Thrashers Withdrawal

Ugh...so these next two months are going to be rough. No Thrashers. No Tech football. Work. Work. Work. All I got left are the Braves. I would post things on them, but honestly the Braves get enough exposure that I won't really provide anything special. If someone wants to read up on the Braves, they can goto the AJC, ESPN, etc.

So Thrashers news is coming a little slow, unless you want to get frustrated by watching Heatley and his Senators play Buffalo. Fantastic matchup by the way in both conference finals and if I had the time, oh and versus, I would be glued to the TV. Ilya and Kari are still playing in the world championship, and Kari gets the start tonight against the US team.

A poster on the Thrashers message board (Stefanfan1) brought up an intriguing idea about trading Hossa. With the Atlanta Spirit finances, I don't think we will max out on the salary cap, thus I truly think we will be around 45 million...which will give Waddell some room to trade come trade deadline again. To bring in a more balanced team, perhaps we trade one of the stars to free up some space. You know the arguement: trade one great guy for two or three good players. There are positives and negatives to the situation. The entire strategy of the team can also be debated. Can we succeed with 2 powerful lines, albeit while both lines are streaky and not dominant? The Thrashers would be amazing if they could get both lines hot at the right time, but that never seemed to happen. If Kovy's line was scoring, the Hossa line was cold, and vice versa. So we are presented with multiple options:

1. Keep both and have them on separate lines (like now)
2. Keep both, sign a quick,great passing center and put them on one dominant line
3. Trade One (either one...they both make an equal impact to the team, IMO).

If we are going to trade one, I think Hossa is more expendable. One year left, not as young, and I think Atlanta wants to build this team around Kovy. I think one investment we need to make is to get a good or great center. We are putting a lot of money into Kovy, and a lot of it is being wasted because we cannot find a center to maximize his skillset. Spending a couple million on a center that compliments Kovy may be just as effective as rolling out 2 scoring lines. Then focus on defense...Kari is at his best when he can depend on the defense. People can blame him all they want for his subpar play at the end of the year, but I think it was mostly due to him losing confidence in the defense. The shot against totals were horrendous. I am glad we have the dependable Zhitnik to center the defense around, as I really think he is a bargain even at 3.5 million.

Here are my grades for each line overall, and how they compare to other 1st, 2nd, checking, and 4th lines respectively. (Note: these are last years lines)

1st Line:
Hossa Belanger Kozlov B+ C+
Kovy Tkachuk Mellanby B+ A-
Holik checking line B B+
4th Line C- C

In other words, how would we do if we had a dominant first line (like Tampa Bay or Ottawa) with solid defense and good goaltending. I actually like last years team a lot if we can upgrade the defense a little and get Dupuis and a young, quick center for Kovy.

So many possibilities and directions for this team to go and I am getting anxious to hear about what Waddell does, and the strategy he employs.