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Monday, March 10, 2008
Do you bring Zhitnik back?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ll say this much. Covering Thrashers practice is infinitely more entertaining when Jeff Schultz joins me. Well, that, and when there is a gigantic Thrashers bobblehead sitting outside the lockerroom. But that’s another story.
I know some of you ride Schultz pretty hard because he’s critical of the Thrashers, but he’s looking pretty smart right now. Along with some fun give and take from some of the players, Schultz’s visit provided a great exchange with Don Waddell in which I’ll share with you now. I don’t want to give away too much, because I’m sure Jeff is using it in his column, but here’s a sneak peek:
Schultz: If you sit down with owners and they say, ‘we’re disappointed, we expected more,’ what do you say to them to justify coming back?
Waddell: I don’t think I need to justify anything to them. They’re smart people.
Schultz: What does that mean?
Waddell: They know our situation out here.
Schultz: Which is?
Waddell: You’ve seen it.
Schultz: Tell me.
Waddell: There’s lot of things. We didn’t have the start we wanted to have. It started right there.
Schultz: And?
Waddell: That’s it. There’s lots of things. But I’m not going to sit here and talk about that with you.
It was high entertainment. It ended up being more like a word association exercise than an interview.
I’ll leave the rest for his column, which I’m guessing will be a little more entertaining than my feature on Alexei Zhitnik. But Z is an issue to, on a lot of levels. He’s a reminder of a young defenseman prospect in Braydon Coburn who got away. That trade is looking worse and worse with every game Zhitnik watches from the press box.
On top of it all, not only did the Thrashers lose one of the few legit defensemen in their system, they’re on the hook for Zhitnik’s $3.5 million salary next year. Waddell is saying Zhitnik is in the plans for next year, but I’ll be surprised if he’s on the team next year. Even if they have to put him on waivers and hopes somebody claims him, I think that’s a better option. And if I’m another team, I’d take a chance on the veteran defenseman who would be out to prove the Thrashers wrong and earn another contract. You?
I asked Don the other day if the general manager in him was secretly hoping that the Thrashers lose some of these games to help the chances of landing a top three pick in the draft. He promised that wasn’t the case.
“No, no, no — we’re going to get a good player. If we keep that pick we’re going to get a good player where ever we pick. We want to finish as high as we can,” Waddell said.
It sounds like he’s more than willing to deal one of those two first-round picks if he can land a player who can help immediately, especially someone a couple years away from free agency. What do you guys think? Should the Thrashers use those draft picks as assets to deal or add two prospects from a deep draft?
Waddell still says the team isn’t to the point where they will call up any AHL players. He said they only have four recalls and have used two of them. If it were up to me, I’d give Boris Valabik a look and I’d like to see what Jordan LaVallee can do, but that’s just me.
