Tallon’s 10-year run as Panthers GM ends
The Panthers will have a new general manager next season, making the announcement early Monday that Dale Tallon is leaving the franchise after 10 years.
Tallon’s contract as president of hockey operations and GM expired July 1, and was extended by Panthers owner Vincent Viola to get through the remainder of a season that was stretched out by the coronavirus pandemic. The Panthers were eliminated from the playoffs Friday, falling to the Islanders in four games.
That ouster, the end of yet another season of high expectations that didn’t deliver as planned, sealed Tallon’s fate. The team said it was a mutual decision for Tallon to leave.
The Panthers went to the postseason just three times in the decade that Tallon spent with the club. They haven’t won a playoff series since the franchise’s lone run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996.
It’s believed that the Panthers will look outside the organization for a new GM. Senior VP of hockey operations and assistant GM Eric Joyce will likely continue to oversee the team’s AHL club.
And Roberto Luongo, the longtime Panthers goalie whose jersey was retired by the club earlier this year, is expected to remain with the club. Luongo was brought on this season as a special advisor to Tallon, but isn’t believed to be a GM candidate.
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