28 Atlanta Thrashers

When Don Waddell, the general manager of the expansion Thrashers, was a 16-year-old growing up in Detroit, his mother, Jacqueline, phoned him one morning to tell him she had left her car on the side of a road because it had broken down. Don drove to the scene, jump-started the vehicle and surprised his mother at her office by showing up with both autos. How did he do it? Don drove his car six blocks and parked it, and then ran back and drove his mom's car six blocks. He repeated that pattern for three miles. That's the sort of determination Waddell will need in building the Thrashers. "It's an unbelievable task to start a team with a blank sheet of paper," Waddell says. "I've laid awake many nights wondering, Have I forgotten anything? Heck, three days before training camp we still didn't have any pucks."

Waddell, 41, has earned a reputation for molding expansion teams into winners in the International Hockey League ( Orlando and San Diego). He has laid the foundation in Atlanta by selecting 19-year-old Czech wunderkind Patrik Stefan with the top pick in the 1999 entry draft, grabbing 32-year-old ice general Kelly Buchberger in the expansion draft and making 12 trades, including the acquisition of talented goalie Damian Rhodes, who was 22-13-7 with a 2.44 goals-against average with the Senators last season. "As with any new team, there's the fear of the unknown," Rhodes says. "How many shots will I face? How many goals will we score? How competitive can we be?"

Rhodes had better be stingy, because in the expansion draft Atlanta chose 13 forwards who combined for just 44 goals last season, and 10 defensemen, none of whom scored more than 15 points. Waddell hopes he boosted Atlanta's firepower by signing veteran free agent forwards Ray Ferraro (a 10-time 20-goal scorer) and Nelson Emerson (13 goals in 65 games last season), but the Thrashers are so desperate for offense that the untested Stefan will center the second line.

Atlanta will be cast in the image of their tough rookie coach Curt Fraser, who in 12 NHL seasons racked up 1,306 penalty minutes and participated in dozens of bloody brawls, yet proudly boasts all of his original teeth. Having gone under the knife 16 times during his career, Fraser also knows about overcoming adversity, which is good because no NHL expansion team has finished its debut season at .500 or better. Expect that piece of history to remain unchanged.

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