“The one thing I can say for sure, for somebody like myself, to have somebody at the top who is progressive and who has an understanding of the nuances of a role like mine in a department like mine, I think that that really stood for a lot,” O’Brien said. “When I was working with the Panthers, I felt that the Panthers had that in Bill Zito. He wasn’t interested in doing things simply because that’s what other teams were doing or because that’s the way it was done before. He was always really good at asking the question, what is the best way to do it?I felt like John is very bright. He’s very progressive. I thought it was just a great opportunity to be a part of that.”
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“Bob is the guy who’s in his late 30s. But his biologic age is younger than his chronologic age, if you ask me. Like, he’s got a relatively young body. He’s young because he takes such good care of himself. He doesn’t have the same wear and tear as a goalie that’s 37, 38 years old. So I’m a big fan of Bob as a person and as an athlete.”
