Bob McKenzie is reporting that the Avalanche are considering trade offers for Wojtek Wolski. Now this is a trade I'd like to see the Thrashers make. Wolski is young, he's talented and he is not a rental. Wolski is 24 years old and makes $2.8 million. He will be a restricted free agent this summer and will likely earn more money.
One big problem for the Thrashers is that they will clear a lot of salary with the Kovalchuk and Kozlov trades--assuming the latter happens and even more Kubina re-signs--that is the good news. The bad news is that the crop of UFA available this summer is loaded with older guys who are either already in their decline years or very near their decline years. This particular UFA crop is rather uninspiring.
The Atlanta Thrashers still need to get younger and more talented at the same time. The free agent options will not really help them with the first part. Making a trade to add Wolski would enable them to fill out their roster with a still young player who can mature along with the core 26-and-under core of Bogosian, Kane, Bergfors, Little, Enstrom and Valabik.
Furthermore advanced metrics like Corsi numbers show that he is a guy who helps out his team at ES by playing in the good end of the ice. He is on pace for a 25 goal, 60 point season this year. Adding this player would be much better than adding some stop gap veteran fill in even at the cost of a pick and a prospect.
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