Panthers Name Keenan Coach

Archived from 2001-02 season.

The struggling Florida Panthers fired coach Duane Sutter and replaced him with Mike Keenan. The team also fired general manager Bill Torrey, and promoted assistant general manager Chuck Fletcher on an interim basis.

"The team as I see it has some great building blocks," Keenan said. "We have tremendous goaltending and a young goaltender is (Roberto) Luongo and (Trevor) Kidd is also a very competitive goaltender."

Keenan, 52, is coaching his seventh NHL team, following stints with Philadelphia, Chicago, the New York Rangers, St. Louis, Vancouver and Boston. He replaced Pat Burns with the Bruins in October 2000 but was not retained after the team failed to make the playoffs.

"I thought I would get another chance," Keenan said. "I thought I did a pretty good job in Boston last season."

The Panthers are off to a horrible start with a 6-15-2-3 and again are in danger of being out of the playoff race by Christmas.

"We're all disappointed with the start of the season, and we're all surprised," Fletcher said. "I don't think you ever expect it. You know when things go poorly that bad things can happen."

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