To continue on yesterday’s best Dale Tallon moves with the Florida Panthers, we’ll go over his worst moves today. Even though he’s made some good moves for the team, there’s always some rough spots along the way.
2010 would mark the start of Tallon’s “Blueprint”, the rebuild of the Panthers. His first draft would be somewhat of a mixed bag after taking defenseman Erik Gudbranson 3rd overall.
A pick that definitely became a fan favorite, but didn’t exactly amount to some of the fellow players in his draft class. Tallon would also miss out on bringing in talent like Jason Zucker, Joonas Donskoi and Michael Grabner.
The Panthers dealt away Keith Ballard and Victor Oreskovich for Grabner, Steve Bernier and a draft pick that would turn into Quinton Howden. Grabner would eventually slip away to the New York Islanders after being placed on waivers.
After trading the 15th overall pick to the Los Angeles Kings the 19th and 59th overall picks belonged to the Panthers in 2010. Those picks would be Nick Bjugstad and Jason Zucker, Zucker’s pick however would be dealt to the Minnesota Wild.
The Cats would get the 99th overall pick in return and selected Joonas Donskoi. However, the Panthers and Donskoi were unable to reach an agreement on a contract and he’d slip to free agency.
The glaring mistake Tallon made that none of us fans will forget anytime soon is brining in Dave Bolland. July 1st 2014, Bolland would sign a 5 year $25.5 million dollar contract with the team that would end up becoming a horrible deal before he even stepped foot on the ice.
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He’d only play in parts of two seasons with the team and would log 78 games, 7 goals and 21 assists in that time. Just luckily, he wasn’t the GM responsible for Keith Yandle’s 7 year $44 million dollar deal..
There’s not too many bad Dale Tallon moves to talk about which goes to show how much progress the Panthers have made. Prior to his arrival, they had a very hard time drafting and bringing in talent, whether it be via free agency or trade.