Panthers announce plans for girls travel hockey programs, add Rob Granato to run the teams
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Panthers, after years of planning how to make such an endeavor happen, are about to put a whole bunch of new players into their uniforms. The targets: girls.
The Panthers unveiled plans Monday for a girls travel hockey program that will begin play out of the team's current and former practice facilities later this year. It comes on the heels of USA Hockey sweeping Olympic golds — men's, sled and women's — at the Milan Cortina Games this winter and has been a project Panthers general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito has wanted to tackle for some time. “Actually, the perfect time probably would have been 15 years ago," Zito said.
"But now we have the chance. ” The Panthers hired Rob Granato as youth travel hockey director as part of the move unveiled Monday, and he'll oversee the team's boys and girls youth programs. Granato — the brother of women's hockey legend Cammi Granato — has a decades-long relationship with Zito, even serving as linemates together in a Chicago summer league with Cammi Granato as the center.
“If you look at hockey, it has grown pretty much everywhere," Rob Granato said. “There are girls that played here (and) they’ve had to leave the area if they want to continue their path. Now we want to make sure they’ve got an opportunity here, in our buildings, to stay in their own beds, not travel far to play other teams.
And there’s enough players now. ” The Panthers said the programs will have an emphasis on development while still providing a pathway to national-level competitions. Interest in the new girls teams, Zito said, has been extremely high in recent weeks even before the team officially revealed the plan to add the programs.