AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > February > 28
Thursday, February 28, 2008
A new mayor for Blueland
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First things, first. You guys are going to love Colby Armstrong. Love him. I’m already hearing fantastic stories about how he treated fans in Pittsburgh and April Fools Day jokes he pulled on teammates. Chris Thorburn said Armstrong’s sense of humor is legendary in Canada. I sat down with Armstrong this morning for a few minutes for a Friday feature I’m doing on him, and he was great. But I’m saving all the good stuff for my story, and the best stuff isn’t for public consumption. So the blog gets the shaft in that department. I will say this - if you’re a Pittsburgh fan, and have a minute for an interview today about Armstrong and what he meant to the fans there, please e-mail me: ccustance@ajc.com. If you spend a few moments on the Atlanta Thrashers message board, there are some great stories from fans who talk about Armstrong. One told about how he bought a bunch of pizzas for some college kids waiting outside in line. Another about about kids crying when the Hossa trade was announced. He is a glue-guy, and this team needed some glue. A lot of it.
Somebody asked yesterday in the blog section if Angelo Esposito was the player the Thrashers tried to trade up and get in last year’s draft and the answer is yes. The Thrashers had him rated in their top eight, and when he started to slip, they scrambled to try and get a pick to grab him. They were willing to move their first-round pick in this year’s draft to get him, which is saying something considering how deep this draft is. Instead, now they have him and two first-rounders. It’s funny how quickly things can change.
Don Waddell will start Armstrong and Christensen on the same line, hoping their familiarity with each other helps ease the transition. Eric Perrin will be on the left wing as the third player on that line. The third line will be Slava Kozlov, Bobby Holik and Bryan Little. Little said he’s fine with the move to the wing, saying it’s actually less responsibility than center. We’ll see how it goes tonight. Mark Popovic, Steve McCarthy and Brad Larsen will sit.
More deadline day fallout: I know Waddell is being hit pretty hard for not trading some of the other UFAs. I asked him about that today, and he said that the offers of draft picks just weren’t significant enough for the players being moved. In his opinion, there is more benefit for the organization to keeping those players around and at least trying to be competitive these final five weeks or so than getting some draft picks in future drafts. If Cristobal Huet (21-12, 2.56, .916) only fetched a second-rounder, I’m guessing the bounty for Johan Hedberg (13-10, 3.30, .896) was well south of that. And Zhitnik’s salary makes him nearly impossible to deal. So that leaves Bobby Holik. It’s hard to say what you could have gotten in return for him, but evidently it wasn’t enough.
I’m sure we’ll hear more details about the inner-workings of the Marian Hossa trade as time moves on, but ultimately it came down to three concrete packages of players - the deal with Pittsburgh and offers from Montreal and Ottawa. To me, that’s interesting because in those three teams, you have a trio battling in the Eastern Conference, and as of right now, they’re all within two points of each other (Montreal - 77, Ottawa - 78, Pittsburgh - 79). In getting Hossa, the Penguins not only landed a superstar, but they prevented the Habs and Sens from getting him. There’s some value in that, and Waddell no doubt, was able to get a little more value playing those teams against each other.
