Atlanta Thrashers Preview

By Jon A. Dolezar, SI.com

Thrashers at a Glance Head coach: Bob Hartley 2002-03 record: 31-39-7-5 2002-03 Player Stats 2003-04 Roster 2003 Draft Picks

Dany Heatley may someday need to push his Calder Trophy and All-Star MVP trophy aside to make way for the Hart Trophy in the middle.

But as much as Heatley would like to be recognized as the league's top player, his sole focus is on playing past the first week of April.

"It's tough to be considered one of the best players in the league if your team doesn't make the playoffs," Heatley said. "I think a lot of what makes good players great is their ability to play well in the playoffs and take their team a long way. So I'm just going to keep trying to get better and hopefully help this team reach that goal. Once that happens, then you can start talking about all the other stuff."

After improving from 67 points as a rookie to 89 points in his sophomore campaign, it's clear that "the other stuff" will be talked about in regards to Heatley for a long time. Heatley finished 17th in Hart Trophy balloting a year ago (receiving two fifth-place votes for a total of two points), so if he can break the 90-point barrier and lead Atlanta to the playoffs, he will certainly creep into the top 10 and become a legitimate MVP candidate.

"He just continues to excel with everything that he does," Waddell said. "As he matures more as a person it's going to make him a better player. His thing next year isn't whether he gets 80 or 90 points, his thing is to make sure that we make the playoffs. If he gets 70 points and we make the playoffs he's going to be a lot happier than if he gets 90 and we miss. He's the ultimate team guy and he's a guy who is going to wear a C for a long time when his day comes, and his day isn't that far off."

The Thrashers endured one of the more bizarre years in recent memory in 2002-03, starting with a winless first month. Curt Fraser's job was in dire straits when the team ended October 0-8-1-1, but the skies brightened a bit when the team went 6-6 in November. Unfortunately, nine losses in a 10-game stretch sealed Fraser's fate, and he was let go the day after Christmas. Waddell took over on an interim basis before bringing in ousted Colorado coach Bob Hartley in January.

"Whatever could happen in a hockey season happened for us," Waddell said. "The last thing I thought going into the year was that I was going to coach our team for 10 games. What coaching really did for me was it gave me a good understanding of the players in the room and a better feel for how they respond to pressure. Being in the trenches with the players is the best way to find out about these players. Last year was an interesting year, and hopefully we've put that one behind us and can just move forward."

The Thrashers closed last season with a flourish, going 19-14-5-1 after Hartley took over. The coach remarked after the regular-season finale that his club "looked like a playoff team right now." Hartley instilled a new discipline in the team and preached a pressure-based defensive scheme which the team took to nicely.

"We had a finish last year that gives us a lot of hope for this year," Waddell said. "The expectations are higher and they should be. I think we're at a point with our franchise where if we win 32 games next year [one more than in 2002-03], I can't sit here at the end of the year and say we're happy becuase we made an improvement. I think this city is ready for us to take the next step."

The Thrashers' top two lines will likely be the same as they were a year ago. Heatley clicked with Slava Kozlov and Marc Savard on what turned out to be a very creative line, and Ilya Kovalchuk meshed nicely with Patrik Stefan and speedy right winger Shawn McEachern. The best battle in camp will be for the third line positions, where Bill Lindsay, Kamil Piros, Randy Robitaille, Tommi Santala and Brad Tapper are likely battling for three spots. With Jeff Cowan, Francis Lessard and Dan Snyder pencilled in as the fourth-liners, that means the losing two in the third-line battle will be ticketed for AHL Chicago or need to wait for an injury to crack the lineup.

Atlanta is excited to get a look at Garnet Exelby in its regular rotation. The hard-hitting youngster gave the Thrashers a physical element their soft defense was missing. With 6-foot-5 Ivan Majesky coming over from Florida in a draft-day deal, Atlanta's has added some toughness to offensive-minded blueliners Frantisek Kaberle and Yannick Tremblay. Andy Sutton was impressive last year before suffering an ankle injury February, but Daniel Tjarnqvist regressed in his second NHL season. Youngsters Joe DiPenta, Kurtis Foster and Kirill Safronov will also get looks in camp and be ready in the event of injury or a trade.

The Southeast Division is so wide open, there is no reason the Thrashers can't emerge as the surprising division champs like Carolina two years ago and Tampa Bay last year. More realistic, though, is a late-season battle for one of the final playoff spots, which would be an excellent step forward for a team that has averaged just 56.75 points in its first four seasons and set a high-water mark of 74 points last year.

