Focus on Waddell as Thrashers enter critical off-season

The track record is clear.

The Thrashers have made one playoff appearance in nine seasons in Atlanta. They didn’t win a game.

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Jenni Girtman/jgirtman@ajc.com

Thrashers GM Don Waddell says his contract is ‘on-going,’ but team ownership hasn’t been as clear.

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One thing has been constant over the past 10 years — general manager Don Waddell. Ownership has changed. Players have come and gone. Heck, there is even a new sweater. Still, Waddell remains.

So as the franchise faces perhaps the most critical off-season in its history, there are questions. Will Waddell remain to lead the Thrashers into their next phase? And if so, why will this time be different?

Waddell has no plans to leave. He told the Journal-Constitution in a recent interview that there have been no talks with ownership to replace him. Waddell would not reveal the status of his contract but said, “I can assure you, my contract is ongoing.”

Thrashers ownership declined an interview request, preferring that Waddell speak for the organization. However, in an interview with the AJC in March, near the end of last season, co-owner Bruce Levenson had the following response to the question of whether Waddell would return: “I never play that game. Every GM and every coach in professional sports is on a day-to-day contract.

“But I have a lot of respect for Don. We have a great working relationship. I’m very excited about the prospects for a young team that has gotten even younger in the past couple of weeks.”

Waddell’s top priority this off-season is to re-sign Ilya Kovalchuk. To do so, he must add the right pieces to show one of the NHL’s elite players that the Thrashers are capable of winning long-term. If not, the team could lose its leader in goals, points and games played.

Still, past failures haunt Waddell.

“There have been sleepless nights at times, I can tell you,” Waddell said. “I know how hard people have worked in this organization. … It’s very frustrating. You can approach it two different ways. You can be frustrated with it and go back and look at all the alibis, the Dany Heatley situation and all that, or you can say ‘Hey, we came in here, we had our run. It didn’t work out the way we had hoped.’

“We won our division [in 2006-07], we lost in the first round [of the playoffs], brought in some older guys, decided to make a change. Now we are in position again that we’ve got to keep this core of young players. This is where the Kovalchuk thing comes into place, to give us an opportunity to do this again.

“We analyze everything we did last year … we grade ourselves. The safest way not to survive is this business is to not do anything. At the end of the day it rests on my shoulders.”

While Waddell often is criticized for the organization’s failures, some fans blame ownership.

“I don’t know if it will make a difference if it’s Don or if it’s anyone else [in the general manager role],” said Thrashers fan Sara Ogden. “Everyone points to Don as being the one constant, but we’ve consistently had an issue with substandard ownership. First it was Time-Warner and now the [Atlanta] Spirit. At first things were going well with the Spirit, but then they started to fall apart and then the team started to fall apart.

“Sure Don Waddell has had missteps, but more than anything ownership has held us back.”

Waddell thinks the Thrashers are moving in the right direction. He points to the team’s success at the end of last season, when they finished 12-6. He also points to the core of players who are signed, including several young players. He also has had several years with the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement that resulted from the lockout that cost the league the 2004-05 season.

“Now that the CBA is in full working mode, you have to take your core players, whether that’s three or four guys, and commit to them long term and the other guys you’ve got to keep on a shorter lease,” Waddell said. “If you don’t, you don’t have the flexibility of changing your roster.”

Waddell said the Thrashers have not determined their budget for next season, but he expects it to be in the same neighborhood as last year. Last season, the Thrashers had a salary-cap payroll of about $43.5 million. That was $13 million under the top limit of the league salary cap. The salary-cap figures for the 2009-10 season will be released by the league next month.

“You learn how to manage the cap, more importantly you learn how to manage your budget,” Waddell said. “What you can’t do is get tied up with five or six guys for a long, long time because you tie your hands, especially when you are working with a budget versus the cap.”