AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > June
June 2007
Kozlov negotiations: A work in progress
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
EDIT (6/30 11:05 a.m.): It looks like Eric Belanger will join the Thrashers UFAs testing the market. Got confirmation from the Belanger camp last night, although that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s gone. “We are not closing any doors in Atlanta,” his agent Pat Brisson said in an e-mail. Brisson also represents Daniel Briere, possibly the most sought after free agent on the market.
Here’s the challenge I face right now. Somehow I have to write a story for Sunday’s paper breaking down the Thrashers plans heading into free agency. There’s only one slight problem - those plans can change drastically at any moment. If the team locks up Slava Kozlov, which they are increasingly confident they can, then you can forget any major signings on July 1st. Right now, Waddell is calling the negotiations with Slava, “a work in progress.” If Kozlov walks, then it’s off to plan B.
So instead of writing my story, I’m updating the blog because there is a lot of information out there that I want to get together in one place. First, all the Thrashers UFA defensemen will be testing the market. That means the team won’t be signing Greg de Vries, Andy Sutton or Shane Hnidy before Sunday. Don Waddell hasn’t ruled out the return of any of the three, but it’s looking like all three will get better offers from other teams.
The team is satisfied, for now, with its blueline that will likely consist of Niclas Havelid, Alexei Zhitnik, Garnet Exelby, Tobias Enstrom, Steve McCarthy, Mark Popovic and perhaps a player like Nathan Oystrick. Waddell hasn’t ruled out a trade for a veteran d-man, but it won’t be the the teams priority on July 1st. Russian prospect Ilya Nikulin is out of the picture.
That leaves your forwards in limbo. Kozlov received a multi-year offer from the Thrashers, although Waddell declined to say how much (or how long) it was for. The team has also made offers to Belanger, Dupuis and Sim. They are talking with Boulton, which was a mild surprise for me considering the Thorburn deal.
The other wrinkle is the new salary cap, which is at $50.3 million next season. That’s not good news for the Thrashers, who won’t approach that number this season. Ownership isn’t revealing the budget Waddell and the Thrashers are working under, but we know this much - the team wants flexibility again at the trade deadline. We also know that Waddell isn’t concerned right now about getting Steve Rucchin’s $2.5 million salary off the books if he doesn’t play next season (and he recently failed a physical). That indicates to me that payroll won’t be significantly different than it was last season.
If you assume that the Thrashers take care of business with RFAs Exelby, Thorburn and Slater, that would leave them an estimated 10 million to sign 8 players. And I’m not even giving Exelby that much of a raise. That’s pretty tight. And that’s why the Kozlov negotiations are so big. If the Thrashers can get him to take a little less than he might be able to earn on the open market, that would open things up to get an upgrade at center. If not, the Thrashers may be in the market for more than just a center on July 1st.
I’ll keep you posted.
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.
Blogging from the NHL Draft
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
COLUMBUS — The media section here at Nationwide Arena is starting to fill and everybody is taking about the latest rumors floating around so I wanted to start a new NHL draft blog to update over the course of this weekend. This is where I’ll post updates as I hear them, although if the Thrashers do anything major I’ll post a new one. Already, deals are starting to go down. By now I’m sure you’ve already heard of San Jose’s trade with Toronto that sent goalie Vesa Toskala and Mark Bell to the Leafs for a conditional first and second-round pick in 2007 and a 2009 fourth-round pick. TSN is reporting that Pittsburgh has resigned Gary Roberts and Mark Recchi.
The news that most impacts the Thrashers is Florida’s acquisition of goalie Tomas Vokoun from Nashville for a first-round pick and two second rounders. I’m here with fingers crossed that the Thrashers join the fun, because if not, I won’t have much to write about for the Saturday paper. Unless you’re dying to read about Patrick Kane. Then you might be in luck.
I still expect something to happen on the Thrashers front as things get cooking. The consensus is that after the top eight or nine picks, this draft is an absolute crapshoot, so there might be a lot of movement when St. Louis gets cracking with its first of three first-round picks. I’ll keep you posted.
A clean slate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the request of a couple Thrashers Beat Blog regulars, I’m posting a new blog for you all to comment on while I’m out of commission (read: at the beach) for the next week. There won’t be a Monday blog, so this one will have to count for that. Like I said before, you are all in charge of keeping everyone posted on the latest hockey news. (Like Mike Keenan’s return to Calgary. What do you guys think?)
I’ll leave you with a couple thoughts before I disappear.
