Panthers' Tallon 'confident' Hoffman will be embraced by team

Mike Hoffman has been employed by three different hockey franchises in the last handful of hours after being dealt from Ottawa to San Jose, and then from San Jose to Florida before noon on Tuesday.

So naturally, there were questions to be answered surrounding the Panthers' newest addition and his fit in Florida. None were more important than the one related to Hoffman's recent off-ice issues - specifically, his girlfriend's alleged campaign of harassment against Erik Karlsson and his wife.

"We did our homework and we discussed it with a lot of different people," Panthers general manager Dale Tallon said of Hoffman, according to Joshua Clipperton of the Canadian Press. "We feel that's in the past ... we're very confident he'll be embraced by our team and by their wives and girlfriends."

Reports emerged last week regarding Hoffman's longtime girlfriend, Monica Caryk, and her alleged online harassment of the Karlssons over the last year.

However, according to Tallon, there won't be any issues with welcoming Caryk into the Panthers' group of wives and girlfriends. "It's important. We have a young group. We have a great room," Tallon said, according to Chris Stevenson of The Athletic.

"Our wives and girlfriends really got along great last year. They are a young group. That has to have some sort of impact, but I think they tend to get along better when the team wins more."

Tallon acquired Hoffman in exchange for the Panthers' fourth- and fifth-round picks in 2018, and a second-rounder in 2019.