Dale Tallon

Michael "Dale" Tallon (born October 19, 1950) is a Canadian ice hockey executive and former player.

He played in the NHL for ten years as a defenceman for the

Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Black Hawks and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Following his retirement as a player, Tallon began a broadcasting career with the Blackhawks lasting 16 years.

Tallon played in the 1961 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with Noranda.

He began his junior career at sixteen years old with the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey Association.

Highly anticipated in Oshawa, he went on to score 12 goals and 43 points over 50 games as a rookie in 1967–68.

Despite leading all General defencemen in scoring and ranking third on the team overall, he was traded to the Toronto Marlboros in the off-season in exchange for five players.

In Toronto, he improved to 17 goals and 49 points over 48 games.

Tallon is also a distinguished golfer, having won the 1969 Canadian Junior Golf Championship and participated in the Canadian PGA Tour.

In 1969–70, his third and last junior year, Tallon recorded OHA career-highs of 39 goals, 40 assists and 79 points (10th in league scoring) over 54 games.

He added 12 goals and 29 points over 18 playoff games, as the Marlboros lost to the Montreal Jr. Canadiens in the J. Ross Robertson Cup Finals.

Tallon has recalled "forcing things" in his first two junior years due to his playing in new cities with high expectations of him and that it wasn't until his last year that he "finally relaxed and it all came together."

Having completed a successful third season in the OHA, Tallon was among the top prospects going into the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft.

Selected second overall, he went to the Vancouver Canucks, a new franchise in the NHL.

They had lost the first overall pick in a lottery draw to their fellow expansion team, the Buffalo Sabres, who selected Gilbert Perreault.

In his rookie season, he scored 14 goals and led the Canucks with 42 assists.

His 17 goals for Vancouver in 1971–72 was a career high.

A leading scorer on the team, Tallon represented the Canucks in the 1971 and 1972 NHL All-Star Games.

Following his second NHL season, Tallon was selected to Team Canada's roster for the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union.

Designated as a reserve, he played in an exhibition game against Sweden, but did not compete in the main series.

Following his third season with Vancouver, in which he scored 13 goals and 37 points, he was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks on May 14, 1973, in exchange for Gary Smith and Jerry Korab.

Tallon was widely seen as a replacement for Bobby Hull, whom the Black Hawks had lost to the World Hockey Association that offseason; he was even given Hull's old number 9.

In his first preseason game, fans, still upset over losing Hull to the WHA, booed Tallon relentlessly, prompting the Black Hawks to assign him another number almost immediately.

His best season in Chicago was in 1975–76, when he scored 15 goals and had a team-high and career-high 47 assists.

In five seasons with the Black Hawks, he scored 44 goals and 112 assists for 156 points.

On October 9, 1978, Tallon was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a second-round choice in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft.

He played two seasons with the Penguins, scoring 10 goals with 33 assists, before retiring.

In his ten-season NHL career, Tallon scored 98 goals and had 238 assists for 336 points in 642 games played.

Following his retirement as a player, Tallon returned to the Blackhawks franchise as a broadcaster.

He went on to spend 16 seasons as an analyst for Blackhawks radio and television broadcasts.

In 1998, he joined the front office as director of player personnel before working his way up to general manager.

In 1998, Tallon joined the Blackhawks front office as director of player personnel, a position he held until 2002.

Tallon also served the same role in the 2002–03 NHL season between his two stints in the Blackhawks' front office.

After then serving as assistant general manager, beginning on November 5, 2003, he was named the Blackhawks' eighth general manager in team history on June 21, 2005, succeeding Bob Pulford.

Tallon's first season as the Blackhawks general manager was a busy one.

The 2004–05 NHL season was lost to a labor dispute, and the new collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players was signed in July 2005.

Serving in the latter capacity from 2005 to 2009, he helped rebuild the team into a Stanley Cup winner in 2010, at which point he had been demoted to assistant general manager.

In May 2010, he was named general manager for the Panthers for the 2010–11 NHL season, serving in that position until August 2020.

He returned to the Canucks organization in 2022 as a scout and senior adviser.