The Florida Panthers will launch and support a new girls' hockey program as part of the Florida Jr. Panthers, which will be overseen by the organization's new Youth Travel Hockey Director, Rob Granato, with the goal of growing girls' hockey in the Sunshine State.
More opportunities for girls to play hockey are coming to South Florida as the Florida Panthers recently announced the launch of a Tier II (A & AA) girls hockey program.
The program, which will be supported by the NHL's Florida Panthers, will compete out of Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale and the Panthers IceDen in Coral Springs beginning next season.
"It's exciting, it's something we've talked about for years trying to get the support, trying to get the organizations together and really allow the young women and girls in our community a chance to play and to enjoy our great game and to be part of a team and to have have fun, and to dream big and have the same opportunities here that children do in other areas," said Florida Panthers' general manager Bill Zito.
Rob Granato was hired as the Panthers' Youth Travel Hockey Director, and will oversee the launch.
"When I first met with Bill, I think five minutes into our first conversation was, we need to have a girls program, we talked about it and we just said, that's priority number one," said Granato.
Granato is the brother of Hockey Hall of Fame member Cammi Granato, a long time member of USA's women's national team.
"Growing up when Cammi was younger, and the limited opportunities she had to play, there was no Olympic team, there was no professional teams, very few youth hockey teams, there were actually very few college teams," Rob Granato said. "So I lived that growing up with her, watched her play with boys and her struggle on where to play and how to progress and she loved the game of hockey, just the limited opportunities, so I've had a soft spot in my heart every since then."
Granato worked with the Lucky Pucks organization in Florida to help get the ball rolling as well. This will be Granato's fourth time launching a girls' hockey organization.
He hopes eventually the Florida Jr. Panthers' girls organization will help promote girls to collegiate hockey, and someday the pro ranks and Olympics.
There are currently no Florida products in the PWHL, although the league will likely welcome their first member from Florida via the 2026 PWHL Draft. That player is Rockledge, Florida product Jordan Ray who recently completed her fourth season playing for Yale scoring a career-high 49 points in 36 games.