that it is a collective effort; yes, he oversees it, but he has empowered people in the organization to state their case loudly on certain moves before he makes the ultimate decisions.

“We rely significantly on the scouts, on the analytics guys to identify players, and then we try to find ways to fit pieces into the puzzle,” Zito said. “And it’s not always the most expensive or the least expensive. It’s the best fit. It’s the best fit for that part. And our guys have done a fantastic job of identifying people who would be a fit, and also at a price point that we think we can get them in.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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