SUNRISE, Fla. — So far in these playoffs, nobody on the Florida Panthers roster has collected more points than Brad Marchand and no skater has logged more ice time than Seth Jones. Meet the latest examples of Bill Zito pushing all the right buttons.

The Panthers’ general manager and president of hockey operations made perhaps the biggest splashes of trade-deadline time in the NHL, landing Marchand from Boston and Jones from Chicago with hopes of giving the defending Stanley Cup champions their best possible chance at winning the title again this year.

It’s obvious that the moves were the right ones. Marchand has 12 points so far in the playoffs, tied with Eetu Luostarinen for the team lead. Jones had the first goal in Florida’s 6-1 win at Toronto in Game 7 of that Eastern Conference semifinal series on Sunday night. And on Tuesday night, when the Panthers take on the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the East finals, Marchand and Jones will be a featured part of the Florida attack.

“On the ice, they’ve been, shall I say, as advertised,” Zito said.

Few would have thought pulling off such moves was possible. Jones had five years left on his Chicago contract, and even with the Blackhawks retaining 26% it still means that Florida has committed about $35 million to the defenseman.

In the short term, it helped that the Panthers were able to gain some salary-cap space when defenseman Aaron Ekblad was suspended 20 games without pay for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program. Ekblad’s $7.5 million salary did not count against the salary cap while he was suspended. And now, in the postseason, where there are no cap restrictions on NHL rosters, Jones and Ekblad, two elite defensemen, are both in the lineup.

Marchand, meanwhile, had spent his entire career in Boston, a rival of Florida’s, and it’s reasonable to think that the Bruins weren’t clamoring to help the Panthers this spring.

Jones and Marchand were made to feel like lifetime Panthers from Day 1. Zito insisted that would be the case.

“One of the main things that surprised me was it’s easy to be complacent, especially after they won a Cup and I wasn’t sure how that was going to feel, but coming in you can just feel the drive to win another one and just be better every single day,” Jones said. “And that’s individually, each guy, all the way from our best players, our first-liners to our fourth-liners. Every guy wants to get better and learn and play for one another so It’s awesome to be a part of.”

Zito didn’t just get Marchand and Jones because they’re big names and big-time players who would lead to splashy headlines. The Panthers had specific needs as the season progressed and penalty killing was identified as the top priority.

Zito went to work. The result: a third straight trip to the Eastern Conference finals, four wins away from a third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

“You credit Bill Zito and his group,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We went into the trade deadline feeling that was the place that we need to get better. Again, we lost some important killers from our team last year. And he delivered.”

But this is what Zito does — and has done since he got hired by the Panthers in 2020. He was at the Panthers’ championship parade last June, in a tremendous downpour with thunder and lightning, knowing that his roster was going to change in less than 24 hours. Some players were leaving. He had some candidates to replace them in mind. Cap space was at a premium. The deals he was about to strike had to work, or else the chances of defending the title would take a big hit.

So far, so good. He signed Nate Schmidt, a defenseman who has become a big part of the Panthers’ core. He signed A.J. Greer, who had a team-best seven hits in Game 7 at Toronto (along with Sam Bennett). He signed Tomáš Nosek, who had a huge part in the rally from 3-1 down in Game 3 against Toronto that probably saved the series. And he did all that while figuring out how to give players such as Sam Reinhart, Dmitry Kulikov, Anton Lundell extensions last summer and then another to Carter Verhaeghe last fall.

Those are just some of the moves over the most recent few months of Zito’s body of work, which also includes things such as landing Matthew Tkachuk from Calgary, luring Maurice out of what might be best described as semi-retirement and locking up captain Aleksander Barkov on a deal that could keep him in Florida for the entirety of his career. The result is a club that is sound defensively, potent offensively and as deep as any.

“We just weren’t on the same page and (the Panthers) get a couple goals and momentum like that and then you’re chasing the game,” Toronto captain Auston Matthews said Sunday night. “And it’s hard to get it back, when you’re down three against a good team that plays sound defensively like them.”

Zito has been a GM of the year candidate before and should be a strong — if not the strongest — candidate again this year. But he is also quick to insist that it is a collective effort; yes, he may oversee it, but he’s empowered people in the organization to state their case loudly on certain moves before he makes the ultimate decisions.

“We rely significantly on the scouts, on the analytics guys to identify players, and then we try to find ways to fit pieces into the puzzle,” Zito said. “And it’s not always the most expensive or the least expensive. It’s the best fit. It’s the best fit for that part. And our guys have done a fantastic job of identifying people who would be a fit, and also at a price point that we think we can get them in.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.