When THN's Sixty Moments That Changed the Game issue came out, Florida was in the midst of an epic playoff drought

Entering the 2007-08 NHL season, the Florida Panthers were six seasons into what ended up being a twelve-year playoff drought.

Despite their best efforts, and some fairly close calls, Florida playing more than the predetermined 82-game schedule just wasn’t in the cards for the franchise.

Reminiscing about those not-so-fun times adds a layer of appreciation for how things have been going in Sunrise over the past few years.

At the start of the 2007-08 season, The Hockey News put out a special issue that touched on several superlatives for each franchise, including the Panthers. The Sixty Moments That Changed the Game issue came out on Oct. 1, 2007.

Looking back, some of the items listed for the Panthers were Best Player Ever, Best Drafted Player and some of the team’s most pivotal and important moments.

Those moments included the (first) Roberto Luongo trade and Scott Mellanby's Rat Trick. 

Thinking back to the time the issue came out, can you guess who was considered the best Panther ever, or the team’s best draft pick (before the days of Sasha Barkov and  Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad)?

Here’s a hint…they were both on the 1996 Stanley Cup Final team.

THN Archive is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com.

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