- First, thanks for the comments on the Waddell Q and A. He deserves some credit too, since I took up a lot of his time during what is a busy portion of the off-season. What you saw posted on the web was still only about half of what I transcribed. Newspaper content is measured in inches. Well, the Q and A that ran in the paper was roughly 25-30 inches. The extended Q and A that ran on ajc.com was probably close to 100 inches. The raw text of my interview was about 160 inches. But once I cut out our argument over whether or not to reveal Hartley’s contract length (he won that argument - asking such questions as ‘How long is your contract at the newspaper?’ or ‘You’re married, how long is that contract?’) and a few other things, I got it to a somewhat reasonable length. I still think contract length of coaches/GM is pertinent information, but it doesn’t matter what I think, now does it? Hey - your Stanley Cup champions had no problem revealing the length of Randy Carlyle’s new deal.
- Other thoughts on the Q and A: The Rucchin comments are revealing in that it shows that the Thrashers won’t be approaching the new cap number any time soon… Remember when reading comments about UFAs like Kozlov, the two sides are currently in negotiations so anything said can also be interpreted as posturing… In case you’re wondering, the 10 players under contract mentioned in the lede includes Enstrom and Popovic, two guys I’m going to assume will make the team… The biggest revelation for me was the Hossa stuff. My interpretation of the CBA was incorrect, I didn’t realize Hossa could be extended this summer. Getting him taken care of could eliminate a lot of potential distraction during the season. Can you imagine Hossa being a potential free agent near the trade deadline and the Thrashers on the playoff bubble? Hossa would be attached to every trade rumor.
Alright, you are in charge.
Kozlov, not Tkachuk, getting the most buzz
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re getting dangerously close to some important portions of the NHL offseason now that the Stanley Cup Playoffs are wrapped up. That’s why I’ll be sitting down on Tuesday morning with Thrashers GM Don Waddell for a Q and A that will be running in Wednesday’s paper. We’ll talk about the upcoming draft, his off-season game plan, and a few other topics that I’ve been compiling on a list over the last few weeks. You have less than 24 hours to inspire me with some good questions for Waddell in the comments section, so get crackin’.
We’ll run a majority of the Q and A in the newspaper and the entire thing online. It should add some fuel for you commenters out there, I have to give you a ton of credit - I saw over 175 comments (and counting) on the last blog entry. That’s great considering free agency hasn’t even started yet.
Speaking of which, Slava Kozlov and not Keith Tkachuk, is looking like the potential Thrashers free agent who will be drawing the most interest come July 1st (assuming the Thrashers don’t get him locked up in the next couple of weeks, which isn’t out of the question). We know the Thrashers won’t be making an offer to Tkachuk, but we the same can’t be said for Kozlov. There might be a solid market for the forward who put up a career-best 80 points last season. Kozzie is going to get at least one more nice contract before retirement.
The rumors of Kozlov’s return to Detroit continue to circulate, as James Jahnke points out in the Detroit Free Press roundup. The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson says the Florida Panthers are interested in Kozlov, but there are concerns down in South Florida that his asking price might be a little too high. The other Southeast Division team with some cash to spend, the Washington Capitals, might be a Kozlov suitor as well.
The New York Islanders buyout of underperforming center Alexei Yashin is an interesting development since the last beat blog. The Boston Globe threw the Thrashers into the mix of teams who might be interested in Yashin. There are concerns there about work ethic, injury issues, and a failure to reach potential, but for the right price he’d be an upgrade.
Allen Panzeri points out in the Ottawa Citizen that Atlanta might be a contender to land center Mike Comrie because he’s close with Waddell. Panzeri said Comrie’s disappointing playoff production might have been because of a bad shoulder.
But before the Thrashers go shopping for free agents, here are a couple key dates to consider. There is the draft in Columbus on June 22nd and 23rd. As we know the Thrashers don’t pick until the third round, but here’s hoping Waddell moves up in the draft so I have something to write for the Saturday paper. After that, the next big date is June 25th, the deadline to make qualifying offers to Jim Slater, Garnet Exelby and Steve McCarthy. Then July 1st, when free agency starts.
The Thrashers also are hosting a hockey school, here’s that schedule:
When: June 18-22
Where: IceForum, Duluth
Time: 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Mite (age 6-8): 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Squirt (age 9-10): 10:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
PeeWee (age 11-12): Noon - 4:30 p.m.
Bantam (age 13-14): Noon - 4:30 p.m.
I’m guessing the Thrashers website has more information on that.
