No question the moves would have to be spot on but going with a higher number of younger players with upside allows for a mistake or two in personel decisions.

When you look at Anderson’s Wolves teams they had fewer star quality players but more players who fit his system, going with youth and speed might fit his sytem better than having established players with traits that do not match the system played.

So our new strategy is to become the Kings? Come on, Falconer, let’s be creative!

I’m not sure we can get both Johnson and Brown from the Kings. It’d be great if we could, but that’s a tall order.

Ideally, we could also try to snag Jeff Carter from the Flyers. That would give us a guy with solid offensive credentials who doesn’t mind playing a little defense.

A good preview, no doubt.

The only moves I would make this year would be to trade Kovy, Armstrong, and Kubina. Armstrong can be replaced with Machacek, and Kubina with Kulda/Oysterick. I don’t see much point to dismantling the team by losing Afiniginov.

To be nit picky, Todd White is not in the final year of his contract. NEXT season is the final year of his contract. Todd is pretty cheap and I see little gain to buying him out. It’s not like they have a replacement ready. Besides, he’s likely to rebound next season anyway. I’m not a White fan, but they might as well just ride this one out.

This article is a highly optimistic best case scenario. We’re supposed to expect that an organization that threw first round picks in the trash on Bourret, Little (sorry folks, but I put the odds at 90% that Little will never score as many as 15 goals in a season again) and Leveille will suddenly know what it is doing. Or that once they free up this money they’ll actually spend it. Or that our young talent won’t get the hell out of town as quickly as they can when they become UFAs.

A more likely scenario is that the Thrashers will be a bottom 5 team for the next 5 years with a dwindling fan base. They never really contend for the playoffs and nobody wants to play here unless they are overpaid to do it. They pick up good players as 1 year rentals via trades with teams that want to shed salary, but the team never contends. Nobody will accept a head coaching job here except the most desperate of assistant coaches or AHL guys and desperate does not equal quality. Rumors of the team being sold and relocated continue. Most of the fans have given up hope and resigned themselves to the fact that the Thrashers will never be competitive but they have to just be happy to have an NHL team.

Whether Kovalchuk should be re-signed is debatable and we can all agree to disagree and respect differences of opinion. However, Brian Burke said this week what he heard the offer was that Kovy had turned down and all I can say is that Kovy can beat that as a free agent and the owners are delusional if they actually think that what Burke talked about is going to get Kovy signed. Again, we’re supposed to believe that a ownership group that can’t even make a realistic offer to its franchise player is suddenly going to “get it” in the future? Let me politely call that highly optimistic and extremely unlikely.

What did Burke say Kovy was offered?

We know management was wrong when they valued Savard 4 years ago. 5 mil a year for Savard was cheap, and they thought it was too expensive. Clearly, they haven’t learned from this mistakes.

i notice you threw klingberg in the mix for joining the team soon (probably because of the old standby defense they play with men in Sweden), but when do you think Morin could join the team? if were talking about letting younger guys get a chance, Morin is probably our next big scorer to come through the ranks. just curious when you think he’ll make the team, especially if you foresee a shift to younger players.

Any analysis that calls for jettisoning Todd White is one in which I am in favor. He’s like Erik Christensen. I would rather have the space created by him not being on the ice than having him on the ice. Yes, I’d rather play down a man than with Todd White.

-16 as of last night.

Will it be possible to pull off step 4? If Kovy departs, what “1st line caliber player” will decide to sign here? The team will have likely missed the playoffs, and has poor attendance. When they have 29 other choices, who would sign here? Even with Kovy, the FA signings we have gotten recently have been Hainsey and Antropov. Both of whom I like, but I don’t think they are who you are targeting in step 4.

Before the Kovalchuk to the Kings express rolls any further down the track, I suggest that everyone read a blog post by Rich Hammond at Kings Insider (and Hammond actually is an insider). He says the Kings view Kovalchuk as a rental only and are having troubles with the Thrashers demand for a roster player-“roster player” is a long way from Dustin Brown or even Jack Johnson, who plays top line minutes for them. I’ll go further than Hammond. About a month ago,Terry Murray (Kings coach) gave a long interview to the LA Times about the “identity” he was trying to create for the Kings. He said it involved grit, cycling down low, working the boards, no freelancing, no individual “heroics”. Now I can see where they might take on Kovy as a rental if they thought they could do some damage in the playoffs-and Hammond’s comments in his blog make me think they don’t feel they are that close yet-but it would be a pretty big rupture between GM and coach if Lombardi brought on Kovalchuk as a permanent addition given Murray’s “vision” for the Kings and the fact that Kovalchuk is the antithesis of what Murray says he wants from his players..

