*-> The Toronto Maple Leafs have resigned RFA Jonas The "monster" Gustavsson to a 2 year deal worth 1.2$ Mil a season. Good signing for the Leafs but I was expecting a long term deal, the closeness of the signing was correct however. Burke better hope he gets some goaltending in the pipeline sometime soon or the length of this deal might come back to haunt him.
*-> The Atlanta Thrashers have done some spring cleaning of their own yesterday as they fired their entire coaching staff starting with John Anderson. The Thrashers also promoted yes I said promoted Don Waddell. Waddell will now assume the club president role and assistant GM Rick Dudley will now be the GM.
*-> Also while on Atlanta, the Thrashers new GM has stated that signing Colby Armstrong is one of his first priorities. Armstrong who is a UFA this summer is still on the fence whether or not he wishes to remain in Atlanta. Fellow UFA Pavel Kubina is currently in negotiations with the Thrashers for a new deal. Kubina says he likes the team, and the direction their headed. He would definitely return as long as he got a fair deal. It looks like Kubina might feel the market out first come July. Johan Hedburg has yet to be contacted by the club and doubts he'll be back with the Thrashers next season. Finally Maxim Afinoganov has stated he would like to resign with the club as well.
3 comments:
Waddell wasn't as bad a GM as everyone is making him out to be. Hear me out, the guy is working in a southern market that is slow to adopt the NHL game. His drafting hasn't been that bad, ok Patric Stefan didn't work out, but he did draft Kovalchuk, Bogosian, Kane, Little, and Heatley, who he smoothly traded to Ottawa for Hossa and Greg de Vries. Not gonna praise him, since drafting in the top 10 every year helps quite a bit.
Trading Hossa and Kovalchuk at the deadline is seen by some as a blemish, but he couldn't offer either a winning future. He shipped them out while he could get good return, and look what he has today for that:
- Armstrong is still with the team
- Esposito is a potential NHLer
- Christensen was flipped to Anaheim for Eric O'Dell (a dynamic centre with Sudbury, watch for him)
- Daulton Leveille
- Bergfors (potential star)
- Cormier (Mike Fisher but mean)
- Oduya
- 1st and 2nd rounder this year
Those are a lot of valuable pieces for a rebuilding team. Maybe they do lack a league superstar like Kovalchuk but I'm guessing Waddell realized that wasn't the path to success. Atlanta has to earn its success through smart drafting, young player development and hard working defensive hockey. Getting princess Kovalchuk out of the dressing room might have been a blessing in disguise. Waddell also attracted big name free agents over his tenure and also managed to add role players along the way. Rick Dudley will have a great opportunity to build Atlanta like he and Marshall Johnston built Ottawa. Give the guy some credit, he's no Mike Milbury or Doug McLean.
CA
I agree given what Waddel has had to work with you really cant blame him. He was under pressure by ownership to get a deal done fast with Kovalchuk otherwise he had to be traded. And the fact that guys like Kubina and Afinogenov want to come back shows good signs about team direction. Antropov has played alright and they got Pavelec in net. I think they are closer.
then a lot of people think
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