Today I want to share a powerful blueprint for building a championship team, and there’s no better real-life case study than the Florida Panthers.
Let’s rewind.
I moved to South Florida 44 years ago. Back then, I remember asking someone, “Hey, do you have hockey on TV down here?” They looked at me like I was from another planet. You see, I grew up on skates. I played hockey all my life until I moved here.
So, when Phil Esposito brought the Tampa Bay Lightning to Florida, I was excited. And then in 1993, the Florida Panthers arrived — my wife and I grabbed season tickets at the old Miami Arena, and my daughter witnessed her first game at just three years old.
Fast forward to today, and Panthers fans like me have finally been rewarded with a back-to-back Stanley Cup championship team. But this didn’t happen by accident.
There’s a blueprint.
It started during the pandemic in 2020, when the Panthers named Bill Zito as General Manager. Now, this was a risky move — Bill was previously a sports agent, not a traditional hockey GM. But he had a vision — and that’s the first lesson for every leader. You must have a clear vision of where you’re going.
In 2021, the team named Andrew Burnett as an interim coach. He led the team to the best record in franchise history, even winning the Presidents’ Trophy for best regular season record in the NHL.
Any other GM would have made him head coach on the spot. But not Bill Zito.
He let Burnett go and hired Paul Maurice in 2022. People thought he was nuts. But Zito didn’t want a team that just produced a winning record in the regular season — he wanted a championship team.
Then came another shocker: he traded away the team’s best scoring player and two draft picks for Matthew Tkachuk in July of 2022. Another risky move, everyone thought.
But that’s where the culture came in.
In the Florida Panthers’ culture, everyone trusts everyone.
Bill Zito trusted the scouts to find the right players. Paul Maurice trusted Zito to deliver them. Maurice coached them with a simple message: “Be yourself. We have a place for you.” And in the locker room? The players made each other better.
There were no egos. Everyone played for everyone else.
And here’s the interesting part: every player drafted by the Panthers who had previously played for another team has had the best statistical seasons of their careers here in Florida. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
They built a culture of hard work, of being the toughest team to play against, and most importantly staying aligned. And that alignment led to two straight Stanley Cups — the most prized trophy in all of sports, earned through the hardest grind any athlete can go through.
How deep does their culture run?
Usually, in the final minute of a championship clinching game, the star players get the final shift so they can be the first to celebrate on the ice when the final horn blows. But not Paul Maurice. Not the Florida Panthers. He sent out the fourth line — the grinders, the workhorses — so they could be on the ice to relish the glory of the final win.
And when it was time for the celebration Cup to be raised? It wasn’t handed off to the star players first. The captain Aleksander Barkov handed it to the guys who had never won it before, so they could be the first to realize the dream of holding that Stanley Cup trophy high above their head. A dream they had since first putting on their first pair of skates as a small child.
That’s culture. That’s alignment. That’s leadership.
Then, after all of that, three of their top free agents who could have signed anywhere else in the league for much more money stayed with the Panthers. Why? — because they believed in the culture, the mission, and the vision to become a dynasty. A team that will go down in history.
There’s your blueprint for a championship team:
· Vision
· Culture
· Trust
· Alignment
· No egos
· Everyone playing for each other
That’s how you go from a good team to a championship team — and maybe even a dynasty.
Florida Panthers, I salute you. You are the champions, and an inspiration for all of us who build and lead teams.
Hopefully you can take some key points of value from this incredible story and implement them in your organization to build your own championship culture.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud ActionCOACH Franchise Partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation—a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice.
BusinessCoachMichaelDill.com