I do not see the Thrashers being able to pull a guy like Brown in a Kovalchuk trade. And it is going to take more than picks to get Buff, Versteeg, and Barker. DW is going to have to hope that someone gets real desperate over the next three weeks.

I agree that this could be a better TEAM without Ilya, if they do the right thing. Then again, we would be a better team if we got a decent return for Hossa…we ended up with a disappointing prospect(who Waddell was in love with), an abysmal Top 6 forward in EC, a very good 3rd liner in Army, and we drafted a project player who is still probably 2-4 years away from having any impact at the NHL level.

Is Dudley the real force behind our good draft and offseason acquisitions last offseason…hopefully so. The Thrashers need to have a better shooting percentage than 25% on this Kovalchuk trade. And I think they need to focus on keeping Afinagenov if possible. He is no Ilya, but he can sometimes be worth the price of admission on his own…he also seems to enjoy Anderson’s offensive schemes.

Alot of good posts here. Do not forget Kubina and Kozlov will also be traded if the Thrashers are not in the playoff came trade deadline. Lehtonen and his 3 million dollar contract will be gone too after this year. Armstrong is great and I am sure he is someone they want to keep, it’s just not gonna happen. Whether it is a trade or free agency, my guess is he ends up back in Pittsburgh. Regadless, I agree with Falconer. This entire franchise could look completely different and there could be some reason for hope in the wake of losing Kovy.

Everyone talks about the Kings, but I think Calgary is a dark horse for Kovy. They are in a horrible slump and in a bad need of a change. They have some players they want to get rid of. The Sutters are in big trouble if they do not do something quick. They are desperate and this could be to the Thrashers advantage. I think the Rangers (another team in a horrible slump) would overpay for him too, I just do not see them having enough to make it happen.

I completely agree Todd White is a waste of roster space and have little hope for Brian Little too. I do have hope for Esposito still, but 2 knee surgeries is never a good sign.

I suppose this is no big shocker by now, but I know a couple people within the Thrasher organization and they say Kovy is good as gone and they are hoping to do it before the Olympic break. I was really hoping some miracle would happen and they could get him resigned.

You will not get Dustin Brown, period.

As long as Waddell insists on not allowing teams to negotiate with Kovalchuk’s agent prior to a trade, don’t expect the Kings to give up anything substantial. You are totally overestimating Lombardi’s opintion of Kovalchuk. He is an excellent goal scorer who any team would be lucky to have (which is why the Kings are considering him at all), but he doesn’t exactly fit into the Kings gritty cycling, net-crashing, and board-play style.

Lombardi is all about the players like Dustin Brown, Ryan Smyth, Justin Williams, and Wayne Simmonds. Check out Lombardi’s interviews about the level of “compete” he wants from his players. He’s not really that high on “finesse” players, which is why Alexander Frolov is a 3rd line winger on the Kings and probably won’t be coming back next season. It is also why Mike Cammalleri and Patrick O’Sullivan aren’t on the team anymore and why the Kings weren’t willing to bid exorbiant amounts of money on players like Gaborik and Hossa last July.

For the person who said ,“we might be able to get Johnson, Simmonds, Teubert, and another prospect or pick.” That is waaaaaaay to much for a Kovalchuk rental. I doubt that Lombardi would even agree to that even if Kovy agreed to a long-term contract beforehand. You don’t seem to realize how good Simmonds is and how much of a love affair Lombardi and Terry Murray have with him. I highly doubt Lombardi would be willing to give up more than Johnson and a prospect (Teubert) OR pick (2nd round) for a Kovalchuk rental. If he agrees to a long-term contract prior to the trade, then the Kings may give up Johnson, Stoll, Teubert, and a 2nd round pick. If Waddell asks for anything more than that, the Kings will pass and take a crack at Kovalchuk on July 1st.

Our untouchable players: Kopitar, Simmonds, Brown, Smyth, Schenn, Doughty, Quick, and Bernier. Lombardi WILL NOT trade any of these players.