Thrashers could use trade, not free agency, to acquire another goal scorer

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Change is coming to the Thrashers roster.

It may be the 15-plus goal scorer that general manager Rick Dudley still covets. It will definitely involve the nine players from last season’s team who will become unrestricted free agents.

With the start of the NHL free agency period, which begins at 12:01 p.m. Thursday, the final stages of constructing the team’s roster will have begun.

Dudley said this week that the trade with Chicago early this month that brought Dustin Byfuglien, among others, to Atlanta lessens the need to obtain a top-line scorer. However, he would still like to add another piece, a player capable of scoring 15 or more goals. Don’t necessarily look at the new pool of available free agents for the next Thrasher. Dudley said a trade is just as likely to bring that player to Atlanta.

“[A trade] may not work out that way, but it’s at least as good a chance as free agency right now,” Dudley said. “Part of the reason is pretty simple. There are some pretty good players available. This is the advantage. [President] Don [Waddell] has done a good job of keeping our money in line and now we have a little money to spend on the right part. My job is to get the right part.”

The Thrashers entered the offseason with 10 players scheduled to become unrestricted free agents. Forward Jim Slater signed a two-year contract earlier this month. That leaves Maxim Afinogenov, Colby Armstrong, Evgengy Artyukhin, Eric Boulton, Johan Hedberg, Slava Kozlov, Pavel Kubina, Mark Popovic and Christoph Schubert free to negotiate with other teams.

The Thrashers have made offers to all except Kozlov. They  could still re-sign the unrestricted free agents. . The team continues to negotiate with Hedberg and Kubina, but the sides remain apart.

“Sometimes [a trade] is easier because you don’t have to give a contract that overmatches the player,” Dudley said. “The unfortunate thing about free agency is you bid against people and you can get caught up in the frenzy, which I pride myself on never doing. I don’t want to give a contract that’s not warranted by what the player does. If you do that, then that is your player.

"One of the big mistakes teams make -- and many of them have made it -- is to have a player that they cannot move under any circumstances. What’s your beauty today, is your death knell tomorrow.”

With the hire of Craig Ramsay as head coach, the Thrashers plan on playing an aggressive style of hockey.

“I want offense from all four lines,” Ramsay said. “And I believe in playing all four lines.”

To do so, Dudley said additions still must be made to the roster that will report for training camp in mid-September.

“We need somebody,” Dudley said. “I would like to have three lines that can score. ... It would be nice to have the third and fourth lines be energy lines and I think we are capable of doing that. I have to be very specific in what we are looking for.”

Former Thrashers franchise player Ilya Kovalchuk, who the team traded to New Jersey in February, is considered the top player available on the free-agent market.