Sports
Lazerus: Bill Zito’s Panthers, Kyle Davidson’s Blackhawks and the road not taken
It’s entirely possible that four or five summers from now, Connor Bedard’s name will be etched on the Stanley Cup.
He’ll have won the Conn Smythe Trophy that spring, of course, after a truly absurd playoff run flanked by Michael Misa and Frank Nazar, with Artyom Levshunov logging a heroic 30 minutes a night on the back end. Kevin Korchinski will have racked up the points as his partner on the top pair, with Sam Rinzel lighting it up, as well. Alex Vlasic’s work as the shutdown defender will be the stuff of legends. That second line of Nick Lardis, Sacha Boisvert and Oliver Moore will have made those Blackhawks matchup-proof, forcing opposing coaches to pick their poison.
And man, who’ll be able to forget the way Samuel Savoie, Landon Slaggert and Marek Vanacker wreaked havoc on the newly christened Hair on Fire line, bringing energy to the team and fans out of their seats?
It absolutely could happen.
Kyle Davidson is counting on it, staking his reputation on it, testing Chicago’s patience on it. Davidson sold Danny Wirtz on his plan to gut the franchise and rebuild it through the NHL Draft, and that’s exactly what Davidson has done.
Eight first-round picks in the last three seasons. Two more this year. Two more the year after that. It’ll always be an amusing footnote in Blackhawks history that Davidson’s tank failed but the ping-pong balls fell his way anyway, landing him the centerpiece in Bedard. The rest has been done with ruthlessness and a lack of sentimentality. Davidson has had as clear a vision as any general manager in the game, and he has stuck with it every step of the way.
This is how professional sports teams operate these days, especially in a salary-cap league. When things are going poorly, you blow it up and start over. That’s just how it works.
The thing is, it hasn’t worked. Not in the NHL. Not in the cap era. Not yet. The Buffalo Sabres blew it up, tried to tank for Connor McDavid, and are going to miss the playoffs for the 14th consecutive season. The Detroit Red Wings blew it up, built through the draft, made some savvy picks that have worked out well, and are scratching and clawing to be the eighth seed in the East after eight long seasons without a playoff appearance. The Edmonton Oilers picked No. 1 four times in five seasons and landed the most talented player the game has ever seen, and they didn’t reach true contention until last spring — a decade after drafting McDavid and 14 years after taking Taylor Hall.
And the Blackhawks, eight years removed from their last true playoff appearance, are still years away from the next one.
Saturday, Davidson traded one of his three best players, defenseman Seth Jones, to the Florida Panthers, because Jones couldn’t take the losing anymore. Davidson did relatively well in the deal — getting goaltender Spencer Knight and retaining only $2.5 million a year of Jones’ massive contract — but it was still yet another trade that made the Blackhawks demonstrably worse. Always one step forward, two steps back.
Now let’s look at the team that acquired Jones. When Bill Zito took over as GM in Florida, the Panthers were still something of a league laughingstock. They hadn’t won a playoff series in a quarter-century. The roster was loaded with mediocre players in their mid-to-late 20s. They were stuck.
Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito hoists the 2024 Stanley Cup. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
But Zito didn’t tear it down. He didn’t rebuild the Panthers. He remade them. He used every tool at his disposal — trades, free agency, the waiver wire — to reconstruct the plane while it was still in the air. Within four years, the Panthers were Stanley Cup champions, a model franchise, the envy of the league.
Look at how that championship team was built. Zito made one of the gutsiest trades in modern NHL history to land Matthew Tkachuk. He saw players who hadn’t yet reached their potential and got them, trading for Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Brandon Montour and Eetu Luostarinen. He made smart signings in free agency, inking Carter Verhaeghe, Evan Rodrigues and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. And he found gold on the waiver wire, picking up Gustav Forsling — cast off by the Vancouver Canucks, the Blackhawks and the Carolina Hurricanes — and watching him become one of the best defensemen in the league. He dealt away his first-round pick in 2022. And in 2023. And in 2024. And in 2025. And in 2026. The only key players who came through the draft were already there when he arrived: Aleksander Barkov (No. 2 in 2013), Aaron Ekblad (No. 1 in 2014) and Anton Lundell (No. 12 in 2020).
