Tallon showing he wants his team back, no matter what it takes

Dale Tallon appears determined to undo the work of Tom Rowe, and he doesn't seem to care too much about what's required to do so.

By jettisoning defenseman Jason Demers to the Arizona Coyotes for grinding forward Jamie McGinn on Sunday, the Florida Panthers general manager made his second obvious reversal of a Rowe transaction since re-assuming the GM position in April.

Tallon also traded Reilly Smith and his five-year, $25-million contract to the Vegas Golden Knights on the day of the expansion draft in June, getting back a fourth-round pick.

Rowe, who originally replaced Tallon as Panthers GM in the spring of 2016, signed both Demers and Smith to long-term deals, inking Demers to a five-year, $22.5-million contract on July 2, 2016, a day before finalizing the Smith pact.

That Tallon was only able to get a physical, but largely unproductive winger in McGinn for Demers, and a fourth rounder in return Smith, isn't too surprising, given the difficulty many GMs have trading players signed to long-terms deals.

What's telling, though, is that he was so willing to part with them, that he was perfectly content dumping their salaries for minimal returns, and that he was reportedly willing to retain 12.5 percent of Demers' salary in Sunday's trade to ensure the blue-liner's departure.

Tallon's attempt to redo Rowe's roster restructuring runs deeper than that, too.

Demers revealed Sunday that he had to use his modified no-trade clause to veto a trade that would have sent him to the Vancouver Canucks for Erik Gudbranson, the defenseman Rowe dealt away for Jared McCann in a move that also involved a few picks in May 2016.

In other words, Tallon unsuccessfully tried to get a player back that his predecessor (and successor) sent packing.

There's been no public indication that Tallon was upset about being promoted out of the GM role when Rowe was appointed to replace him, but now that Tallon is back in his old job, his latest moves are providing a window into how he may have felt about the roster.

While Demers and Smith are both solid players, signing them to five-year contracts was ill-advised, even if the moves came following a season in which Florida won its first-ever Atlantic Division crown.

The Panthers lost in the first round of the playoffs that spring, but Tallon built the team that notched that historic regular-season achievement, and he put together much of the core that gave South Florida newfound hope on the hockey front.

But under Rowe's leadership, the Panthers struggled out of the gate, and the GM exercised a quick trigger finger, firing head coach Gerard Gallant and jumping behind the bench himself, with disappointing results.

Tallon's back in the saddle now, though, and the longtime executive appears willing to do whatever it takes to restore the lineup to the way it was during his previous run.

Given the Panthers' recent track record, it's hard to argue with that strategy.

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