AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > May > 14 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USLittle looks good for Wolves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Plenty to talk about in today’s weekly edition of the Thrashers beat blog. First, my impressions of the Chicago Wolves. They cruised to a win, and advanced to the next round of the Calder Cup playoffs. But for Thrashers fans, that’s not important. The debut of newly signed Bryan Little was the news of the night.
He didn’t play much, and he was playing out of position, but the biggest thing was that he fit right in. Here’s a kid fresh out of junior, making his debut in the middle of the playoffs and he played like he’d been there all season. At one point he used his speed on a breakaway, drawing a penalty. From my perspective, I thought it could have been a penalty shot but he told me that he was told on the ice that he didn’t have enough control of the puck.
He was also a perfect 3-for-3 on faceoffs, which is one of his strengths. Chicago coach John Anderson said he was thrilled with Little’s performance and said he won’t hesitate to use him moving forward in the playoffs.
Expect to see a lot of him during the exhibition season and depending on who the Thrashers sign during the offseason, he may get a serious look during training camp to make the team.
I was also curious to get a look at Brett Sterling, who had a big year for the Wolves. He scored a goal against Iowa and played pretty good. He spends a lot of time around the net, where he scores a ton. The knock on him is his size, but Thrashers GM Don Waddell doesn’t see that being a big issue for Sterling at the next level. He’s 5-foot-8 and weighs around 180 pounds.
Quite honestly, I couldn’t tell if he was getting his chances because of his linemates (Krog and Haydar are pretty darn good AHL players) but, as Don points out, you don’t score 55 goals without being pretty talented.
There could be openings for as many as three young D-men next season, and the Wolves have strong candidates in Mark Popovic, Nathan Oystrick and Boris Valabik. Just from the one game, it’s obvious that Popovic is ready to play in the NHL. He’ll be with the Thrashers next season. I liked Oystrick’s game too. He’s physical player that should get a long long during training camp. Valabik is big, but I wonder if he’s still a year or two away. He took a couple bad penalties, something he said he’s working on. But the team loves his work ethic, and sees a lot of upside in his game.
As promised, Jordan LaVallee and Colin Stuart showed flashes. LaVallee scored against Iowa, and Stuart was the fastest guy out there. Both will get a shot in training camp.
Thrashers GM Don Waddell also made the trip to Chicago for Little’s debut. He returned from the World Championships in Moscow on Thursday and made it to Chicago in time for the series clincher.
His priority right now is signing young guys like Ondrej Pavelec, Tobias Enstrom and Chad Denny before June 1st or else they’re back in the draft. He also is working to bring Ilja Nikulin and Andrei Zubarev over from from Russia, but the fact that Russia and the NHL can’t come to an agreement on transfers is hurting the cause. Nikulin is making good money in Russia and may not be able to get out of that contract, which complicates things for the Thrashers. I’ll keep you posted on his situation as things develop.
After watching Enstrom in the World Championships, Waddell said the Swede is ready to play in the NHL.
Comments
By Jsmooth
May 14, 2007 4:53 PM | Link to this
Great work Craig! Thanks for keeping us abreast of what’s going on during the offseason. I’m very excited about some of our prospects and really think some of them have a real shot at making the team. I will be keeping fingers crossed that we can somehow wrench Nikulin from the clutches of the Russian Super League — from all accounts, it sounds like he is the real deal and a stud in the making!
By BAF
May 15, 2007 8:47 AM | Link to this
Love the update and detailed insight on the prospects. But you must admit, the following sentence is not your best:
“He scored a goal against Iowa and played pretty good.”