- Panthers GM Bill Zito took the Stanley Cup to Theater of the Sea.
- Zito posed with the Stanley Cup, dolphins and a sea lion.
- The Stanley Cup is engraved with the winning names and team members are getting their day with the trophy.
Every member of the Stanley Cup-winning NHL team, per tradition, gets a day with the famed trophy.
Not the neighboring NFL team Miami Dolphins – but the aquatic mammals.
He took the Stanley Cup to Theater of the Sea, a family-owned tourist attraction in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. Video from WPLG Local10 TV station in Miami showed Zito taking fish from the Stanley Cup’s bowl and feeding a dolphin.
Zito also posted photos of a sea lion eating out of the bowl, joining the tradition of dogs, horses and players’ children eating from the top of the Stanley Cup.
Zito played a key role in helping the Panthers winning a second consecutive Stanley Cup championship. He acquired Seth Jones and Brad Marchand before the NHL trade deadline. And he managed to get playoff MVP Sam Bennett, Marchand and Aaron Ekblad signed to new deals to give the Panthers a shot at a third consecutive title in 2025-26.
Where has the Stanley Cup been?
The Stanley Cup was taken to the Elbo Room in Fort Lauderdale and then took center stage at the Panthers’ parade. It spent a couple days at the NHL draft then went in for engraving.
The names of the 2024-25 winning Panthers are now on the Cup.
Forward Matthew Tkachuk took the Stanley Cup to his St. Louis hometown and while visiting with first responders in Brentwood, Missouri, he posed with the trophy inside a jail cell.
Jones spent his day with the Cup in the Dallas area. The son of former NBA player Popeye Jones was born in Arlington, Texas, when his father played for the Mavericks.
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