In another year of trading in the BRHL2 season five the Thrashers continue'd TRADITION and made some roster adjustment's.
All in all the teams general manager Kirk Shuck had this to say, "After a long long season of trading it is over.. We have seen stars such as Dany Heatley, Eric Staal, Jordan Staal, Luke Schenn, Marc Staal, Johan Franzen all leave town at different stages beginnning last offseason up until the trades stopped at the deadline.
We have brought in some very key asset's during this same time frame, and also brought in a new coach in Bruce Boudreau to provide a great rated coach for our squad a factor we hope plays into the STHS. The headline player we brought in was obviously Alex the Great OvechKING. Throughout the process we feel we have assembled an even stronger core of young talent bringing in a guys like Jakub Voracek, Kevin Shattenkirk, Andrew Cogliano, Theo Peckham. Also a solid stable of prospects in Cameron Gaunce, Cody Goloubuef, Taylor Doherty, William Wrenn, Alexander Avstin, Danny Kristo, to name a couple. We've also brought in some nice UFA Vets to help us compete this season in guys like Mike Modano, Matt Cullen, Colin White, Marc Eaton who will all play key roles for us as we look to repeat as cup champions..
The Current lines being used by our coach Bruce Boudreau are,
#1- Ovechkin-M.Cullen-Hemsky-Chara-C.White
#2- Nash-Savard-Knuble-Corvo-Siedenberg
#3-
Tavares-Modano-Voracek-M.Eaton-E.Johnson
#4
Galiardi-Hanzal-Byfuglien
With Ryan Miller and Johan Hedberg between the pipes.
With the experience and leadership throughout the team, along with the top top end talent of Ovechkin, Chara, and Miller one on each level Forward-Defense-Goalie we feel confident about our chance to possibly repeat and be the first back-to-back cup winner's in the BRHL2."
After hearing his response about his current BRHL2 team (filled with UFA's) we asked the G.M how he planned to assemble a team for next year? with the amount of UFA's his team had!? his response was this,
"Looking to the offseason from a management perspective we are very excited to know that we currently only have 51.5 million dollar's tied into a full 20man roster for next season, with some good prospect's making the jump to our pro team and after signing everyone on the RFA calculator which we arent sure we are going to do as we might even let a couple players test the RFA waters.. With 12F, 6Dmen, 2G who "have" to play in the BRHL2 "pro" roster.. As a franchise we are excited and hope to finally have the ability to take a serious look at a free agent or two, possibly even trying to bring back one of these UFA's we've brought in this season.
Another thing management is very excited about is having 20 prospect's eligible for the AHL next year for us who all got looks at the NHL with at least a few games played in 2010-2011, the list is highlighted by guys such as Matt Calvert, Evgeni Dadonov, Kyle Palmieri, Jeremy Morin, all are guys who we the Thrashers brass are very high on. With some young guys in our system being AHL rookie's we weren't shocked with them not making the NHL, however we are excited about their play in their rookie AHL season's. Some of these guys are kids like goalie Jake Allen, Cody Golobuef, Joakim Andersson, Alexander Avstin, to list a few kids we have who made their AHL debut's this year and will all play roles on our AHL squad for the BRHL2 next year. With 7-10 other kids playing in the AHL (having maybe 2-3 years experience R.Figren types) we feel as an organization we have depth unlike any other team in the BRHL2 with the amount and quality of young kids just breaking into their pro careers.
Still in the organization but playing in the CHL or NCAA are kids who we really have seen take a step forward including guys like Peter Holland, Taylor Beck, Anders Lee, Mitchell Callahan, Derek Grant, Roman Horak, David Gilbert, Taylor Doherty, and goalie Jacob DeSerres who have all had great season's at either the CHL or NCAA level this year. With about 15-20 other kids still in this situation of playing CHL or NCAA we feel great about the depth at the CHL/NCAA level of our organization.
Some of our European prospects have also taken a solid steps forward with guys like Jori Lehtera, Anton Lander, Victor Ekbom all having very strong campaign's overseas, playing key roles for their various organization's. With only 2-4 other kids developing oversea's the organization is looking at bringing in some of these kids in the future"
We asked the G.M if their was any immediate news with the team regarding if they are close to signing and RFA's, His response was noteworthy as three players renewed contracts to stay in HOTLANTA,
"Well actually I just got done negotiating with three separate agents this morning and finalized deals with Erik Johnson, Andrew Cogliano, and Martin Hanzal. We locked up Hanzal for a 4 year term and his cap hit at 1.863 million per season, We are very excited about this as Martin has developed into the perfect third line center for us with a great DF-PH-FO-SC rating we are excited to see what he can contribute to us in the 4 years of this deal. Locking up Cogliano to at a low price of 1.035 for 4 years is something we are also excited about with his elite skating and PK ability we are looking forward to the asset playing a key role and at a cheap price. The most newsworthy of our signings is Erik Johnson we have decided to lock up this franchise calibre D-Man for five years at a 2.925 per year base, we feel during this contract Erik will blossom into one of the true impact players in the NHL.. Having to use the max signing bonus to lock in these three players it cost the team 2.913 million in cash but the team is happy about these three RFA signings.. "
With the draft always a huge offseason event, we asked the G.M about the team's chance's of pulling off a huge feat and possibly being able to pick #1 overall for the third straight year? he replied,
"Well we never like to tip our hand, but with our track record of liking the ability to choose the guy we want and the only spot you do that is #1 and our love of the NHL Oilers it wouldnt even be hard for Erica to figure out that the Thrashers will be chasing the chance to choose very high this year. With a lot of bullets to possibly fire and land the pick we are hopeful something might happen.. If the stars don't align and we cant move anywhere come the draft we are happy about the selections we have, with two 1st's, two 2nd's, two 3rd's, four 4th's, six 5th's, four 6th's, and three 7th's we feel like having 10.95% of the selections at the 210 draft it should enable us to land some quality selection's. Or again possibly make an impact move up the draft board. All we know is that the draft will definitely be a fun one again for Thrasher's fan's.
We feel that with how complete our pro team is, and how deep our AHL squad is, and the depth to our prospects, and then throw in 10.95% of the asset's coming into the league we are very excited about the situation the Atlanta Thrashers are in currently and have to look be excited about in the future.."
