Atlanta Thrashers Made a trade

[Hatch]

Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and a prospect to Atlanta for a first-round pick, a second-round pick, prospect Jeremy Morin and veteran forward Marty Reasoner, a source told ESPN.com.

[willc1975]

Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and a prospect to Atlanta for a first-round pick, a second-round pick, prospect Jeremy Morin and veteran forward Marty Reasoner, a source told ESPN.com.

I'm glad to see that Rick Dudley is doing something to improve our team . I hate to see Morin go because reading about his goal scoring ability , it's one thing that the Thrashers need , but I like Byfuglien watching him play with the Blackhawks and he's is a physical winger that likes to mix it up in the corners or in front of the net and he can score in the clutch as he proved in knocking Vancouver and San Jose out of the playoffs . It wouldn't suprise me if he plays on Evander Kane's line . ( Though Kane can take care of himself , ask the Penguins ! )

[keithbrooking56]

bad trade for Atlanta. We gave up way too much for Buff. The other guys are literally spare parts, the only real player is Buff. I don't think he's worth a first and a second and a decent prospect.

[muskokas finest ©]

bad trade for Atlanta. We gave up way too much for Buff. The other guys are literally spare parts, the only real player is Buff. I don't think he's worth a first and a second and a decent prospect.

Especially when the Blackhawks are desperate to trim salary

[Atlsport]

That's not a bad trade, if I recall one of those picks came from the Kovalchcuk trade where Oduya and Bergfors were acquired. It's looking like Craig Ramsey is going to be the next fall guy for Waddell Thrasher's coach. As horrible as the Spirit ownership is I was wondering whether they were cheap enough to let Waddell coach again just to save some bucks, especially since they have gone so long without filling that position. He did it once, and it appears at times that Spirit group finished top of the class at the Rankin Smith school of professional sports franchise management, where bringing back Marion Campbell was the standard.

[=abrahamburger=]

"Remember, you're bad/fairweather/bandwagon fans for not coming out to support this franchise and selling out every single home game." USA Sports Reporters Consensus

[kicker]

Especially when the Blackhawks are desperate to trim salary

Bingo. Buff is a good player, but he got straight up dominated by Pronger in the Flyers series. Pronger is the best, but he made Buff look stupid. And really, prior to the payoffs, Buff was just an above average power forward.

[Warrior999]

Well the deal is to win right now. That is what Dudley is counting on. We give up some of the future to try and win now. Let face it the Thrashers need to win now. We still kept our top-10 pick so we should be fine there. I feel ok with this trade. Dudley is making the moves and not DW. That Kovy deal who a lot people and I MEAN A LOT of people bashed for us not getting enough. Well that trade is turning out quite well for us. From what I hear everyone is trying to get Cormier for us. He was the guy Dudley wanted when wanting that prospect.

[Hatch]

Craig Ramsay is headcoach, John Torchetti associate coach, and Don Lever as assistant coach (rumored).

Edited June 24, 2010 by Hatchetinator

[Warrior999]

http://espn.go.com/nhl/blog/_/name/lebrun_pierre/id/5321272/trade-pays-hawks-thrashers

This put a lot things in perspective. He give DW too much credit. That Kovy trade was basically Dudley doing but whatever.

On the Atlanta side of things, what's not to like? A first-round pick is a big price to pay, but the Thrashers retained their own pick (eighth overall). Byfuglien, meanwhile, is a top-six power forward with star potential. He has frustrated the Hawks' coaching staff with his work effort over the past few seasons, but showed what he is capable of this spring.

And, by the way, the Kovalchuk trade is the gift that keeps on giving. The Thrashers initially got forward Niclas Bergfors, defenseman Johnny Oduya and prospect Patrice Cormier in return back in February and used the picks they also received from New Jersey to add Byfuglien, Eager, Sopel and Aliu. Not bad for an asset in Kovalchuk that was walking away July 1.

Don Waddell has taken a lot of abuse from fans in Atlanta, but keep in mind the former GM (and current team president) made that deal with the Devils and it's looking like a great one. New GM Rick Dudley added the finishing touches Wednesday by scooping up Byfuglien against heavy competition. Of course, Dudley had the inside track given his relationship with Bowman during their days in Chicago together.

[keithbrooking56]

http://espn.go.com/nhl/blog/_/name/lebrun_pierre/id/5321272/trade-pays-hawks-thrashers

This put a lot things in perspective. He give DW too much credit. That Kovy trade was basically Dudley doing but whatever.

On the Atlanta side of things, what's not to like? A first-round pick is a big price to pay, but the Thrashers retained their own pick (eighth overall). Byfuglien, meanwhile, is a top-six power forward with star potential. He has frustrated the Hawks' coaching staff with his work effort over the past few seasons, but showed what he is capable of this spring.