It certainly wasn’t easy, and there certainly was some luck involved. Surely, Zito didn’t see Forsling becoming the player he is. Nobody saw a 57-goal season from Reinhart coming after six unspectacular seasons in Buffalo. And he did all this with Sergei Bobrovsky’s $10 million cap hit weighing him down, an albatross that eventually took flight. What Zito did is incredibly difficult.
But what Davidson is doing might be even harder.
Davidson had his chance to do this more quickly, to spare the fans all this misery. The 2021-22 Blackhawks had a 23-year-old Alex DeBrincat and a 23-year-old Brandon Hagel. They had a 26-year-old Jones and a 24-year-old Dylan Strome. And they had Patrick Kane posting 92 points.
Now? DeBrincat is with the Detroit Red Wings, on the verge of his fourth 30-goal season. Hagel is with the Tampa Bay Lightning, a burgeoning superstar enjoying his second 30-goal season and first point-per-game campaign. Strome is with the Washington Capitals, riding shotgun to history as Alex Ovechkin’s center, with 59 points in 60 games. Kane, despite playing just 100 games, has more points over the last two seasons than every Blackhawks player other than Bedard.
That’s more than Florida had when Zito took over. But DeBrincat and Hagel were too old (despite being a year younger than Barkov and Ekblad when Zito took over). Bedard was too important. The draft was the only path forward. The teardown was the only way.
It’s facile, and perhaps folly, to point all this out in hindsight, of course. There’s a reason so few GMs are willing to be as bold as Zito has been. It usually ends in a firing. Had Davidson tried to retool around his young rising stars and Kane on the fly back then, it’s just as likely that the Blackhawks would be stuck in the mushy middle the past few years as in the Stanley Cup Final.
But either of those scenarios sounds pretty darn good compared to what the Blackhawks have been the last four years, what they’ll probably be the next few years, and what drove Jones out of the city he was so excited to come to in the first place.
What’s done is done, but it doesn’t have to stay this way. It’s long past time for Davidson to get aggressive, to start trying to win for real. Yes, he made a run at Jake Guentzel last summer, but he came up short. He somehow has to convince Mikko Rantanen or Mitch Marner this summer to sign up for seven years of playing with Bedard. Or go after Wyatt Johnston or Noah Dobson or Evan Bouchard with an offer sheet. Or package some of the myriad picks and prospects and young players he has amassed to land a ready-made rising star.
Or all of the above. It’s what Zito would do. It’s what Zito has done. It’s what works.
It’s time to get bold. It’s time to get creative. It’s time to start winning again. Because the current path is not just excruciating; it’s extremely unlikely to work. History has shown us that. And it’s better to aspire to be the Florida Panthers than risk becoming the Buffalo Sabres.
(Top photo of Seth Jones: Bill Smith / NHLI via Getty Images)
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The Michigan Wolverines men’s basketball team will return to the national championship for the first time since 2018 after a rout of the Arizona Wildcats, 91-73, in the Final Four.
Michigan jumped out to a 16-point lead midway through the first half and never had to look back from there. The high-percentage shooting from Aday Mara and Elliott Cadeau’s ability to knock down the long-range shot was more than enough for the Wolverines to get the win.
Michigan guard Nimari Burnett celebrates a basket against Arizona during the first half of an NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game at the Final Four in Indianapolis on April 4, 2026. (Abbie Parr/AP)
Wolverines star Yaxel Lendeborg was saddled with two fouls early in the first half and then suffered a tough-looking ankle injury during the period to keep him on the bench. He started the second half and hit two 3-pointers before he called it a night.
He looked as though he was struggling with the pain. He managed to score 11 points, including three 3-pointers in 14 minutes of play. As he struggled, Trey McKenney stepped up big time.
McKenney was hot from long range. He finished with 16 points on 4-of-6 from 3-point range.
Mara led Michigan with 26 points and nine rebounds. Cadeau had 13 points and 10 assists.
UCONN’S UNDEFEATED SEASON CRUMBLES AS SOUTH CAROLINA GETS SWEET REVENGE AGAINST REIGNING CHAMPS
Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg reacts after an injury during the first half of an NCAA tournament semifinal game against Arizona at the Final Four in Indianapolis on April 4, 2026. (Abbie Parr/AP)
Arizona was unable to find its rhythm throughout the night, and the continued missed shots sucked the air out of the building. The Wildcats only shot 37% from the floor.
