Following Blackhawks blueprint, Tallon confident in Panthers' direction
SUNRISE, Fla. -- As Dale Tallon watched his former Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning to capture their third Stanley Cup title in six seasons, the Florida Panthers general manager couldn't help but feel that his newest project isn't that far behind.
Tallon, who is credited as one of the main architects of the current Blackhawks dynasty, believes that the blueprint he used in Chicago -- a team built through drafting and player development -- will soon bring the Panthers similar success.
"It says that we're headed in the right direction," Tallon said Thursday from the BB&T Center. "It's great for hockey and it makes me feel confident in the direction we're headed. When I started (in Chicago), I didn't know what I was doing... We tried different things and if things didn't work we'd go in a different direction.
"Now that it worked, I'm confident in my abilities to do it again."
For the Panthers, the next stage of their journey will take place at the 2015 NHL Draft, which will be held June 25-26 at the BB&T Center in Sunrise. As he makes his final preparations, Tallon currently has nine picks to play with, including the No. 11 overall selection, and is eager to improve upon his team's already strong foundation.
"Our goal's to draft nine guys this year that all play in the NHL for us," said Tallon, who has already overseen five drafts since joining the Panthers in 2010. "That's the goal, regardless of where we're drafting, let's get the best players, make sure we do our homework and get the character, the size, the skill and all those assets that we enjoy having."
There is, however, some speculation that the Panthers might be tempted to part with their first-round selection in order to improve their immediate future by acquiring a proven scorer. While Tallon did admit that he was open to the idea, he insisted that the team would not "do something silly" in order to make a splash simply because they are hosting the event.
"You never know," Tallon said with his best poker face. "Conversations are starting to heat up here now. People are looking to see what their cap situations are, where they're headed and what they have to do to stay under the cap.
"It's starting to heat up as far as 'what are you going to do with that pick? Would you give us that pick for this player'. That's just going to get more intense here in the next two weeks. We're listening to all options to make our team better."
If the Panthers do choose to stand pat on draft day, Tallon says the team has two glaring needs that will need to be addressed over the course of the two-day event: speed and scoring. After spending their first-round pick on center Aleksander Barkov and defenseman Aaron Ekblad in the 2013 and 2014 drafts, Florida now has its sights firmly set on procuring a talented winger.
"We might look at what our needs our," said Tallon, who has had the luxury of simply taking the best player available in recent drafts. "Our depth chart is deep up the middle. If you look at our future, our far as the backend is concerned, it's terrific. There are a lot of different good, young players in this draft that fit our needs."
Of the players that might still be on the board when the Panthers find themselves on the clock in the first round, there are three dynamic forwards in particular that stand out as meeting Tallon's criteria: Mikko Rantanen, Pavel Zacha and Timo Meier.
"We hope they're all there," Tallon said of the trio. "We like them all. The first 15 players [in the draft] are excellent players so were' going to get a really good player whether it's a forward or a defenseman. We're obviously privately focusing on forward but, like I said, if one of those top young defensemen slip in there, we're not opposed to doing that as well."
As he often does, Tallon will likely play things close to the vest on draft day and remained fairly coy when asked about the multitude of options the Panthers have with the No. 11 pick. And while it's impossible to predict exactly how events will unfold and what players will land where, there is one thing that Tallon is certain of when it comes to the Panthers -- they're close.
"We're not far off," he said confidently. "We're really excited about our future."
You can follow Jameson Olive on Twitter @JamesonCoop or email him at JamesonOlive@gmail.com.
