AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > June > 25
Monday, June 25, 2007
Countdown to free agency
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
EDIT (5:04 p.m.): Today the Thrashers tendered qualifying offers to the following players: Kevin Doell, Garnet Exelby, Jesse Schultz, Jim Slater, Colin Stuart and Chris Thorburn. That means they did not make qualifying offers to the following RFAs: David Caruso, Andre Deveaux, Michael Garnett, Lane Manson, Brad Schell and Adam Smyth.
Back from Columbus in what turned out to be a pretty uneventful draft. There weren’t any blockbuster trades, no huge player signings and for Thrashers fans it was even less significant considering the team didn’t draft until the third round. But, as TSN reports, there were plenty of seeds planted as far as future trades go, and Don Waddell stressed that just because no trades were made at the draft doesn’t mean there won’t be any trades. The next 10 days are going to be huge in regards to getting an idea of the shape of the roster entering the season.
Let’s review what we learned this weekend.
Thrashers will qualify Garnet Exelby, Jim Slater and Chris Thorburn by today’s 5 p.m. deadline. I’ll get you a complete list with minor-league guys later in the day. The McCarthy signing means he’ll make slightly less than last year which makes me wonder if he would have gotten a qualifying offer. But then again, that point is moot. Also, Larsen is back.
Andy Sutton, Greg de Vries and Keith Tkachuk will all test the free agency market. The Kozlov rumors have been all over the charts. One person I talked to said there’s no way he signs with Atlanta. Someone else said Kozlov hopes to return to the Thrashers. The bottom line is that the Thrashers are on a budget, and still have a lot of roster spots to fill. If Kozlov can get, say $3.5 million per year on the open market, is that a price the Thrashers can pay with so many needs to be filled? I don’t know. According to George Richards at the Miami Herald, the Florida Panthers will enter the Kozlov sweepstakes if he hits the open market.
As for other forwards like Belanger, Dupuis and Sim - there have been discussions with all three and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a guy like Sim signed before July 1st. Dupuis and the Thrashers aren’t close and he may be another guy looking to see what interest is out there on the open market.
No surprise in that St. Louis continues to be the destination most often connected to Keith Tkachuk.
The Thrashers made a serious attempt to move into the first round of the NHL draft and had a deal in place that would have sent next year’s first-rounder away, but the player they wanted was selected so the trade was called off.
Oh yeah, there were some players selected by the Thrashers as well. The Falconer has a nice breakdown of the Thrashers draft picks on his blog.
Lastly, I had mentally ruled out the possibility of Ilya Nikulin player in Atlanta this season when I heard what he was making in Russia, but I’m no longer ruling him out.
I’ll keep the updates coming as July 1st grows closer.
