AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 28
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Grading the trades
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alright — now that the dust has settled — I like the idea that one of you started: Grading the Thrashers trades. Taking into consideration everything - salary cap, the future, the recent slide, the necessity for this team to make the playoffs — How would you grade the Thrashers moves over the course of the last few weeks?
I’ll start and give the Thrashers an A - : I’m not concerned that much about the draft picks for this year’s draft, because by all accounts, it’s not the best draft in the world. Scouts are saying that once you get out of the top ten, you can get the same guy at 11 as at 40. And we still have no idea where any of the Thrashers picks will be.
I think the deals needed to be made, and in a wide-open Eastern Conference, the Thrashers have to be considered a team that has as good a shot as any to make a long playoff run. My only criticism is that maybe the Thrashers waited too long to pull the trigger on two of them. The timing on the Belanger and Tkachuk trades were fine, if not to the Thrashers’ advantage. But based on other deals, the price of Zhitnik and Dupuis was probably lower a couple months ago when they were on their original teams. Maybe certain needs became apparent in the last month though, which might have made those trades a necessity.
As for lines — Waddell seemed to think that Dupuis would fit on the Holik/Larsen line, although he said he’d leave that decision up to Hartley. Hartley was less sure (as of yesterday) where he’d play Dupuis. He didn’t want to assume that Dupuis would skate on Holik’s line, he’s still weighing all his options. We really won’t know for sure until the morning skate on Friday.
