In the last 24 hours the Atlanta Thrashers have added two minor league veterans to their organizational depth chart. By my count that puts them at FIVE GOALIES under contract for next season. The fact that they signed two AHL veterans tells me that they do not plan on Ondrej Pavelec being in Chicago next year.
Now whether Pavelec is in Atlanta or another city remains to be seen. It looks to me like Kari Lehtonen, Johan Hedberg and Pavelec will either fight it out for the two NHL jobs. Or one the team could trade one of them before the season starts.
Drew Macintyre (age 26) has posted excellant numbers in 179 AHL games (.918 SV%), but has seen only 2 NHL starts. He strikes me as a fine choice as a #3 depth chart goalie.
The other addition is Peter Mannino (age 25). He was a 4 year player for the University of Denver and has received 3 NHL starts with below average performance (.885 SV%) in that tiny sample size. He had 34 AHL starts and 3 NHL ones with the Islanders. Peter was also a teammate of Thrashers prospect Grant Lewis with the Pittsburgh Forge of NAHL junior hockey league before both guys headed off to play college hockey.
Kudos to the Thrashers for being pro-active on the UFA minor league goalie market before their options are reduced by other teams signing the best available guys. On paper Drew MacIntyre has an impressive AHL track record.
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