The revolving door with the Florida Panthers organization continues with the news that Dale Tallon will take over the role of general manager replacing Randy Sexton (reported by George Richards), he’ll also be the Panthers third GM in three years. Tallon is the former GM of the Chicago Blackhawks and has been in the role of a senior adviser since July 2009. Tallon is credited with turning the Blackhawks around from a last place team to the contender that they are today.
That’s good news for the Florida Panthers bringing in someone with some experience in turning a team around. We’ll have to wait and see what it means for the Rochester Americans. The Ice Hogs have had a competitive team with winning records in recent years, not sure how much he had to do with it though.
We’ve all questioned the comments by Randy Sexton about the players and coaching staff here in Rochester and now they mean nothing as someone new will have to come in and “evaluate things.” That can only mean good news for the Amerks, if he does his homework.
Bob McKenzie sent out a tweet saying that Randy Sexton has been let go from the Panthers organization, his contract was set to expire at the end of June.
Here’s more on Dale Tallon from Wikipedia:
Tallon was named the eighth general manager of the Blackhawks on June 21, 2005. Tallon had served as the assistant general manager since November 5, 2003, assisting then general manager Bob Pulford. Tallon had previously served as the director of player personnel for the Blackhawks from 1998 to 2002.
Tallon’s first season as the Blackhawks general manager was a busy one. The 2004–05 NHL season was lost to a labor dispute, and the new collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players was signed in July, 2005. Between the new financial structure and many rules changes intended to produce a higher scoring game, Tallon was challenged to build a new team. Tallon signed many free agents, including Nikolai Khabibulin [1], Adrian Aucoin [2], and Martin Lapointe [3], which led to raised expectations. The Blackhawks finished Tallon’s first season with 26 wins, 43 losses, and 13 overtime losses, for 65 points, ranking the Blackhawks 14th in the 15-team Western Conference, and with the third least points in the NHL.
He has since turned the Blackhawk franchise around by drafting young talents Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and with the acquisitions of Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg, among others. He has also brought in free-agent defenseman Brian Campbell to improve the teams powerplay. For the 2008-2009 season, the Blackhawks finished the season with a 46-24-12 record for 104 points to finish 4th in the 15 team Western Conference. The team made it to the Western Conference Finals, where they were eliminated in 5 games by the Detroit Red Wings, which then went on to lose in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Since then, Tallon has added to the team by signing star winger Marián Hossa and Selke Award-winner John Madden.
In early July, Tallon and the Blackhawks management came under fire when the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) claimed the team did not submit offers to their restricted free agents before the deadline.[4] In the worst case scenario, the team’s unsigned restricted free agents at the time, including Calder Memorial Trophy finalist Kris Versteeg, would have become unrestricted free agents.[4] Despite the commotion, Tallon was able to sign Versteeg and all of their restricted free agents before the NHLPA could take proper actions.[4]
On July 14, 2009, the Blackhawks demoted Tallon to the position of Senior Adviser. Stan Bowman, son of Scotty Bowman, was promoted to general manager.[5] The following day, Martin Havlat, who played for the Blackhawks during the previous season, criticized the team’s management and defended Tallon.[6] He stated, “Every single player on that team is with Dale. I still talk to the guys all the time, hockey players know a phony when they see one.”[6] He specifically berated John McDonough, the team’s president, commenting “McDonough couldn’t stand that Dale was so successful and getting the credit for building the Hawks from a last place team to making the Conference Finals in 3 short years.”[6]
The press conference is on Tuesday at 11am, more news and information once it becomes available.
