Healthy Modin having fun playing hockey again

Fredrik Modin loves the game of hockey again. All it took was two healthy knees.

The Thrashers forward, signed as a free agent in the offseason, has played just 117 NHL games over the past three seasons. It was his right knee last year, his left knee the year before. Add a foot injury in between and it was enough to make Modin miserable.

“It’s mentally tough to be out and just rehabbing every day,” Modin said. “You finally get back from the first [knee injury] and feeling really good and you get hit on the other knee and the same thing happens. It was tough and it was great to come back and feel that I could stay healthy and play well."

The left wing missed the early part of last season while playing for Columbus with a MCL strain in his right knee. He also missed games with a bruised left foot. Modin returned to health in time to play for Sweden in the Olympics in February. Days after returning from Vancouver, he was traded to Los Angeles where he finished the regular season and playoffs.

Modin knew better days were ahead.

"I was happy with the way I was playing from [the Olympics] on," he said. "It just makes you see why you love the game again. It’s a lot of fun when you are healthy.”

Thrashers general manager Rick Dudley said he is convinced that Modin is healthy and that his past problems were not “chronic,” but rather one-time injuries. The team watched video from last season, including the playoffs when he had three goals and an assist in six games with the Kings.

Entering his 14th season at age 35, Modin scored more than 30 goals twice early in his career while playing for Tampa Bay. He scored 29 goals in 2003-04 when the Lightning won the Stanley Cup. The Thrashers may not be looking for that much production. However, if the team-scoring concept of new coach Craig Ramsay is going to work, he must play a significant role.

“Freddy Modin is a guy that’s played for me,” said Ramsay, who was an assistant in Tampa Bay. “He knows what we are trying to accomplish. The great thing about Freddy, he was a big, strong scorer, supposedly just a shooter, who became a guy you played against the best players from the other team, who became a top penalty-killer, who became, in my mind, a top checker but still scored his 20-something goals and helped on your power play. He has seen that. He saw how things can work. And he won a championship. Guys like that make a difference to your team.”

Modin (6 feet 4, 220 pounds) said he is willing to play any role for the Thrashers. He does not come into the season with a set number of goals he would like to score. He never has. He said he’s only interested in helping the team win. He has seen the team-scoring concept work.

“It helps when you have a superstar that you know is going to score a certain number of goals,” Modin said. “A lot of times, when you don’t have that one guy, the whole team steps up. There is always a couple of players. Every team that I’ve been on had these guys. There are always one or two guys during the season, someone that comes up and sticks himself out there and gets to be the guy that you can rely a little bit extra on when it comes to scoring.

"A lot of time, the whole team gels together and helps out and gets the scoring and point producing spread out all over the team. When you get that, a lot of times, it’s almost better because everybody feels like they are chipping in.”