The Atlanta Thrashers annual "Meet the Team" event for season ticket holders is tonight. The players are all introduced and the coaches and GM speak, then the players sign autographs. Some fans had speculated that a new contract for Kovalchuk would be a great announcement for Faceoff but that seems unlikely.
One bit of drama at the Faceoff Event is who will wear the "C" and "A"s for the upcoming season--but we already know Kovlachuk will wear the "C"--so not too much drama there this year. I know that Kozlov had an "A" last year and probably will again this year. Havelid had an "A" and one of the defensemen will probably inherit that. If it were up to me, I'd give the other "A" to Reasoner or Armstrong.
Sometimes we also see players who won NHL jobs in Training Camp change their number. But Evander Kane already wears a low number (9) and so does Popovic (3). Valabik switched from 48 to 5 in pre-season. That leaves just Josh Gratton as a potential number switcher, but he wore 24 which is a solid hockey number. The Russian-speaking new comers (Antropov, Kubina, Afinogenov) have all worn high numbers during their careers and I expect that to continue despite Don Waddell's preference for number 40.
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