Dudley has list of things to do as Thrashers general manager

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The next Thrashers head coach will have survived the Rick Dudley hot seat.

“I think I’m uniquely qualified to ask the right questions,” said Dudley, the team's new general manager who has been a player, coach and GM in the NHL. “I coached for a long time and I was a pretty technical coach. I think I can ask someone questions that perhaps someone else couldn’t. That gives me a unique perspective. I think I can talk to a coach that I don’t know well and by the time I’m done, I’ll know if he knows what he’s talking about.

"That may be a little daunting to some people, but by the same token if they do know what they are talking about, they might be able to blow me away.”

When Dudley was named GM Wednesday, he already had the first order of business sitting on his desk. The franchise is seeking a new coach after John Anderson and his staff were dismissed. The Thrashers will have their fifth coach in club history when they start their 11th season.

Dudley said he has no timetable for the hire and said he must “have good communication skills, good teaching skills and good technical skills.” A decision does not need to made by the NHL draft June 25-26.

Dudley will also have to shape a roster that has 10 unrestricted and four restricted free agents. He will do so with caution.

“We’d like to sign the bulk of our free agents back,” Dudley said. “We think they are good players. The one thing you can’t do is you can’t pay an asset at a level that’s not commensurate with the abilities. So if these people are out of whack, then perhaps we have to look at a free agent to replace that. I’m hopeful because all of them have expressed that they like what we are doing here, they want to be back. Because of that I think that maybe we can work something out because we do value these guys."

Included in those moves could be retaining both goaltenders from last season. Dudley said he would be comfortable if both Johan Hedberg (unrestricted free agent) and Ondrej Pavelec (restricted) were back.

A roster addition may be a veteran locker room presence, similar to a Dave Andreychuk, whom Dudley signed as GM in Tampa Bay.

“We have to alter the culture a little bit,” Dudley said. “ ... [Andreychuk] was the only much older player that I would have brought in [in Tampa]. The only one. I knew his capacity as a leader. We may need something like that. I don’t know that for sure, but right now my gut would tell me we need someone who draws it all together.”

Dudley said he is targeting a scoring forward for one of the top three lines, either by free agency or perhaps from within the organization. One such player may be Patrice Cormier, who was obtained in the Ilya Kovalchuk trade with New Jersey. Cormier has joined the Thrashers’ AHL affiliate in Chicago for the Calder Cup playoffs after serving a three-month suspension for an illegal check during play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

“We may have it,” Dudley said of a forward. “I haven’t watched Cormier play in the playoffs but he’s going to play. He may be the real deal. He was captain of the world junior team for Canada. He’s a high character, smart, physical, young guy. If he’s as good as we hope he is, we might have that in our possession already. We have to look at that. That’s part of the evaluation process. That’s the advantage of watching as many games as I have. I know what works and what doesn’t. We are going to see where these guys are. That’s the advantage of having Chicago in the playoffs. We see some of the people that might have an immediate impact.”