Dany Heatley, RW, and Ilya Kovalchuk, LW -- Atlanta's Wonder Twins continued to take the NHL by storm in their second season, even though their development as top young players was aided by a divorce. The dynamic duo was split up, with Heatley settling in on the top line along with Kozlov and Savard, while Kovalchuk's new linemates became Stefan and McEachern. This split allowed the Thrashers to build two productive scoring lines, something the team didn't have in its first three years. It also forced the opposition to make a decision about which of the two lines to send their top checking line and defensive pair out against. Heatley and Kovalchuk are both accustomed to getting lots of defensive pressure and have managed to put up big numbers in their first two seasons despite the focus on stopping them.

"I think we're both used to that kind of attention," Heatley said. "It was like that in college and junior, but I think it ends up making you a better player. You need to be ready to go every night, and you need to be consistent because they are going to check you hard every shift. So if you aren't ready to play, you aren't going to get anything done. So I think the added attention ends up making you a better player."

Heatley and Kovalchuk combined for 79 of Atlanta's 226 goals and 28 of its 63 power-play goals. Kovalchuk's ice time will continue to increase as his defensive play improves, so the Thrashers are hoping to be able to take advantage of that by playing him more late in close games when he was formerly a liability in his own zone.

"Both of these players thrive on pressure," Waddell said. "I'm aware of that, Bob's aware of it and everyone is aware of it. These guys want to be the go-to guys. They want to be the guys when things are in the crunch that they are looked upon by the coaches and their teammates as the guys who are getting the job done."

Heatley also played a huge role on Canada's gold-medal winning squad at the 2003 IIHF World Championships in Finland, finishing in a four-way tie for sixth in scoring with 10 points. The biggest of his seven goals in Canada's nine games came in the semifinal round, when he notched a hat trick in an 8-4 rout of the Czech Republic.

The experience of being a top offensive player on the top team at Worlds, combined with his four-goal and MVP performance in February's NHL All-Star Game, confirm that Heatley can be a clutch pefromer. The fact that the Thrashers haven't tested that theory out in a playoff race yet is likely to change very soon.

Defense -- There are bound to be a lot of problems on a team that finished 31-39-7-5 and in 11th place in its conference, but Atlanta's No. 1 deficiency was in its own zone. The Thrashers allowed a league-high 284 goals last season, more than 1.4 goals per game higher than Stanley Cup champion New Jersey.

"We think we're better back there," Waddell said. "Andy Sutton missed part of the year, and when he got hurt he was playing real well for us. We added Ivan Majesky, and we think he's going to play in our group. We've upgraded our team internally just by adding guys like Garnet Exelby and getting a healthy Sutton back. Then with the addition of Majesky, we think we're a much better team defensively."

The Thrashers boosted their goal total from 187 in 2001-02 to 226 last year, but their goals allowed only dropped by four from 288 to 284. Atlanta has convinced its players and fans that it can be a playoff team, but unless the Thrashers shave at least 40 goals off that total, making the postseason might be a tough proposition. Of last year's eight playoff teams in the East, Boston had the most goals scored against it with 237.

Who will win the starting goaltender job?

The parade of netminders to pass through the Philips Arena crease in the team's first three seasons was rather laughable. The Thrashers' first free-agent signing prior to their inaugural season was Senators goaltender Damian Rhodes. The same Damian Rhodes who finished last year in the ECHL. Rhodes' 2.84 goals-against average is the third-best ever for an American-born goalie, but he did more damage than good to that number while with the Thrashers. In addition to Rhodes, journeymen Frederic Cassivi, Scott Fankhouser, Milan Hnilicka, Scott Langkow, Norm Maracle and Rick Tabaracci have also taken a turn in the Atlanta net.

Things looked to be on the upswing in Year 4 when the Thrashers signed Byron Dafoe, but he put up awful numbers and then got hurt in February and was lost for the season. The salvation came in the form of Finnish import Pasi Nurminen, who was spectacular at times behind an undeniably awful defense. Nurminen posted a 21-19-5 mark with a 2.88 GAA and a .906 save percentage.

Dafoe worked out like an animal this summer and dropped 20 pounds to 195. Nurminen had a contract dispute hanging over his head, but settled with the team at the 11th hour before his arbitration hearing. Having nearly doubled his salary from $650,000, the pressure will be heightened for Nurminen to try to prove that he can keep the No. 1 job.

"It's going to be a very healthy battle for time in the crease," Waddell said. "I think they both had tremendous summers and have been committed. Dafoe knows he needs to bounce back and Nurminen wants the job. I think that our goaltending has been our Achilles' heel for 3 1/2 years, but it was very good for us the second half of last year, and I think that going forward with those two guys and Kari Lehtonen coming, it will be the strength of our franchise.

