‘One of the best in the business’: Robb Tallas a key to strong Panthers goaltending
When Paul Maurice took over as the head coach of the Florida Panthers ahead of the 2022-23 season, he did as most head coaches do and overhauled the entire coaching staff.
Well, except for one.
The lone holdover: Robb Tallas, who has been the Panthers’ goaltending coach since the 2009-10 season. Maurice is the ninth head coach (including three interims) Tallas has worked for in that span. He has also seen Florida shuffle through three general managers before Bill Zito took over in September 2020.
But Maurice had good reason for keeping Tallas. He got the scouting report from the man who initially hired Tallas to the post in Pete DeBoer, who is one of Maurice’s close friends.
“’You’re gonna love the guy,’” Maurice remembers DeBoer telling him. “Inevitably when the coaches get changed, no matter how good the assistant coaches are, at some point, they all go because the new regime will come in and say ‘No. I don’t want anybody. I don’t want any holdovers.’ And that’s smart sometimes to start completely fresh. But he stays for a reason because he’s that good.”
Tallas is now entering his 17th season with the Panthers. He’s been here for the lengthy lows and the recent highs the franchise has gone through.
Florida missed the Stanley Cup playoffs in eight of his first 10 seasons with the club before this current run of six consecutive playoff runs, including three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances and back-to-back championships.
“It’s incredible,” Tallas said on the ice at Amerant Bank Arena in June after the Panthers won their second consecutive Stanley Cup. “I think when you go through some hard seasons and some seasons where you don’t make the playoffs, you learn from it.”
Tallas has done a lot of learning over the past 16 seasons with the Panthers. His coaching methods have evolved with experience, just as the Panthers have evolved into perennial contenders over the past few years.
But the core of what has made him successful, according to those who have worked closest with him, has remained steadfast.
“He always sees the best in each goalie,” said Panthers starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
Roberto Luongo has seen that up close from multiple perspectives. Luongo was coached by Tallas for the final five-plus seasons of his Hockey Hall of Fame career and now works side-by-side with him as two key members of Florida’s Goaltending Excellence Department.
From being tutored by Tallas to now working with him to develop the Panthers’ goaltenders of the future, Luongo has a great reference point to Tallas’ strengths as a coach.
“He’s one of the best in the business, especially when it comes to the mental side of the game,” Luongo said. “He’s second to none on that.”
That’s a benefit for Maurice, who is quick to note he knows nothing about goaltending and defers anything about that portion of the game to Tallas.
But there is one aspect of Tallas’ coaching style that meshes perfectly with how Maurice operates.
“Robbie is incredibly honest about the game,” said Maurice, who is known for his own blunt honesty. “You can trust what he says. He’s not trying to be the goalie’s friend. He’s a coach.”
And Tallas has learned how to adapt his coaching style based on the tandem of players he is working with each year. Unlike the rest of the coaching staff, which has 20-plus skaters to work with on a daily basis, Tallas generally has two goaltenders to work with during the season.
Goalies are interesting. They’re wired differently. They’re typically set in their routines and every goalie’s routine is different, leaving it up to Tallas to individualize plans for each of his netminders in order to maximize their production.
“He knows how to get to know different people at a very personable level,” said Spencer Knight, who spent parts of four seasons as a Panthers backup goaltender before being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in March. “He knows what works for Bob doesn’t work for me. And he’s not always the X’s and O’s all the time. He’s not like, ‘Do this, do this, do this.’ We introduce ideas, we collaborate, and we eventually evolve. That’s what makes him so good. He knows how to coach different characters. ... Everyone’s different, but he knows how to find what works for those guys.”
The track record is there. During his time with the Panthers, Tallas has worked with many of the franchise’s top goalies, including Tomas Vokoun, Luongo and Bobrovsky.
But then there are also the backups with whom he has either helped kickstart their careers or helped revive them and allow them to parlay their success in Florida to bigger roles later in their careers. Knight, Anthony Stolarz, Alex Lyon, Sam Montembeault, Chris Driedger and James Reimer fit that mold. Florida hopes Daniil Tarasov is the next in that wave.
“Alex Lyon is considerably different than Stolie or Driedger or Bob, but somehow he manages to pull the best out of everybody,” Zito said. “He can have a conversation. The goalie could say ‘Oh, I let one in. I suck. We lost the game. It’s all my fault.’ He could say ‘Yeah. It is. No one’s really too worried about that. Come on. Let’s go get back.’ It sets the tone for what the year’s gonna be. It’s ‘I’m gonna make mistakes and we’re gonna work together to get through it and get better.’ You watch him after a game and he’s exhausted because he lives it and he cares.”
Tallas’ tell-it-like-it-is approach, one Maurice says he handles with a delicate balance of intensity and grace, has been pivotal for Bobrovsky during his renaissance over the past three years following three years of struggles to begin his Florida tenure.
The two have bonded over their desire to get better and their tireless work ethics, and that relationship has only been fortified as the years have progressed.
“He’s one of those coaches that you rely on,” Bobrovsky said. “We work well together. He finds my strengths and finds the best solutions and we move forward.”
One of those areas where Tallas has been integral in Bobrovsky’s development so late in his career: Game management.
Bobrovsky, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner who ranks 10th all time in career NHL wins (429), is the type of player who wants to be in the net every game each season. Tallas has helped him better balance his in-season schedule, keeping him ideally to 55 games max in the regular season. Tallas maps out the goalie schedule before the season begins. Barring injuries, he doesn’t deviate from that plan.
“He’s been smart with the game loads, finding where to test rests and where to push,” Bobrovsky said. “It’s been smart. In the season, you want to play every game, but it’s too long of a season to do it all. He’s really smart with it to put it all into the big perspective.”
Bobrovsky helps put things in perspective for Tallas as well.
“Every day, he makes me better,” Tallas said. “You learn from your guys, and just being on the ice with him and seeing his attitude, his approach, what he does, he’s a surreal guy.”
The Panthers say the same about Tallas.
“Every goalie has his own vision,” Bobrovsky said. He’s got insight and he trusts in his ability to listen and adjust. That’s the big thing. It’s not often you’re going to see that, but it’s so important.”
This story was originally published September 28, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
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