As part of the 10th Anniversary of the Atlanta Thrashers we are taking a look at the evolution of the roster over time. First we looked at defense, then at scoring forward positions (aka "top six") and today the checking forwards (aka "bottom six").

In the NHL checking line players are important, but the ability to play defense in the NHL is not as rare as the ability to score in the NHL. Therefore, most teams see more turnover in the ranks of their bottom six forwards. Certainly that has been true of the Thrashers if you peruse the table below. The longest checking forwards with continuous service in Atlanta were Stefan, Slater and Svartvadet.

3rd and 4th line players lack the skill to play on a higher line and they typically post modest point totals. The Thrashers had hoped that Stefan, Bartecko and Metropolit would post more NHL points than they did. It seems to me that the current 3rd line players on the Thrashers are better than at any point in team history except perhaps the Petro-Stefan-Bondra group who were fairly productive.

Checking line players are supposed to prevent the other team from scoring. Frequently they are matched against more offensively talented opposition players. For all of his faults, Patrik Stefan played a solid positional game and usually sported one of the better plus/minus numbers on the Thrashers. Colby Armstrong and Marty Reasoner are both on pace to post consecutive "plus" seasons for the Thrashers if they can stay positive the rest of this current season.

Conclusion: The 3rd and 4th lines see a lot of turnover and that trend will likely continue in the summer of 2010. Evander Kane will move up to a scoring line and Armstrong, Slater and Boulton are all unrestricted free agents. It is unclear which of that group will stay in Atlanta. Spencer Machacek could be promoted from the AHL to fill one of those NHL roster spots.