"The bad thing would be if nobody takes charge to be the No. 1 guy. But we think both of them are capable, so to us we think this healthy competition is only going to make us a better team. Potentially we can use both guys in a rotation, or maybe one becomes trade bait."

It's tough to foresee the Thrashers dealing Nurminen if Dafoe wins the job, because his performance late last year made him a fan favorite, and even at his new salary of $1.1 million he is a relative bargain. Dafoe would be hard to trade with his $3.5 million salary, but if hotshot 19-year-old Finn Kari Lehtonen proves he is ready to stick with the big club in training camp, Atlanta may have to bite the bullet and deal Dafoe, even if it needs to eat some of his salary to do so.

 Kari Lehtonen, G, 6-3, 190 pounds
 Born: November 16, 1983
 Hometown: Helsinki, Finland
 Acquired: No. 2 overall pick in 2002 NHL Entry Draft

The Thrashers are hoping to put an end to being a regular in the draft lottery, but their five years in it produced quite a nice quintet to build around. Stefan, Heatley and Kovalchuk are already mainstays in Atlanta, while Lehtonen and 2003 first-rounder Braydon Coburn will join them soon and be regulars for a long time.

Lehtonen is a big butterfly guy who takes up a ton of net even when he's down. His calm, efficient style of playing the butterfly is similar to Jean-Sebastien Giguere's, but he doesn't need overinflated shoulder pads to look big in the crease.

"I played against him once at the World Junior Championships and he really played well against us," Heatley said. "I've watched him a little bit on TV and obviously there's a lot of hype about him. It's tough for a goalie to step in right away, and I think everybody knows that. I think he knows that. But at the same time he's looking to make this team now, so we'll see what happens in training camp."

Lehtonen worked his way through the famed Jokerit system and was the top goalie in the Finnish Elite League at age 18, so he has been playing against top competition for a few years. Lehtonen posted an incredible 39-19-9 record with nine shutouts and a 1.91 goals-against average in 72 career games with Jokerit from 2000 to 2003. Lehtonen is the highest-drafted European goaltender in NHL history and won the Urpo-Ylonen Trophy as the SM-liiga's best goaltender the last two seasons

"If he comes to camp and he shows he's ready to play here, we'll make room for him because he's our future franchise goaltender," Waddell said. "But if not and he goes to Chicago I would hope he gets to play 2/3 of the games while he's there, whether he's down there a month or the whole season. The shooters say that when he goes down in the butterfly there's just not much net to shoot on. He needs to work on handling the puck more, becuase Europeans just don't do it that often, but his positioning and his composure in the net is truly remarkable for a young player."

The Thrashers plan to let his training-camp play dictate whether he starts the season with AHL Chicago or in Atlanta. Barring a miraculous preseason by Lehtonen or an injury to Dafoe or Nurminen during the season, Lehtonen will be the main goaltender for the Wolves, with the hopes that he can play 55-60 games and spend this season adapting to the North American style.

Forwards Line Left Wing Center Right Wing First Vyacheslav Kozlov Marc Savard Dany Heatley Second Ilya Kovalchuk Patrik Stefan Shawn McEachern Third Bill Lindsay Tommi Santala Randy Robitaille Fourth Jeff Cowan Dan Snyder Francis Lessard Extras Brian Swanson Kamil Piros Brad Tapper Extras J.P. Vigier Derek MacKenzie Simon Gamache Defensemen First Pair Andy Sutton Frantisek Kaberle Second Pair Garnet Exelby Yannick Tremblay Third Pair Daniel Tjarnqvist Ivan Majesky Extras Chris Tamer Kirill Safronov Extras Joe DiPenta Kurtis Foster Goaltenders Starter Pasi Nurminen Backup Byron Dafoe Arrivals Player Position Signed from Stephen Baby LW Cornell (ECAC) Byron Dafoe G Re-signed Eric Healey LW Los Angeles Vyacheslav Kozlov RW Re-signed Kari Lehtonen G Jokerit (Finland) Bill Lindsay LW Montreal Ivan Majesky D Trade from Florida Brian Maloney F Michigan State (CCHA) Shawn McEachern LW Re-signed Pasi Nurminen G Re-signed Kamil Piros C Re-signed Marc Savard C Re-signed Andy Sutton D Re-signed Brian Swanson C Edmonton Departures Player Position Signed with Dallas Eakins D Vancouver Jeff Farkas C Retired Mark Hartigan C Columbus Andreas Karlsson F EHC Basel (Switzerland) Uwe Krupp D Retired Norm Maracle G Magnitogorsk Metallurg (Russia) Jeff Odgers RW Retired Ben Simon C Nashville Per Svartvadet RW MoDo (Sweden)

Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for SI.com.