Florida Panthers (NHL)

[Nickname]

Just announced Mike Keenan as new GM and Jaques Martin as new Head Coach. Thats pretty damned good. Not to mention they already have an excellent goalie in Luongo, I think Florida may have the toosl to turn it around (ala Ottawa under Martin) My only real question is, do you think Florida can survive? Even with great GM and HC it is Florida, where Hockey is like the 6th sport. Martin turned Ottawa into a power house, but it's in Canada where Hockey is Life.

Thoughts.

[Adamant]

I think there will be a definate improvement in the quality of the team due to Keenan and Martin but it's hard to say whether the market in Florida will improve. It seems to have gone up in Tampa Bay due to their playoff run but I think that Florida hockey fans are much like Toronto baseball fans: fickle. When their team is doing well they support them and come out to games but when their team is in the gutter they abandon hope.

[Troll King]

I think the ownership in that organization meddles too much. Didn't they fire Iron Mike earlier this season? The owner was the one who hired Mike to coach in the first place, and now they hired him to replace the guy who fired him. Keenan will be a better GM than Dudley though, and Martin's the kind of coach you'll want to make sure that Luongo won't set another new record for most shots against in a season.

Overall though, I never thought it made any sense for the state of Florida to have two NHL franchises. The NHL should have just given one of the two and let that franchise build up popularity.

[Exotic]

Florida has many good young players, and i'm sure they will get a few more. Luongo will be much better next year, and will probably win the vezina trophy if he plays like he did this year. But you just have to wait and see how their young players do, as of now they can basically only count on luongo, jokinen and bure.

[Troll King]

I hope Weiss does well for them next season. He's from my home town and he did pretty well this year before he broke his leg.