The Atlanta Thrashers' top line of Ray Ferraro, Donald Audette and Andrew Brunette was one of the NHL's best last season and helped the team eclipse its first-year total of 14 wins on Dec. 28. Unfortunately, the progress stopped there. The Thrashers won only once in January and had only seven wins after the All-Star break. But such is the life of a second-year expansion team.

Looking at next season

	2000-01 by the numbers
	Record: 23-45-12-2, 60 points (28th overall, 13th East, 4th Southeast) Man-games lost to injury: 449 (2nd) Goals for/Avg.: 211/2.57 (20th) Goals against/Avg.: 289/3.52 (29th) Differential: -78 (28th overall) 20-goal scorers: Donald Audette* (32), Ray Ferraro (29) 50-point scorers: Ferraro (77), Audette* (72), Andrew Brunette (58) * - no longer on team

As the Thrashers enter the third year of GM Don Waddell's five-year plan, it's difficult to clearly identify the weaknesses of a developing team that lost 449 man-games to injury, second only to Montreal's 531.

In between the pipes, the Thrashers were plagued by inconsistent performances from goaltender to goaltender and from game to game. However, Waddell isn't expected to make any changes. After the season, Milan Hnilicka guided the Czech Republic to a gold medal in the 2001 World Championships with a 1.44 GAA, proving his effectiveness when he plays every day. Damian Rhodes, who has been hampered by injuries the last two seasons, is still looking to regain his form from 1998-99, when he won a career-high 22 games with Ottawa. Instead of entering the season with one of them identified as the No. 1 goalie, they will compete for the job, hopefully, to lift both players to the top of their games.

While the goalies aren't completely to blame for the second-worst goals against total in the league, neither are the defensemen, who were affected the most by injuries. Gord Murphy, who is an unrestricted free agent, missed 53 games recovering from shoulder surgery and a broken thumb; Adam Burt missed 45 games with a herniated disk; Frantisek Kaberle, who led the team with a plus-11 rating, missed 25 games with a broken foot; and Petr Buzek, the Thrashers representative at the 2000 All-Star Game, missed 76 games with a neck strain. The late-season acquisition of Jiri Slegr from Pittsburgh in January was a positive move, but it's likely the Thrashers will wait to evaluate the corps in training camp before making any major changes.

The Thrashers' offensive outlook is a combination of good news and bad news.

First, the bad. Audette is gone for good, having signed as a free agent with Dallas, and the future of Brunette, an unrestricted free agent, is up in the air. So much for an elite first line.

The good news is youth and talent. Ferraro, the team's leading scorer last season, decided to return rather than retire. Patrik Stefan, their No. 1 pick in 1999, showed flashes of brilliance late in the season when he was moved from center back to wing, and winger Tomi Kallio netted 14 goals in 56 games during his first season in North America. Arriving next season are Lubos Bartecko, a talented and young two-way player they acquired from St. Louis for a draft pick; winger Dany Heatley, the No. 2 pick overall in 2000 who led the University of Wisconsin with 57 points (24-33-57) in 36 games last season; and possibly Ilya Kovalchuk, whom the Thrashers selected No. 1 overall in this summer's draft.

The Thrashers are still an expansion team experiencing growing pains. If they are a better team next season, it will because their defense is healthy. Waddell repeatedly has preached patience, pointing out that the Thrashers aren't in the position to acquire top-end free agents because they don't have the personnel to complement them -- yet. The quality of their young talent will give him even more resolve in sticking to his five-year plan rather than brokering a major trade or a signing that would mortgage the team's future.

Sherry Skalko is the NHL editor for ESPN.com.