One week after Marian Hossa said the chances of signing with the Thrashers before the trade deadline were very slim, Don Waddell officially closed the door.

Waddell and Hossa met Friday at the team hotel in Toronto for a one-on-one update on the situation. Saturday morning, Waddell acknowledged that signing Hossa to a contract extension before Tuesday wasn't an option.

"No, I don't believe so at this point," Waddell said. "He's a good guy. I've got a great relationship with him. It's part of the business; he understands he might be dealt or he might not be dealt."

Said Hossa: "Me and Don have a great relationship since the beginning, since I came here. He was always great to me."

• OFFERS IMPROVING: After being underwhelmed by the trade offers for Hossa at the GM meetings in Florida, Waddell said teams are starting to get more serious in their discussions about the All-Star forward.

"They're getting interesting," he said of the offers. "We have four days counting today; we expect it to heat up even more."

Waddell declined to identify the teams or how many.

"There's a lot of teams," he said. "Many, many teams."

• ZHITNIK SITS: After being benched in Carolina, defenseman Alexei Zhitnik was a healthy scratch against the Maple Leafs. Waddell mentioned that Zhitnik was battling the flu as part of the reason he was sitting, but Zhitnik said the flu isn't the issue.

"I'm a long time over the flu," he said. "I don't know why he'd say flu. I've been practicing for the last four days. He told me today there was no jump. You can agree or not, it's their view. You've got what you've got."