Here is some other interesting reading from around the web:
This is a great read from Terry Jones at the Edmonton Sun. I’m a poker fan (I’ll be in Vegas in mid-July if anybody wants to sit down at the 3-6 table at the Mirage with me and the family). Turns out that Gary Bettman’s brother Jeffrey Pollack is the commissioner of the World Series of Poker. This is interesting on a lot of levels, especially considering poker basically replaced hockey on ESPN and has done considerably better in the ratings. Maybe Bettman should get some advice from his brother since the WSOP is experienced huge growth.
Thrashers prospect Chad Denny gets some love from his hometown.
Over the course of the last week there was a lot of buzz regarding possible NHL expansion. Over the All-Star break, Gary Bettman reiterated his stance that the NHL was not interested in expansion, but that seems to be changing. I think every hockey beat writer in the country is rooting for a Las Vegas expansion team, but Rick Westhead in the Toronto Star said expansion to Vegas would be a disaster. Couldn’t be worse than Nashville, could it?
Get your plaid ready
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I think I’ll be wearing some plaid today in honor of Don Cherry. Cherry will be returning to American airwaves tonight during the second intermission of Game Four between the Ducks and Sens. Here’s Cherry’s response to his NBC appearance tonight, provided in a release by the network:
“A lot of people have written that what I say up here I would never get away with it down in the States.
“I’ll just go on and do what I have to do. In the States they wanted me to go on one time in Pittsburgh. Jaromir Jagr, it was when he had long hair and he was with Mario Lemieux and I said, ‘there’s Mario and his daughter.’ It didn’t go over too good. That was my last time in the States.”
Should be interesting, and if nothing else, draw some attention to the telecast. He already said he’ll be openly rooting for Ottawa, and I’m guessing the network is too since a series knotted up at 2-2 might help ratings. I still stand by my prediction of the Ducks in six.
Other interesting NHL news, comes from ESPN.com where E.J. Hradek reported that the NHL is planning another outdoor game for the upcoming season. If you remember, Montreal played against Edmonton outside in 2003, drawing nearly 60,000 fans. This time, according to Hradek, expect at least one American team in the mix. It’s got to be Atlanta, right? An outdoor hockey game in the South would be a huge success. (Does sarcasm translate in a blog?)
I think, and this is just speculation, but Sidney Crosby and the Penguins would have to be the front-runner. Or what about the Rangers and Toronto - two big markets? Spartan Stadium successfully hosted an outdoor hockey game between MSU and UM a few years ago and that drew well over 70,000 fans. If I remember correctly, Ryan Miller was in goal for the Spartans and Jim Slater scored at least one goal. So maybe, the NHL will look to East Lansing for a game between the Red Wings and a Canadian team. Either way, it should make for some good TV. I wish they’d do more of that stuff. Just for fun, where in Atlanta do you think a game like that could be played?
A few of you asked why I wasn’t in Ottawa or Anaheim covering the Stanley Cup. The Associated Press recently moved a story that addressed the lack of coverage by newspapers at the finals. I think this paragraph pretty much summed it up:
“The cost of covering a series that requires long travel over a two-week period makes newspapers think twice about committing resources to an event that was watched in the U.S. on Versus by an average of 485,000 households through two games — a 20 percent drop from last year.”
It’s pretty quiet here on the Thrashers front. GM Don Waddell was planning on attending the draft combine in Toronto. The draft is the next big event for the Thrashers. It starts June 22nd and goes through the 23rd. It’s in Columbus and right now the Thrashers don’t pick until the third round. But shortly after dealing away all those draft picks around the trade deadline, Waddell said he usually finds a way to get picks back, so don’t be surprised to see some trading done in Columbus. After that, the next deadline is June 25th - the Thrashers need to make qualifying offers to their restricted free agents by then. Restricted free agents from the NHL level include: Jim Slater, Steve McCarthy and Garnet Exelby. With the higher cap number, there are a lot of rumors circulating that teams might start targeting RFAs, which typically didn’t happen in the past, so that is something to watch.
Other team news from around the web:
Holly Gunning at Hockey’s Future rates the Thrashers 2002 draft, one that included Lehtonen, Slater and Oystrick.
Jeremy Rutherford did nothing to slow the Keith Tkachuk-back-to-St. Louis rumors in this assessment of the Blues off-season game plan.
In this hockey round-up, we learn the Chad Denny was too sick to celebrate his signing with the Thrashers. Also, while I’m thinking of it. There’s now some talk that the Thrashers might look to move Denny from the blueline to forward. They’ll bring him into camp as a defenseman, but there are some people who thinks he projects better as a forward.
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