The Florida Panthers have shaken up their staff as their season came to an end. Tom Rowe, who replaced Gerard Gallant after he was fired at the end of November, has stepped down as the team’s head coach. Dale Tallon has also been named the team’s general manager.
Dale Tallon Becomes Florida Panthers GM; Tom Rowe Steps Down as Coach
Rowe went 24-27-10 with the team over the course of their season. The losing record landed them sixth in the Atlantic Division, finishing with 81 points. Before he was fired, Gerard Gallant had a recod of 85-55-23 with the Panthers.
The team’s season wasn’t all Rowe’s fault though. Star defenseman Aaron Ekblad missed 14 games. Jussi Jokinen missed 13 games, Aleksander Barkov missed 21, and Nick Bjugstad missed 28. Needless to say, the Panthers were injury-filled. They also had a lack of production from their forwards. Vincent Trochek and Jaromir Jagr were the leading point scorers for the team, only putting up 54 and 46 points respectively. Those numbers only go down further as you look at other players, including Jokinen who only had 28 points despite having 60 points last year. Now that Rowe has been relieved of his coaching duties, he is stick around with the team as an advisor; losing his front office title as well.
Dale Tallon has also been re-assigned to the general manager’s spot. The office has been relatively conflicted recently. Tallon was first hired to the position in 2010, after a stint with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Rowe replaced Tallon as the general manager last May, but Tallon stuck around with the team. After Rowe took over as the team’s interim head coach, Tallon seemed to unofficially take over as the team’s general manager. Now, Tallon is officially named the leader of the team. His first task will be to find a new head coach.
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