Florida Panthers: Top 3 reasons why they should fire Dale Tallon

The Florida Panthers have been extremely patient with general manager Dale Tallon. It’s about time they part ways and go in a different direction.

The Florida Panthers have been fighting mediocrity for most of their existence. They’ve only made the playoffs five times in their first 25 seasons. In four of those seasons, the Panthers didn’t get out of the first round. Their highest of highs came 24 years ago when they got swept by the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Panthers struggles over the last decade have one common thread – Dale Tallon. Back in 2010, the Panthers hired Tallon to run their front office. The whole reason he was available was because Tallon proved himself to be expendable with the Chicago Blackhawks. Tallon’s time with the Blackhawks included drafting both Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, but it also included forgetting to send in the paperwork to qualify some free agents.

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Since hiring him, they’ve made the playoffs just twice, losing in the first round each time. The most points they’ve had in any season is 103. They’ve only gotten at least 90 points four times in 11 seasons with Tallon in charge.

Though he hasn’t technically been their general manager for all 11 seasons, he’s been their GM for most of the past 11 seasons. And when Tallon wasn’t their general manager, he was their President of Hockey Operations.

While there’s something to be said about being patient, the Panthers have given Tallon an embarrassingly long leash. And it’s hard to see why they’re sticking with him. The Panthers are hardly better off than they were before they hired Tallon.

This season, the goal was to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite their best efforts to the contrary, the Panthers are very much in the postseason hunt. Entering Feb. 19, they’re two points short of the Toronto Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division and the Panthers have several games in hand.

But even if the Panthers do make the postseason, they should move on from Dale Tallon. Here are three reasons why.

He Isn’t Good At Drafting

Drafting is crucial to building a Stanley Cup contender. Show me a Stanley Cup champion in the salary cap era, and I’ll show you a team that built through the draft. It’s especially important for teams like the Florida Panthers, who don’t have much financial clout.

Supporters of Tallon will quickly point out the Panthers have gotten players like Aaron Ekblad, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Aleksander Barkov through the draft. This is true. However, all three of those players were drafted in the top three. You’re expected to draft a good player in the top three.

Let’s take a look at how Tallon has done in all of his NHL drafts with the Panthers. He has made a total of 77 draft picks. 30 of them have played in the NHL.

How many of those players actually stuck around in the NHL? It’s still too early to tell for recent draft picks like Spencer Knight, Grigori Denisenko, Owen Tippett, and Henrik Borgstrom, but only 18 of the Panthers draft picks since 2010 have played in at least 82 NHL games (one full NHL season).

However, a few of those players deserve some asterisks because they never played for the Panthers.

• Zach Hyman (traded for Greg McKegg)
• Joonas Donskoi (didn’t sign with Panthers)
• Lawson Crouse (traded to Arizona Coyotes as a sweetener for taking on David Bolland (more on him later)
• Iiro Pakarinen (didn’t sign with Panthers)

That cuts it down to 14 players in 11 years. Of those 14, only seven of them currently play for the Panthers. That’s less than one player per year, which doesn’t cut it for a team that relies on the draft like the Panthers. Furthermore, only four of Tallon’s 12 first-round picks are currently contributing to the Panthers.

Even if you want to be generous and argue Borgstrom and Tippett should be in the NHL, that’s still just six out of 12. The Panthers are a team who needs to draft well and it’s hard to argue Tallon has done that. He’s done a terrible job of hitting on non-first round picks.

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).