And, by the way, the Kovalchuk trade is the gift that keeps on giving. The Thrashers initially got forward Niclas Bergfors, defenseman Johnny Oduya and prospect Patrice Cormier in return back in February and used the picks they also received from New Jersey to add Byfuglien, Eager, Sopel and Aliu. Not bad for an asset in Kovalchuk that was walking away July 1.

Don Waddell has taken a lot of abuse from fans in Atlanta, but keep in mind the former GM (and current team president) made that deal with the Devils and it's looking like a great one. New GM Rick Dudley added the finishing touches Wednesday by scooping up Byfuglien against heavy competition. Of course, Dudley had the inside track given his relationship with Bowman during their days in Chicago together.

I'm going to rip into this **** so don't take it personal.

The Atlanta Spirit Group is the hands down worst ownership in professional sports. They are still at each other's throats with Steve Belkin STILL a part of the ownership. They nickle and dime both the Hawks and the Thrashers. The Thrashers don't even get that much actually: they intentionally keep the team as the league MINIMUM payroll.

The Thrashers had the worst GM in hockey in Don Waddell forever. This guy wasn't even fired, he was PROMOTED to get him out of the GM position. This franchise has let every single important player in team history walk out the door. Savard, Heatley, Hossa, Kovalchuk, Lehtinen...I can keep going. This team retains NO ONE that is is any good. Every single player traded here treats this like the NHL **** it really is.

So for anyone to try and paint trading away the franchise in Kovalchuk as some kind of positive is sheer lunacy. The best player to ever play for your team watched player after player go in and out like a revolving door with a cheap as living **** ownership and decided he wasn't going to stay. Who can blame him? How can any rational hockey fan expect Byfuglien to stick around? He's a RFA after this upcoming season. He'll do his year in **** and then he'll sign a tender offer with another team. The ownership is too cheap to match and he's gone.

This team desperately needs new ownership and until it gets it the Thrashers will remain nothing more than a glorified minor league team.

[The Great American]

This is great news for all 15 NHL fans.

[dyoshot]

I'm going to rip into this **** so don't take it personal.

The Atlanta Spirit Group is the hands down worst ownership in professional sports. They are still at each other's throats with Steve Belkin STILL a part of the ownership. They nickle and dime both the Hawks and the Thrashers. The Thrashers don't even get that much actually: they intentionally keep the team as the league MINIMUM payroll.

The Thrashers had the worst GM in hockey in Don Waddell forever. This guy wasn't even fired, he was PROMOTED to get him out of the GM position. This franchise has let every single important player in team history walk out the door. Savard, Heatley, Hossa, Kovalchuk, Lehtinen...I can keep going. This team retains NO ONE that is is any good. Every single player traded here treats this like the NHL **** it really is.

So for anyone to try and paint trading away the franchise in Kovalchuk as some kind of positive is sheer lunacy. The best player to ever play for your team watched player after player go in and out like a revolving door with a cheap as living **** ownership and decided he wasn't going to stay. Who can blame him? How can any rational hockey fan expect Byfuglien to stick around? He's a RFA after this upcoming season. He'll do his year in **** and then he'll sign a tender offer with another team. The ownership is too cheap to match and he's gone.

This team desperately needs new ownership and until it gets it the Thrashers will remain nothing more than a glorified minor league team.

Perfectly said. The Thrashers have terrible ownership. These guys don't really want this team and it shows with the moves they make. Any other team in ANY sport would have fired Don Waddell in his second or third year. You're also right on Blyfuglien, look at the quote he gave on the radio when he found out he was traded. "It is what it is" he said. Who would be excited to go from a championship team to these piece of crap owners?

[=abrahamburger=]

I'm going to rip into this **** so don't take it personal.

The Atlanta Spirit Group is the hands down worst ownership in professional sports. They are still at each other's throats with Steve Belkin STILL a part of the ownership. They nickle and dime both the Hawks and the Thrashers. The Thrashers don't even get that much actually: they intentionally keep the team as the league MINIMUM payroll.

The Thrashers had the worst GM in hockey in Don Waddell forever. This guy wasn't even fired, he was PROMOTED to get him out of the GM position. This franchise has let every single important player in team history walk out the door. Savard, Heatley, Hossa, Kovalchuk, Lehtinen...I can keep going. This team retains NO ONE that is is any good. Every single player traded here treats this like the NHL **** it really is.

So for anyone to try and paint trading away the franchise in Kovalchuk as some kind of positive is sheer lunacy. The best player to ever play for your team watched player after player go in and out like a revolving door with a cheap as living **** ownership and decided he wasn't going to stay. Who can blame him? How can any rational hockey fan expect Byfuglien to stick around? He's a RFA after this upcoming season. He'll do his year in **** and then he'll sign a tender offer with another team. The ownership is too cheap to match and he's gone.

This team desperately needs new ownership and until it gets it the Thrashers will remain nothing more than a glorified minor league team.

