Thrashers' offseason summary
GM Sutaria has been busy in the offseason with the Thrashers
(AP - Atlanta)
It can be said that Atlanta has had a busy offseason.
Prior to the draft, Atlanta made a few deals:
- The rights to Marian Hossa (72 ov) were acquired for Jason Pominville (69 ov) and Jamie Benn.
- The rights to UFA Jochen Hecht (63 ov) were traded for a 3rd round pick.
- The rights to UFA Hal Gill (62 ov) were traded for a 2nd round pick.
- The rights to UFA Eric Belanger (63 ov) were traded for a pair of 4th round picks.
- Mike Knuble (66 ov) was brought in for prospect Janne Pesonen.
- Frans Nielsen (60 ov) was brought in for Brian Sutherby, prospect Jason Gregoire and a draft pick.
During the draft:
Cody Eakin, Toni Rajala(through trade), Kris Foucault, Alex Vazzano, and Jeff Costello were brought in.
Since then, Atlanta has been busy making some deals to shore up the roster for next season:
- Viktor Kozlov (64 ov) was brought in for Brett Clark (62 ov).
- Mattias Ohlund (67 ov) was brought in for Steve Staios (62 ov) and prospect Brett Sonne.
- Barret Jackman (67 ov) was brought in for Andrew Cogliano (63 ov) and Kris Russell (59 ov)
And now???
Atlanta is focusing it's attention into re-signing it's key UFA's and RFA's. Pavel Datsyuk, Marian Hossa, Lubomir Visnovsky and Jan Hejda will certainly be re-signed as key UFA's for the Thrashers. Robert Nilsson and Kyle Brodziak will be re-signed as Thrasher RFA's. UFA's Mike Knuble and Dan Ellis are currently in talks with the Thrashers and talks are progressing nicely. Atleast one of the two will be brought back next season.
Atlanta now is looking into acquiring or signing some depth players at the forward position and possibly a #5 type defenseman.
"We've taken care of our major concerns heading into this offseason but we still have some work to do before opening night in terms of acquiring or signing depth players at the forward position. By that I mean players in the bottom 6 role. Guys like Datsyuk, Hossa, McDonald, Knuble and Kozlov will play in our top 6 and we have some depth forwards in Nilsson, Nielsen, and Brodziak. But we could use a few more depth guys to play on line 4. We are almost set in defense and in goal. I think all we are looking to do is bring in a #5 type defenseman. Acquiring Ohlund and Jackman has helped us in that regard to go along with Visnovsky, Hejda and Exelby. Khabibulin and Ellis should provide us with a good tandem in net as well. We are looking forward to finding the depth players that were mentioned earlier. This could be done through trade or free agency." - Thrashers GM Sutaria
Last edited by OILFAN #81; 07-17-2009 at 05:34 PM.
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