28: Atlanta Thrashers, and One Last Hossa Trade Rehash

2008 finish: 34-40-8, 76 pts.  4th Southeastern Division, 14th Eastern Conference.

The Atlanta Thrashers, much like the previously discussed Tampa Bay Lightning, suddenly are linked to the Penguins, after years of mostly merely co-existing.  With that fateful deadline deal of Army, Crusher, Espo (he deserves a played out nickname, too!) and a first round pick in exchange for Marian Hossa and Pascal You-Me-and-Dupuis (sorry — I let my Chris Berman get out, it can be difficult to put him away); the Pens instantly became a lot more — and a lot less — interesting.

Upon seeing that Hossa really was genuine about his desire to play for a contender, it looks to be a very shrewd trade on Atlanta’s part.  Clearly, if he rejected $2.4 Billion to play for Edmonton — a team with at least annual hopes of making the playoffs – he wasn’t going to be resigning with an Atlanta team with one playoff appearance in its history.  Sure they didn’t get back any bonafide stars, but how much can you really expect for a rental player with a history of playoff failure?  Colby Armstrong is great in the locker room, and seems to resish his role as a jack-of-all-trades pest.  It’s not entirely a coincidence that the Penguins began to win midway through Sid’s rookie year once Colby was called up.  Winning teams are dotted with Colby Armstrongs; it just so happened that the Penguins already had Max Talbot and Gary Roberts.  We all know what Erik Christiansen brings to the table, a nearly automatic shootout touch that is among the very best in the league.  The jury is out on Angelo Esposito, but he has the world of “upside.”  Lastly, the used that first round pick to pick up another young center.  Following in the trend being set by Detroit and Pittsburgh of needing to be strong down the middle to be able to win.

The Good: Going forward, they still have the second best pure goal scorer in the NHL, in Ilya Kovalchuk.  His skill alone will win Atlanta a handful of games this season.  At the ever important goaltender position, Kari Lehtonen has no doubt shown flashes of excellence, and even posted some pretty impressive numbers last year, considering how poorly the team did.  They kept their young core of players in tact, and would be hard-pressed to regress.

The Bad: See: the Good.   Keeping the young core of players together is great when the young core is Sid, Geno, Staal, Fleury, etc.  It’s another thing when it’s Ilya Kovalchuk and others.  It’s a gamble; no different than what Tampa Bay did.  It’s merely philosophical differences.  Atlanta chose to bank on its young nucleus improving — Tampa seems to have wagered that they wouldn’t.  The really ugly thing about Atlanta (no jokes, please) is that they finished so poorly.  Having winners, like Army, is great; but no amount of character can make a team win if there just isn’t talent.

Bottom Line: Look for this team to mirror what some of the mid-2000s Penguins teams did.  Start out terribly — that’s an understatement — but finish with a moderate flurry to climb themselves out of the basement.

Predicted finish in 2008-2009 finish: 4th Southeastern Division, 14th Eastern Conference.