AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 03
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Which rookie will make the biggest impact?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Busy day today in Duluth, but more off-the-ice than on. The rock group Mastodon showed up, and evidently they’re real big hockey fans. The got the tour of the facility, given by Mark Popovic and Garnet Exelby. Then the two defensemen were heading to a recording studio to jam out with the band. I knew Exelby could play guitar, but evidently Popovic is pretty good too. I told Popovic that I didn’t realize he was a big rock star along with being an NHL player.
“You play a couple chords and all of a sudden you’re a rock star,” he said laughing.
And there were lots of plans after practice to get everybody where they needed to be. Johan Hedberg was doing a big photo shoot for Jezebel Magazine while Bobby Holik was heading to a television studio to tape an interview with ESPN News. Holik made the radio rounds this morning, and Garnet Exelby will do the next wave - he’s scheduled to appear on 680 the Fan and 99X and Kovalchuk is planning on doing something for 790 the Zone. Am I the only one who thinks Exelby is a natural to have a regular spot on 99X?
It took a debate about the National Anthem to get us near the century mark yesterday in comments, nice work everybody. Let’s see if an actual hockey debate can get us there today. Buzilla brought it up, and I like the idea of it. Which rookie will have the biggest impact this season? I think this is a tough one because Brett Sterling has the potential to score a lot of goals, and Bryan Little has more upside than anyone and he’s playing a position of need. Tobias Enstrom is fun to watch on defense and should really help the power play. And Mark Popovic is probably the least likely to flop. He’s steady and I don’t think there’s any question he’s NHL-ready. Can the same be said for the other three? How do you rank them?
