Atlanta Thrashers: 2008-09 Fantasy Hockey Preview

We are now about a month away from the start of training camp for the 2008-09 NHL season and me and my hockey-crazed brother have begun work on our own fantasy hockey magazine, predicting the stats for every player on the starting roster of an NHL team.

We hope we can accurately predict most players' statistics, and we hope to help you with your fantasy hockey teams. A new article will be posted every couple of days at the most, and some teams will come even sooner. We will be doing this in alphabetical order.

Atlanta Thrashers

2008-09 Projected Lineup

Ilya Kovalchuk-Erik Christensen-Jason Williams
Slava Kozlov-Brian Little-Colby Armstrong
Brett Sterling-Todd White-Eric Perrin
Eric Boulton-Jim Slater-Chris Thorburn

Tobias Enstrom-Niclas Havelid
Ron Hainsey-Zach Bogosian
Ken Klee-Boris Valabik

Kari Lehtonen
Johan Hedberg

Fantasy stud

Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk will once again single-handedly lead the Thrashers from a offensive view point this season. Without Hossa, Kovalchuk is the only top line player Atlanta has. Expect another 50-goal season from the sniper.

Stay away from

Slava Kozlov. He had a great '06-'07 season but struggled mightily last year. Expect him to perform poorly without Hossa for the entire year.

Team Scoring Predictions for 2008-09

Player                        GP-G-A-P
1. Ilya Kovalchuk          81-50-40-90
2. Bryan Little              79-18-30-48
3. Jason Williams          80-15-30-45
4. Colby Armstrong       80-15-30-45
5. Eric Perrin               81-10-33-43
6. Erik Christensen       77-17-22-39
7. Tobias Enstrom        80-7-30-37
8. Ron Hainsey            80-10-25-35
9. Slava Kozlov           82-15-17-32
10. Todd White           76-10-22-32
11. Zach Bogosian       73-7-22-29
12. Brett Sterling         71-10-17-27
13. Chris Thorburn       75-7-15-22
14. Jim Slater             77-9-9-18
15. Niclas Havelid        81-2-10-12
16. Boris Valabik         73-1-7-8
17. Ken Klee              78-1-5-6
18. Eric Boulton          74-2-3-5

Goalies

Kari Lehtonen 17-30-8 .914 SVP 2.81 GAA
Johan Hedberg 8-15-5 .902 SVP 3.20 GAA