TORONTO -- Last February a controversial study commissioned by the NHL, known as the Levitt Report, claimed the 30-team league lost a combined total of $273 million US during the 2002-03 season. In addition, auditor Arthur Levitt claimed six teams accounted for an astounding $180 million of those losses.

Those six sorry franchises were never named, but yesterday Florida Panthers' general manager Mike Keenan identified his club as a member of that sad fraternity.

"We are," admitted Keenan, but quickly added: "We have a very passionate owner (Alan Cohen) who loves hockey and we'll have a very, very strong franchise in Florida when these issues are resolved."

For Keenan those "issues" are the players recognizing teams like the Panthers are hemorrhaging money and that some significant redress is required on their part to help get the league back on stable financial ground.

"It's not a contentious issue for me at all," said Keenan, whose Panthers reportedly lost $64 million in 2002-03. "I've been in the business long enough to know that the ownership group had an advantage in the industry and now the players have an advantage in the industry and its got to shift back to the middle ground.

"They (players) just have to come to grips with the reality of it: the players have to give something back."

During the 1994 lockout Keenan was coaching for St. Louis and admitted the three-month work stoppage didn't have an overly negative impact on the Blues.

"I think we ended up in third overall and then we made the trade for Wayne Gretzky and our fan base was very, very strong," he recalled. "But there's always the possibility of some franchises not really holding up if this lockout lasts a long time."

A decade ago former New Jersey Devils' owner John McMullen grabbed headlines when he responded to a revenue-sharing proposal with a curt "to hell with the small-market teams."

Now with a reported $300-million war chest and greater unanimity on its side, ownership appears to be in a better position to ride out a lengthy strike without bankrupting any of its members. But there are no guarantees.

"It has to be corrected," emphasized Keenan of the competitive balance between small-market clubs like Florida and large-market teams in Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto and New York. "We don't know what the fallout (of a long stoppage) will necessarily mean in different markets. I think that it's going to take a while for both sides to find the mechanism that will resolve this and then you grow and move the industry forward from there."

Keenan is also worried that a lengthy lockout could derail the progress made by young Panthers players Jay Bouwmeester, Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen at the recently-completed World Cup of Hockey.

"That's going to be part of what has to be worked through here," said Keenan, who has assigned Bouwmeester to the Panther's AHL affiliate in San Antonio. "Hopefully the importance of their development, not only our players but all the young players, will be also a part of the discussions and the reason why this issue gets resolved sooner rather than later."

As far as his own plans, Keenan will be busy promoting the 13-episode reality-hockey series "Making the Cut," scheduled to begin airing on the CBC on September 21. Keenan and legendary coach Scotty Bowman will select six finalists from a pool of more than 4,000 non-professional hockey players and reward them with an invitation to a Canadian NHL team training camp for Fall 2005.

Keenan describes the process as the search for the next Martin St. Louis - the Tampa Bay Lightning forward who made the NHL as a free agent. The Panthers' GM believes the show is especially timely in light of the labour strife.

"I would encourage all professional hockey players to watch and enjoy, particularly our Canadian hockey players," he said. "The reason I say that is I think it's important for them and for all of us in the industry to revisit the feelings and the compelling reasons why we wanted to be in this sport at a professional level.

"The game has been extremely good to all of us and particularly the star players who have become very, very wealthy as a result. In my pragmatic view of the world I'd much rather have 50 per cent of something than 100 per cent of nothing."