Florida Panthers: Top 3 reasons why they should fire Dale Tallon
He’s Made Some Horrific Trades
Trades are a very important part of measuring how good a general manager is at what he does. No one’s going to win every trade and everyone’s bound to have a stinker or two on their resume. But generally, you want to see general managers make more “good” trades than “bad” trades.
Let’s look at the good trades Tallon has made since the start of the 2014-15 season. Please note I am not including trades made by Tom Rowe, who was the Panthers general manager from May of 2016 to April of 2017. Also, I won’t include every single trade. I’m just going to look at ones that directly impacted the Panthers and were meaningful trades.
Good Trades
While the Senators side of the Mike Hoffman three-way trade was inexplicably bad, the Panthers got Hoffman from the San Jose Sharks for a second-round pick, a fourth-round pick, and a fifth-round pick. I get why Hoffman was that cheap, but still, the Panthers got a very good goal scorer for a reasonable price. Hard not to call that trade a win.
Back in 2018, the Panthers took a chance on Frank Vatrano, a guy who scored at every level except the NHL. They gave a third-round pick to the Boston Bruins for him, and lo and behold, it turns out Vatrano did know to score in the NHL. He just needed a chance.
In 2015, the Panthers traded Jimmy Hayes to the Boston Bruins for Reilly Smith and Marc Savard’s contract. Savard never played again in the NHL, so that’s a wash. Smith wound up being a contributor for the Panthers while Hayes never did much for the Bruins.
At the 2015 trade deadline, the Panthers traded for Jaromir Jagr, giving up a second round pick and a third round pick. Even before considering what Jagr did on the ice, this trade was good because it significantly helped the development of guys like Barkov and Huberdeau.
Bad Trades
Tallon made a terrible trade this summer, trading James Reimer to the Carolina Hurricanes for Scott Darling and a sixth-round pick. The Panthers immediately bought out Darling. Meanwhile, Reimer’s has been a very capable backup goalie for the Hurricanes. Goalies are unpredictable, but everyone saw that coming.
Last season, Tallon traded Jared McCann, along with Nick Bjugstad, to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a second-round pick, two fourth-round picks, Derick Brassard, and Riley Sheahan. Even though the Panthers later got a third-round pick from the Colorado Avalanche for Brassard, this trade was objectively bad because McCann, to no one’s surprise, has been quite good in Pittsburgh.
Trading Jason Demers (with retained salary) for Jamie McGinn was an awful move. Demers is a capable NHL defenseman, albeit one who struggles to stay healthy at times. McGinn put up 36 points in 95 games for the Panthers.
Tallon didn’t make good moves at the 2016 deadline, but it’s not like he gave up much. However, he did a horrible job with the Vegas expansion draft. Tallon wanted to protect Alec Petrovic for some reason, so he decided to expose one of his top scorers from the previous season, Jonathan Marchessault. He did that so he could trade Reilly Smith to Vegas for a fourth-round pick.
In short, Tallon literally gave the Golden Knights two members of their top forward line. Marchessault and Smith have been good in Vegas. If nothing else, the Florida Panthers should get rid of Tallon so he doesn’t have a chance to do it again with Seattle.
So far, we’ve determined Tallon’s not a good drafter, nor does he stand out in trades (at least in a good way).