Wildcats freshman Koa Peat scored 16 points to lead the team. He also had six rebounds.
Brayden Burries and Jaden Bradley each had 13 points. Motiejus Krivas had 11 points.
Michigan lost in the 2018 national championship to Jay Wright’s Villanova squad. Their appearance in the Final Four on Saturday night was their third since 1993. The team last won a national championship in 1989 when Glen Rice and the Wolverines knocked off Seton Hall in overtime.
The Wolverines will take on the UConn Huskies in the national championship game on Monday night. The Huskies defeated the Illinois Fighting Illini to receive the opportunity at the title.
Arizona’s Jaden Bradley reacts during the first half of an NCAA college basketball tournament semifinal game against Michigan at the Final Four in Indianapolis on April 4, 2026. (Michael Conroy/AP)
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If UConn wins, it will be the Huskies’ third title in four years.
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Satisfied is perhaps the best word to describe how Norco High pitcher Coral Williams felt after tossing a three-hit shutout in the Gold Bracket championship game of the Michelle Carew Softball Classic.
Williams recorded five strikeouts, Angelina Gonzales hit a pair of home runs and the Cougars blanked Fullerton 7-0 to capture their sixth tournament title Saturday night at Peralta Park in Anaheim.
The finals showdown between teams ranked second and third in CalHiSports.com’s top 20 rankings was decided early. Kendra Nelson walked to begin the game, then Gonzales lined an inside pitch deep over the fence in left field to make it 2-0. Isabella Ray hit a solo shot to left in the fourth and in the fifth Gonzales unloaded on another homer to left to give Williams a four-run cushion that was more than she needed.
“It was the same pitch both times — I think they were trying to surprise me on the second one,” said Gonzales, who had three homers in five games. “If I didn’t get it done I knew the next player would do the job. We have each other’s backs.”
Williams, the CIF Southern Section Division 1 Player of the Year last spring, was named the most valuable pitcher of the tournament after giving up only one unearned run in 24 innings. She threw a four-hitter with nine strikeouts in Wednesday’s victory over Millikan and tossed a six-hitter with 10 strikeouts in a 2-1, 10-inning triumph over Anaheim Canyon on Friday.
“I felt confident in my preparation for this game and told myself to stay loose and don’t overthink,” Williams said. “I pitched around the zone a lot so they couldn’t do damage.”
The No. 3 Cougars (14-2) have allowed only two earned runs, and six total, while shutting out 13 opponents this season.
“I love playing behind Coral,” said Gonzales, the Cougars’ left fielder. “She makes my job easier.”
Utah Valley-bound Hayley Brock was a force at the plate for Fullerton (16-2) and singled her first time up against Williams. She was chosen most valuable player of the tournament after going 11 for 18 with four home runs, two doubles and 14 RBIs.
“It’s a great feeling to be named MVP, it just sucks coming up one win short,” said Brock, who was robbed of a second hit on a diving play at second base in the fourth inning. “That pitcher is so good. You want to attack her earlier in the count. You don’t want to get to two strikes with her.”
Norco’s Angelina Gonzales celebrates after hitting the first of two home runs against Fullerton in the Michelle Carew Softball Classic Gold Bracket championship at Peralta Park in Anaheim on April 4, 2026.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Williams admitted she was wary of Brock’s prowess at the plate.
“I just had to be smart with my pitches and trust my defense,” she said. “We all need to be loose tonight and not be as tense and uptight.”
Norco advanced to the finals by blanking Orange Lutheran 2-0. Peyton May scattered five hits over six innings, striking out eight batters. Sadie Burroughs belted a solo homer in the second and Savannah Gonzalez added an RBI double to center in the fifth as the Cougars prevailed in a rematch of their 2-1 victory in the Norco Showcase finale in Chino Hills in February.
Orange Lutheran’s Rylee Silva, who had 135 strikeouts as a freshman last spring, struck out five Cougars. She and the No. 7 Lancers (10-5), who edged Norco 1-0 in the semifinals last year before falling to Rosary Academy in the final, then lost to Ganesha 10-2 in Saturday’s third-place game.
