Florida Panthers
Reports: Florida Panthers replacing general manager Dale Tallon
The day after the Florida Panthers lost to the New York Islanders in the 2016 playoffs, my phone was buzzing with word Dale Tallon would no longer be the team’s general manager.
This time, the news moved faster.
Not long after the Panthers’ season came to a close Friday afternoon — again, at the hands of the Islanders — the first report that Tallon was out surfaced.
Andy Strickland of Fox Sports Midwest first reported that the Panthers were moving on from Tallon a rumor which had been bubbling for the past few weeks.
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A short while later, Canada’s Sportsnet confirmed Strickland’s initial report.
The Panthers have not commented on the rumors and Tallon’s name remains on their website as of Friday evening as the team’s president of hockey operations.
Hearing a change is coming with the Florida Panthers. Team moving on from Dale Tallon #flapanthers
— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) August 7, 2020
When Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Pronger, who was seen as being groomed as Tallon’s replacement, left the team as its Senior VP of Hockey Operations last month, reports surfaced he did so not entirely to focus on a family business, but because the team had someone else in mind for Tallon’s job.
Eric Joyce, the team’s assistant general manager and confidant of owner Vinnie Viola, is thought to be the potential replacement although the team could look elsewhere.
Eric Joyce, Florida Panthers assistant GM
Joyce joined the team’s hockey operations department not long after Viola bought the team in 2013.
Aside from being co-GM with Steve Werier during the 2016-17 season when Tom Rowe stepped down to be the team’s interim head coach, Joyce has run the team’s AHL affiliate since 2014.
More as the story develops.
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Must be quite the gag order wafting around out there; zero output from the team nor anywhere else since initial “report”. What’s most concerning is Florida not issuing an immediate denial re Tallon and the Panthers “parting ways” (I’m using the original tweet’s wording). It has been well over 24 hours since said tweet emerged and every media outlet has gone dark on the subject following it, minus Sportsnet which posted a vague reference soon afterword. No reflection on you GR whatsoever, nor am I asking a question of any sort, just personally find it curious that particular road dead-ended… Read more »
Every move Tallon has made over the past 2 years has failed except the Saarela and Hoffman trades.
70 percent of the roster didn’t show up to the play-in series. The expectation was that with Coach Q, Bobrovsky, Stralman, and Connolly that Tallon had addressed all the weaknesses of the 2018-2019 Panthers.
None of those moves worked. Combine that with the expansion draft fiasco and Matheson contract…Tallon has been a disaster. Two years ago you could have said he is an average GM.
I’m not defending him. In fact I’d welcome the change but as a fan I’d appreciate some clarification from the club as to what is going on. Other than Q’s post game presser Friday no one from upper management has even acknowledged the series has ended, or when dressing room clean out exit interviews are coming. Or anything. A bit unusual.