2023-05-26 13:06:10
Growing up in Milwaukee, Bill Zito was a teenager when he got the chance to become a batting officer for the Brewers. It was around the time the Brewers, carried by Robin Yount, Paul Molitor and Cecil Cooper, reached the World Series in 1982.
We can say that this is the first final of a major sport that Zito has experienced at all from the inside. But never as close as the Stanley Cup final in which the general manager of the Florida Panthers is about to take part.
The Brewers GM was a guy named Harry Dalton. A Korean War veteran, then briefly a sportscaster, Dalton had come through the ranks with the Baltimore Orioles and, nearly 25 years later, he was with the Brewers leading a third career team.
Dalton had taken Zito under his wing, sensing a special work ethic in him. Zito dreamed of becoming a hockey player, but a professional career was out of reach for him.
“Anyway, if you’re not playing, you should go to management,” Dalton told him, who was the first to tell Zito the importance of being a good recruiter.
Zito visited his office frequently and Dalton took the time to show him the workings of the system. It was an amazing chance to get top notch tutoring.
Later, Zito went to Yale University, where he played on the hockey team, then became the assistant coach of the University of Wisconsin Badgers while he was finishing his law studies.
“I would have liked to go into recruitment and management, but I was not in a financial situation where I could afford a small salary because of my university loan and that of the faculty of law, explained to us Zito. in an interview last spring. And the opportunity cost was still a pretty good job as a lawyer, and I liked that. So I was doing that and at the same time I was representing players. Eventually I completed the transition by starting Acme. »
Acme World Sports is the name of the agency he founded in 1995 with Markus Lehto, which today represents players like Roope Hintz, Teuvo Teravainen and Jesperi Kotkaniemi on behalf of Wasserman, the mega-agency that bought Acme in 2020.
“My whole background is pretty unique,” Zito agreed.
Earlier this week, Zito was chosen as one of three finalists for NHL General Manager of the Year, raising some eyebrows as the Panthers narrowly missed the playoffs. . It should be noted that the DGs of the league carry out this vote halfway through the playoffs, and not at the end of the regular season.
However, we cannot take away from Zito the credit of having got his hands last summer on the skater who has made the biggest difference in the playoffs so far, winger Matthew Tkachuk. But the former right-hand man of Jarmo Kekalainen in Columbus for seven years also has his imprints everywhere on this formation which he has greatly modified in the space of three years.
Previously, Zito had gone for former top draft picks who were hungry to win and more than ripe for a fresh start (Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett). He had bet on the talent of defenders in the prime of life who had failed to maximize their talent elsewhere (Brandon Montour, Gustav Forsling). And the hiring of Carter Verhaeghe as a free agent has been paying off since 2020, with the former Tampa Bay Lightning even scoring 42 goals this season.
So it goes far beyond the trade that sent Jonathan Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weegar to Calgary for Tkachuk, and Zito’s work being praised by his peers for the second time in three years reflects that.
Yes, the background of the GM of the Panthers is quite unique given that it has its source in another sport, but also because he is one of the rare general managers to have been an agent.
It should be noted here that less than 15 months passed between the hiring of Zito in Florida, in September 2020, and that of former agent Emilie Castonguay as assistant general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, in January 2022. And between both, Kent Hughes was named general manager of the Canadiens while Zito’s former colleague, Brett Peterson, became his assistant in Florida.
The Panthers’ other assistant GM, Paul Krepelka, is also a former agent.
It’s tempting to see the beginning of something there, but it’s not yesterday that agents go to the other side of the table. Brian Burke left player representation in 1987 to become assistant GM of the Canucks, and found himself at the helm of the Hartford Whalers in 1992. Two years later, agent Pierre Lacroix took charge of the Quebec Nordiques.
The role of GM, which has become much more complex than before, requires not only managerial qualities, but also greater attention to the players and what can help them reach their full potential. Zito has always seen his work as an agent as a stepping stone to team management – Hughes expressed the same when he arrived in Montreal – but he recognizes the benefits of his experience as an agent in his current role.
“One thing you have to understand is that agents have an inside view, through the lives and lives of their players, of the ways of all National League organizations. , or at least the ones they have players with, Zito explained. And they are in the front row to see – and they sometimes see it with their own eyes by being on site with the players – how an X team develops its players, how its programs are. How do they treat them? How are the services? How is the food? What is the team doing in terms of mental health? How is the communication at the NHL level and at the American League level, and in the recruiting department?
“So you interact with the GM, with the assistant GM, with the minor league GM, the coaches. And you learn all that from all the organizations, which allows you to learn a lot from that point of view. »
Zito, Hughes, Castonguay and Krepelka are not only former agents who later became executives, they are also people who studied law, like Julien BriseBois (Tampa) and Chris MacFarland (Colorado), two other managing directors who have never been agents.
Having developed a legal mind is, according to Zito, one of the assets that translates best into the work of a good CEO.
“In law school, you are taught to find the best answer,” Zito said. If you build a wall, usually people will build a wall and someone will say, ‘we need cement to fill that hole. A guy will go to Home Depot to buy cement, he will come back and say, ‘yeah, it works’. In law school you are taught to ask ‘is this the best cement?’
“So often I’m going to ask, ‘Is this the best way to go?’ I know it works, but is there a better way? It can be very disturbing. Someone might look at me and ask me why I want to do things differently. Because there is always a better way. I don’t know what it is, I’m just asking ‘have you considered another way to do this?’ The margin of error is so small; there is someone out there who does it in a better way.
“So this lesson was quite useful to me. »
As every year, the NHL teams will dissect the DNA of the winning teams in order to find elements that they could integrate into their own recipe. The Panthers currently benefit from a goaltender at the top of his game, even if nothing in the performance of Sergei Bobrovsky in recent years announced such a burst of dominance. Signing a $10 million goalie probably won’t be seen as the way of the future.
But maybe we will look at the workload of the goalkeepers, precisely, and the gasoline that they have left in the tank once in the playoffs.
Maybe we’ll look at the limited number of very young players in the Panthers’ roster.
But perhaps we should also look at how the Panthers have identified how to hatch players like Verhaeghe, Bennett, Montour and Forsling – we can add Anthony Duclair to this list – and make them ingredients of their hit.
Acquiring players who aren’t performing at full capacity elsewhere at a discount and unlocking their full potential within your roster is one of the great secrets of professional recruiting and talent assessment.
Because in hockey, talent can emerge from anywhere.
Even from the Milwaukee Brewers dugout.
(Photo: Joel Auerbach / Getty Images)
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