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| Tuesday, July 23 Users: Holding out hope for the future ESPN.com |
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The Atlanta Thrashers finished dead last in 2001-02 with a 19-47-11-5 record. Why should anyone think 2002-03 will be any better? ESPN.com asked for your thoughts about the Thrashers. Here is an edited sampling of your responses:
The Thrashers are one or two years from the playoffs, but the future is very promising so I hope the fans stay patient. We all know about Ilya Kovalchuk and Dany Heatley, now there's some depth. Milan Hnilicka can be dynamite (see 50-plus save effort in Boston while the team was nearly nonexistent), but he needs to do it all the time. I don't know if Uwe Krupp can help at all. However, the Thrashers will continue to develop, and with more defense, better times aren't that far away.
Jeff Patterson
Signing Richard Smehlik and Uwe Krupp is hardly enough to lift them from the bottom of the league. In fact, a full season without Ray Ferraro and Jiri Slegr offsets those signings. Thrashers fans can enjoy another season of Kovalchuk and their other young players, but don't expect any more wins than last season.
Sean Berends
It was fun to watch Kovalchuk and Heatley last season. They already are great players and they have many years ahead of them. Adding Smehlik, Krupp, Kozlov and McEachern definitely makes the Thrashers a better team for 2002-03. I do believe they will finish ahead of the Panthers, but that's it. The next year, if they upgrade the goaltending, add another solid defensemen and a strong center they could push ahead further.
Mike Petersell
I think they will be improved, but we're not talking a playoff team here. They don't really have a first- or second-line center and their "D" is still at least a year away from being much improved, with all the youth that they are counting on. So, improved? Yes, 70 points is not out of the question. But playing "meaningful games in March" (Don Waddell's goal), we'll see!
Steve Van Hattum
Russo was right about two things: 1) Atlanta has nowhere to go but up as far as the standings are concerned, and 2) the Thrashers have had the best offseason that no one has noticed. Not that we expect the Thrashers to raise Lord Stanley's Cup next summer, but any contender thinking they can waltz through Atlanta and pick up wins throughout the season, especially late in the season, will find out that task hard to accomplish. Not convinced? Ask the Colorado Avalanche about their last visit here.
Jarrett Simpson
Who cares what direction they move in? Atlanta is not a hockey town, and that's already been proved once. It's like asking how the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are gonna do next year.
David Lawyer
Considering they finished in last place, how can they possibly go backwards? Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrik Stefan, Dany Heatley, Slava Kozlov, Shawn McEachern, Richard Smehlik and Uwe Krupp. Now we're talking. New names, new guys in town, the Thrashers shouldn't have a problem staying out of last place. With Milan Hnilicka establishing himself as the No. 1 goalie and displaying some flashes of good young talent, you never know. Maybe the Thrashers will be playing hockey into late April. Anything can happen.
Rick Santos
Heatley and Kovalchuk are the future of the NHL and as long as Waddell doesn't let the Thrash turn into the Ducks by surrounding Dany and Ilya with miscellaneous minor leaguers, they will be dazzling us for years to come.
Dave Lauber
I have only lived in St. Louis for a few years, so I'm still a big Red Wings fan. After watching Krupp the last eight games of the season and the first two in the playoffs, I can only say that it is more than a gamble. Krupp played like Krapp. Jiri Fischer had to take a lot of penalties those first two games, and every time he was having to cover Krupp's man down low. I think Atlanta has taken on more than a gamble with Krupp. I hope he proves me wrong ... I like seeing guys come back from serious injuries and play their sport in strong manner. This one seems like a stretch.
Dana Spence
Atlanta has made many offseason moves. However, most of these maneuverings have amounted to nothing more than "patchwork." They went out and got left winger Shawn McEachern, a guy whose $3.1 million salary resulted the same offensive output as Tony Hrkac, who was paid $800,000 by the Thrashers last year. Which player is the better deal? Richard Smehlik, Slava Kozlov and Uwe Krupp are coming off injury-plagued seasons with poor offensive output and low plus/minus ratings ... not to mention occasional "benchings." Atlanta seems to be the popular "dumping spot" for older players who have a point to prove about not being "washed up." The good news for Thrashers is that none of these recent acquisitions are locked into long-term contracts for high dollars. The Collective Bargaining agreement ends in 2004 and when it does, Atlanta will not be locked into paying players like Bobby Holik and Billy Guerin $9 million a year when a salary cap is finally imposed. Maple Leafs GM Pat Quinn was right when he said there will probably be a lockout. (The NHL FINED him $100,000 for exercising his 1st Amendment Rights.) Also, Atlanta will be free to spend the money not spent on renewing these players' contracts on younger, better, larger-impact players. The good news for McEachern, Smehlik, Krupp, and Kozlov is that they ought to be able to log some serious ice time in their efforts to prove themselves. The bad news is they may in fact BE "washed up." The other bad news for Atlanta is until a salary cap goes into effect, they will always be losing "bidding wars" to larger market cities, and that includes losing Heatley and Kovalchuk down the road, when free agency lands them in New York, Washington, Dallas, Colorado, L.A., Boston, Chicago or Detroit. There is no "level playing field" in the NHL. In short, the NHL DEPENDS on its large market cities to be prominently featured in its annual showcase called the "Stanley Cup finals," for TV ratings and advertising dollar purposes. If the Atlanta Thrashers were to actually reach the Cup finals one fine day and face, say, the Columbus Blue Jackets, it would be a ratings catastrophe that would leave the NHL and its board of directors, governors and commissioner pointing fingers at each other about how and why this happened. The best Atlanta can hope for is to one day qualify for the playoffs and make a decent showing one year. Free agency DESTROYED small-market hopefuls and Canadian teams. It will be interesting to see how many more times the Carolina Hurricanes appear in the Stanley Cup finals over the course of the next few decades ... that is, without a salary cap.
Brendan Lyle |
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