AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 09
Friday, February 9, 2007
Where’s Waddell?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Where’s Jack Bauer when you need him? Evidently he’s the only one who’d be able to track Don Waddell, who is touring North America right now, presumably in search of a center. Ask the Thrashers generally helpful PR folks, and they say they have no idea where Waddell is each night. Don likes it that way, they said. Bob Hartley — who took a 10 minute cell phone call this morning from Waddell after a practice at Denver University, has no idea either. He just points to his cell phone, as long as he has that, he can keep up with his GM.
But I don’t need CTU, when I have our network of blog commenters. Thanks to you guys, we know that the Thrashers GM spent Wednesday night in Detroit. And I woke up this morning to e-mails from a reliable source saying Waddell spent Thursday night in Minnesota scouting the Panthers/Wild game.
So if that’s true, we can piece together this much - in the last two days Waddell has seen the Red Wings, Coyotes, Wild and Panthers. So knowing what we do about the teams needs - a center, especially considering Steve Rucchin’s injury last night (he won’t play against Vancouver) - and some PK help, do those teams provide any help? Let’s speculate on players Waddell might have been scouting last night:
Todd White, Minnesota — White is in the final year of his contract and reportedly hasn’t been offered an extension. The center, who is strong on the PK (another need) has nine goals and 22 assists.
Jozef Stumple, Florida — A strong-passing center who might make Ilya Kovalchuk happy, Stumple didn’t play, so let’s hope Waddell didn’t fly to Minnesota to see him. According to George Richards’ notebook in the Miami Herald, the center sat out because of an injured shoulder that he aggravated in Tuesday’s game.
Gary Roberts, Florida — I know he’s not a center, but the winger would be another strong veteran with playoff experience. Adding another Stanley Cup winner wouldn’t hurt.
Enough speculation. Here’s what we do know about the Thrashers: Kari Lehtonen will start against Vancouver and Niko Kapanen will return to the lineup in the place of Steve Rucchin who took a shot to the head against the Avs. Alright, it’s my turn to go through security here at the Denver airport, so I have to run.
