The 23-year-old Swede took the Thrashers, and the league, by storm last year. He was able to post a solid 38 points while appearing in the NHL YoungStars game, offering Thrashers fans some relief that they weren’t going to have to rely on Alexei Zhitnik (don’t expect more than 10-15 points from him this season) for their offense from the back end last season.
Aside from those four (and possibly Bogosian), the other defenseman you may hear a little more about is the towering Boris Valabik, who is tall enough (6’7") to dominate most forwards in this league, if he can harness his physical gifts.
Oh, and here’s the rest of the Thrashers D:
Ken Klee: The guy couldn’t get publicity in Toronto, and then we got mad at him for being traded for the definition of bust: Aleksander Suglobov. On the bright side, he's pretty willing to sign autographs...at least for me he was.
Niclas Havelid: You could say he’s starting to come into his own, but he’s 35, the age at which some people come into their own in normal careers. At least he won a gold medal with Sweden in 2006.
Marc Popovic: Could be good, but he needs to start producing at the NHL level. Three points and a -8 in 44 career games? Methinks someone needs to "pop" the cherry. Gross.
Steve McCarthy/Joel Kwiatkowski: Both had offensive potential. One’s too old to use it, and one may not be good enough to reach it, and might be getting too old.
Um….Well at least they’ve got Ilya?
Alright, I have to get something off of my chest: The "subtitles" for these sections suck, and I blame the Thrashers. I mean, "Exelby your breath?" What's that? And the attempted play on "Keep on keepin' on" with "Keep on Lehtonen" is terrible. I've disappointed even me.
Atlanta, if I fail, this is on your head: sign players with better names.
But aside from this decidedly-biased Thrashers preview, you may be surprised to know there's something good about being a Thrashers fan.
That good thing? Well, you’ve always got Ilya Kovalchuk. Or at least until he becomes a free agent in 2011.
So what do you need to know about him?
He’s the franchise leader in goals, assists, and points, he’s won a Rocket Richard trophy, and just like Mats Sundin, you can pair him up with anyone on the team and he’ll still produce. Unfortunately, the Thrashers didn’t go out and sign Harold Druken though.
Actually, that probably would have helped the Thrashers out this offseason.
Colby Armstrong (you know, one of the guys they got for Marian Hossa?), despite his 11 points in 18 games for the Thrashers last season, is a third-liner at best at this point in his career.
If he can keep that pace up this season, then he could see some time on the top two lines, but if not, he’s just going to get labeled as “That guy that Sidney Crosby made look alright once.”
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