AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 05
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
No youth movement just yet
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Good passion on the blog comments yesterday. Nice work.
Lots of questions about the lineup today, Don Waddell said he’d dress everybody for warmups and go from there. Todd White wasn’t sure if he was going to play, but Waddell said White was cleared to play after practicing yesterday and skating today so he’s a go. The question is defensively. Now that there are eight defensemen, it’s going to come down to who is healthiest and playing the best. At this point your guess is as good as mine.
Waddell said it’s too early to think about seeing any AHL call-ups in the lineup. “We have 23 guys here, we’re going to keep going with the guys we’ve got now,” he said. “We’re not giving up anything.”
So those of you pining to see Boris Valabik and/or Brett Sterling will have to wait.
Some of you have been critical of Waddell’s choice to try and continue to contend right now, and keep the Holiks, Recchis and Hedbergs around, rather than deal everybody at the deadline. You cited Waddell’s comments in his press conference the day after the trade that inferred Waddell turned down first-round picks to keep the team in tact. This Waddell quote, from atlantathrashers.com, is probably the one that started it all: “”If I had been giving up I would have traded Bobby Holik and a few other free agents. We have a lot of games left to play,” Waddell said. “We went on some good stretches this year- we went 11-4 at one point. We need to go on a good run. There’s no doubt about it. But you can’t hold back at this point. But if we were packing in the season we would have looked at a much different deal. We could have got a couple first round picks possibly.”
I was surprised to hear that since, from what I was hearing, the market for some of the Thrashers veterans wasn’t first-round picks. Waddell confirmed as much today when I asked him to clarify the market for some of the other potential UFAs.
“Not first rounds for those guys, I don’t know if I said first round. You could have gotten draft picks back. Draft picks, but mid-round,” Waddell said. “To me, it wasn’t worth it. Those assets were much more important than to pick up a third or fourth round pick.”
I think that quote makes a lot more sense. So does that change things for you? Is a third-round pick for a Holik or Recchi better than nothing, or were the Thrashers better off giving the remaining players a chance at making the playoffs?
I was forwarded this link by an angry season ticket holder - 65 percent off Thrashers tickets in a deal with travelzoo.com. I share it for two reasons - one, that’s a pretty darn good deal. You’re welcome. And two, it supports the contention from angry season ticket holders that they get undercut throughout the season. I’d say that’s a valid complaint. But wouldn’t you rather see empty seats around you filled rather than see the team refuse to offer deals then have a half-empty arena?
