Panthers GM Bill Zito makes his stance clear on re-signing Brad Marchand & $60,000,000 star

Bill Zito is one of the busiest general managers in hockey right now.

We're not even two weeks removed from his Florida Panthers completing the quest for back-to-back Stanley Cups, and the focus has already shifted squarely onto the future.

Zito entered the offseason with three key pending UFAs that he wanted to bring back. Priority number one was handled, signing Conn Smythe Trophy winner Sam Bennett to an eight-year, $64,000,000 contract extension. That now leaves Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad next on the docket.

On Sunday morning, Bill Zito spoke to the media following draft weekend and was asked about where things stand regarding Marchand and Ekblad. Team reporter David Dwork shared the clip with his comments on X (formerly Twitter).

"We have a Plan B and a Plan C, but my preference, and maybe I'm hoping, is that there's enough for guys to want to stay, to be part of this, be treated fairly and be happy, and that's the most important thing," Zito said.

Marchand and Ekblad will both become UFAs on July 1 without new deals, having played out the final seasons of their eight-year, $49,000,000 and eight-year, $60,000,000 contracts, respectively.

If anyone can make it all work, it's Bill Zito

It will be no easy task to keep both Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad in Florida for the foreseeable future. However, nobody is more capable of fitting all the puzzle pieces together than Bill Zito.

The Jim Gregory NHL GM of the Year award runner-up has done a masterful job of reshaping this Panthers roster season after season to create one of the most dominant teams in recent memory.

Panthers play-by-play voice Steve Goldstein posted on X, sharing his belief that Zito should have won the award in 2025.

"Bill Zito has had to swap out about 1/3 of his roster yearly. Has acquired, signed, and then re-signed most of the team’s core players. Has made trade deadline deals that helped win 2 Stanley Cups. Has assembled the best front office in the league. Has not won GM of the year," Goldstein wrote.

It's certainly hard to argue with anything said there; the resume speaks for itself.

The odds of keeping the band together are not in his favor. But if we've learned anything over the last several years, it's not to doubt Bill Zito and the Florida Panthers.