Fullerton blasted five homers off of Ganesha ace Ava Phillips in its 9-4 semifinal triumph. Brock had a pair of two-run shots, Malaya Majam-Finch had a three-run home run and a solo and Andrea Montes added a solo homer as Fullerton won its ninth straight, a streak that began March 7 with a 3-2 upset over Norco at the Dave Kops Tournament of Champions in Arizona. Katelynn Mathews threw a seven-hitter with a strikeout and improved to 11-0.
Phillips allowed only four hits and struck out seven in Ganesha’s 3-2 upset of Loomis Del Oro in the first round Wednesday, then the junior transfer from Rosary outdueled Marina ace Mia Valbuena in a 4-1 win for the Giants (10-3) on Friday.
Los Alamitos (12-8) shared fifth place in the Gold Bracket with Chula Vista Mater Dei, the 2025 SoCal Division I regional champion. After throwing back-to-back no-hitters versus Rio Mesa and Los Altos on Wednesday to lift the Vikings into the top bracket, Valbuena was not in the circle in the seventh-place game against Anaheim Canyon, but her twin sister Avi hit an RBI double to tie it 2-2 in the top of the seventh.
The Comanches (12-8) prevailed 4-3 on a single by Emma Lindauer that scored Bella Alcala for the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.
Santa Maria St. Joseph took an early 3-0 lead and hung on to defeat Los Altos 4-2 for the Silver Bracket title. Jasmine Campos and Aaliyah Zamano had RBI hits for the Conquerors, who fell to 14-8.
Brooke Lebsock had a grand slam and Janai Stover added a two-run homer as Riverside King (14-4) won the Bronze Bracket with an 11-0 victory over Modesto Central Catholic.
Lauryn Kim homered and Kayla Cisneros, Addy Everett and Lizzie Hobbs each had two hits in Millikan’s 7-6 triumph over San Diego Cathedral in the consolation final.
The tournament debuted as the Canyon Tournament of Champions in the mid-1980s. Following the passing of Michelle Carew, who died from a rare form of leukemia in 1996 at the age of 18, it was renamed in her memory. She was the daughter of Angels Hall of Famer Rod Carew.
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The UConn Huskies men’s basketball team is one win away from reaching their third national championship in the last four years.
The Huskies got to the Final Four after a stunning Elite Eight win over the Duke Blue Devils when Braylon Mullins nailed a long 3-pointer to give them the lead right before the final buzzer. Duke reached the game with a victory over the St. John’s Red Storm.
Andrea Hurley, wife of UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley, watches the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame exhibition game between the UConn Huskies and Boston College Eagles at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on Oct. 13, 2025. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire)
Dan Hurley’s wife, Andrea, weighed in on St. John’s fans seemingly rooting against the Huskies as they took on the Michigan State Spartans in the other Sweet 16 matchup on that side of the bracket. It appeared the rivalry between the two schools is alive and well.
“OK, I’m gonna say it. St. John’s fans … When we went to the game, all those St. John’s fans were rooting against us,” Andrea Hurley said on “The Field of 68: After Dark.” “And that just broke my heart. … It’s really sad. … That’s crappy … That was crappy.”
2026 NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT: LAST TIME FINAL FOUR TEAMS MADE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
UConn head coach Dan Hurley talks with a referee during the first half of the Elite Eight NCAA tournament game against Duke in Washington on March 29, 2026. (Stephanie Scarbrough/AP)
Hurley said she was talking to Rick Pitino’s wife during the Big East Championship and asked her how she did it, seemingly forming a bond with the family over the rival school.She added that she may not have wanted to see the Red Storm in the tournament, but didn’t necessarily want to face the Blue Devils either.
Dan Hurley had praise for his wife earlier in the week after he said she was able to keep players from storming the court after Mullins’ shot went in against Duke. UConn may have received a technical foul for going on the court too early, which may have presented a different conversation from the media going into Final Four.
UConn head coach Dan Hurley speaks during a news conference ahead of the national semifinal NCAA college basketball tournament game against Illinois at the Final Four in Indianapolis on April 2, 2026. (Abbie Parr/AP)
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UConn will take on Illinois in their Final Four matchup. The winner will either play Arizona or Michigan.
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