Panthers Season Preview: What's Dale Tallon waiting for?

It was something of a reawakening last season in Sunrise, Fla., and for fans of the Florida Panthers.

Roberto Luongo - the greatest Panther ever - was back for a full season. First overall draft pick Aaron Ekblad was enjoying a campaign for the ages, as far as 18-year-old rookie defensemen go. And the timeless Jaromir Jagr was helping to generate a real buzz when he was brought aboard for the postseason chase.

The Panthers were competing each and every night with this oddly effective melting pot they called a roster. New and old and everything in between.

But when it was over, it ended as it started: with empty BB&T Center seats, and a failure to qualify for the postseason for the 13th time in 14 seasons after a sixth-place finish in the Atlantic Division.

So is there grounds for optimism here? Is this the beginning of big things, or was the Panthers' paradoxical season one that saw everything that could go right, go right, and it still wasn't enough?

Dale Tallon doesn't seem to be buying that.

In fact, he isn't buying anything.

The Panthers' general manager didn't do a heck of a lot this summer to help push his club - which wilted in the face of late-season injuries - over the top.

He brought in Reilly Smith for Jimmy Hayes in an exchange of forwards that might account for a handful of points each way, give or take. He was certainly fortunate to see a potential top-five talent in Lawson Crouse slip to No. 11 at the draft, but though he has a pro build, it would probably be unfair to thrust top-six minutes onto a kid who still needs refining.

So the Panthers will move forward with but a nudge in the right direction.

This would be a concern for any team - bottom-feeder or title contender. It's especially problematic when their leading goal-scorer, Nick Bjugstad, is coming off back surgery, when the first-line right-winger will turn 44 in February, and when last season's super rookie has a potential sophomore hex lying in wait.

Perhaps the steps are being plotted, but carefully.

Despite the questions hanging over the club, from top to bottom, they might have the best defense in the East. Or at least the most underrated. In addition to the eyeballs he provided, Jagr also brought with him nearly a half goal per game last season to a club starved of goal-scoring, and helped make the once-floundering, now newly inked, Jonathan Huberdeau a point-per-game producer.

The Panthers may not have the horses, as it stands, to finish in the top eight when the horn sounds on 82 games. But with the resources to add, and with expiring and useful contracts to help the retooling process, Tallon's opportunity to see it unfold, to develop a proper assessment, and to act accordingly, might be an incredible advantage and a shrewd position to have put himself in.

In a summer of marked managerial patience, Tallon may have put himself in position to outlast and outsmart them all.

Or maybe just himself.

Projected Depth Chart

X-Factor

Aleksander Barkov had a quiet, but very strong, second season, doubling his goal total and providing steady work in the defensive zone from the center-ice position.

But with a second overall pedigree comes the expectation for much, much more. With him entering his third NHL season, now is the time to take a considerable step forward in terms of personal production.

It's the expectation from fans, but a need with respect to the organization, which was one of six teams to fail to score 200 goals, and was suffering through an all-out dearth before Jagr's arrival.

Centering Jagr (who's nearly a quarter-century older, by the way), Barkov should be in position to make the leap. He saw a 29-percent uptick in point production in the 21 starts with the veteran in the lineup.

Player to Watch

There's simply no one else - and that's not a slight at the Panthers. Jagr is absolutely incomparable.

The 43-year-old biological freak, who was dominating the league before many of his teammates were born, is back for a 25th NHL season - and out for more league records.

With 49 points, Jagr will pass Gordie Howe on the all-time points list and move into third behind Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. And with 20 goals, he'll move ahead of both Marcel Dionne and Brett Hull into third place all time.

He's the most incredible athlete in the NHL today, proven by the fact that his defiance in the face of Father Time has become a feat accepted as the norm.