Veteran coach Mike Keenan was set to manage a group of mostly young Florida Panthers

Nobody knew it at the time, but at the start of the 2002-03 season, the Florida Panthers were just starting to go down a long and frustrating road.

But we’re not here to talk about the dark ages of Panthers history.

We’re here to smile and reminisce about the hope that surrounding the team at the beginning of the century.

During the summer of 2002, the talk around South Florida was about what the Panthers would do with the number three pick at the NHL Draft.

Spoiler alert: they ended up taking Jay Bouwmeester.

When The Hockey News did a midsummer update on the Panthers during its June 28, 2002 edition, Vol. 55 Issue 38, author David J. Neal started by asking three burning questions.

They included how Mike Keenan and Rick Dudley would work together and if Roberto Luongo would get worn down while facing the avalanche of shots expected to head his way.

The story also highlighted Kristian Huselius as Florida’s 2003 Breakthrough Player. 

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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