Early after the stinging defeat to the Hawks in the Cup final the teams G.M Kirk Shuck made it clear he was going to try a different style next year and that there were big changes coming in the offseason.. So far rumoured deals have Henrik Lundqvist, Fedor Tyutin, Sheldon Souray, Dan Ellis, Kyle Brodziak- Ray Emery- Jochen Hecht- Eric Belanger-Jordan Staal- Chris Neil- Ladislav Smid- Denis Grebeshkov ALL leaving town.
After some drastic changes the teams top 6 forwards appear to be set in stone with Ales Hemsky-Dany Heatley-Eric Cole starting the season as the number one unit. The second line consists of Shane Doan-Olli Jokinen-Peter Mueller a coyote line.. The teams third line is looking for a good third line LW to pair with Johan Franzen and Nikolai Zherdev. On defense it looks like Zdeno Chara has re-adopted Jan Hejda as a house-mate and will team with him on the first unit. Pairing the two defensive ace's together on the 1st unit allows what looks like a P.Martin and P.Ranger 2nd pair. Finishing up the top 6 is Steve Staios and Carlo Colaicovo. With rumours of Matt Carle-Kent Huskins getting time as the team skates 7 d-men..
In goal M.Garon looks to prove himself.
The G.M's main goal this offseason however was to build through the draft and be able to use the ELC contracts of 3rd-4th liners for many yrs to be able to keep his superstar players.. Through MANY deals its rumoured the Thrashers now have,
Van 1 (7th) Pho 1st (18th) Col 1st (26th) Van 2 (37th) La 2nd (40th) Bos 2 (42nd) StL 2 (43rd) Pit 3 (64th) Van 3 (67th) Dal 3(71st) Stl 3 (73rd) Edm 3 (74th)Cal 3 (77th) Pho 3 (78th) NYI 4 (91st) Ana 4 (92nd) Van 4 (97th)Fla 4 (99th) Edm 4 (104th) Cal 4th (107th), Van 5 (127th), Dal 5th (131st) Edm 5 (134th), SJ 5 (142rd)TB 5 (143th), Buf 5th (148th) Nsh 6 (155) Pitts 6th (156th), 28 picks in this upcoming Patrick Kane-Sam Gagner (bought new house in beantown according to internet sources) Following up that with Pho 1, Nj 2, clb 2, Phi 2, Pho 3, sj 3, bos 3, clb 3rd, Pho 4, St.l 4, sj 4, atl 4, Bos 4, Bos 5,Pho 5, atl 5, Phi 5, St.l 5, Pho 6, atl 6 bos 6, bos 7, atl 7 st.l 7. for next year in the Steve Stamkos draft YR.. With this great stack of picks the team looks to be on the right path to finding young ELC contract talent that could fill the roles needed down the road..
"Theres also talk of creating more room at the end of the rink by making the nets more shallow, which would be accomplished by encouraging them to spend all their time listening to pop music and reading Twilight books."