There it is, folks: The Truth.

Let Arthur Blank buy the Braves first. Then maybe he can buy the Hawks/Thrashers. Maybe he'll buy the Atlanta Dream (WNBA team) and make them blow all male pro sports players in Atlanta. We can head up that "player satisfaction" department with Eugene Robinson.

Yes... yes I see this working.

[keithbrooking56]

Perfectly said. The Thrashers have terrible ownership. These guys don't really want this team and it shows with the moves they make. Any other team in ANY sport would have fired Don Waddell in his second or third year. You're also right on Blyfuglien, look at the quote he gave on the radio when he found out he was traded. "It is what it is" he said. Who would be excited to go from a championship team to these piece of crap owners?

Yes, I listened to his short interview. I don't usually feel sorry for pro athletes but I cringed inside as he found out he was just traded from a Stanley Cup winner to the pathetic Thrashers on live radio. They didn't even let him know before he was interviewed, his agent literally called him while he was on the air. Sad. You could hear how stunned and disappointed he was. No one can blame him. He literally has went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

[keithbrooking56]

There it is, folks: The Truth.

Let Arthur Blank buy the Braves first. Then maybe he can buy the Hawks/Thrashers. Maybe he'll buy the Atlanta Dream (WNBA team) and make them blow all male pro sports players in Atlanta. We can head up that "player satisfaction" department with Eugene Robinson.

Yes... yes I see this working.

I'm behind it. Blank is the only owner in any Atlanta team willing to spend money and actually to to win a title. I can't even put into words how much I hate the Atlanta Spirit. The NHL should be ashamed to let them own a team.

[dyoshot]

Yes, I listened to his short interview. I don't usually feel sorry for pro athletes but I cringed inside as he found out he was just traded from a Stanley Cup winner to the pathetic Thrashers on live radio. They didn't even let him know before he was interviewed, his agent literally called him while he was on the air. Sad. You could hear how stunned and disappointed he was. No one can blame him. He literally has went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

That's just awful. The thing I hate about ASG is how they always claim they are not losing money. They are BROKE. I really wish there was a way to get these guys out of Thrashers ownership.

[=abrahamburger=]

I'm behind it. Blank is the only owner in any Atlanta team willing to spend money and actually to to win a title. I can't even put into words how much I hate the Atlanta Spirit. The NHL should be ashamed to let them own a team.

Well, going on my 34th year of living in Atlanta (lifelong fan of all teams) I am, unfortunately, accustomed to bad ownership.

Smith Family = Worst all-time ownership in Atlanta.

Even with big pockets Ted Turner and a HoF GM, Turner goes and sells the team to AOL/TW and negates all his good work for us fans.

Now we have one great owner, a f'd up group of "owners" that don't know what they are doing, and a corporation in Colorado that owns the Braves because of tax writeoffs. This is disheartening.

I want Blank to buy the Braves, first and foremost. We have been one piece away for a decade. Plus it's an uncapped sport; you have to spend money these days.

If we just got a decent owner for Hawks/Thrashers, we could at least contend.

I looked it up, not too long ago, and the Spirit average in the bottom three in payroll and revenue. Yet the Hawks average 17th in attendance and I don't know what the Thrashers rank.

All I know is they don't market the teams and I guess expect fans to just show up for mediocre teams and spend money during a recession, only to see the money spent go to God knows what (it won't be to land a superstar or advertise in either sport).

[dyoshot]

Well, going on my 34th year of living in Atlanta (lifelong fan of all teams) I am, unfortunately, accustomed to bad ownership.

Smith Family = Worst all-time ownership in Atlanta.

Even with big pockets Ted Turner and a HoF GM, Turner goes and sells the team to AOL/TW and negates all his good work for us fans.

Now we have one great owner, a f'd up group of "owners" that don't know what they are doing, and a corporation in Colorado that owns the Braves because of tax writeoffs. This is disheartening.

I don't get it. I can't believe there is no one with some REAL money that has interest in these teams. I'm not saying Prokhov rich, but more than ASG broke type money.

[=abrahamburger=]

I don't get it. I can't believe there is no one with some REAL money that has interest in these teams. I'm not saying Prokhov rich, but more than ASG broke type money.

Me either. At the very least, one would think ownership in the Hawks would be appealing. Although we have never won the 2nd round of the playoffs here (ever), there is a crowd to be had for basketball in this town.

Maybe I am being naive here, but some marketing and a true superstar could plant the seeds for some lifelong Hawks fans here.

[keithbrooking56]

Well, going on my 34th year of living in Atlanta (lifelong fan of all teams) I am, unfortunately, accustomed to bad ownership.

Smith Family = Worst all-time ownership in Atlanta.

Even with big pockets Ted Turner and a HoF GM, Turner goes and sells the team to AOL/TW and negates all his good work for us fans.

Now we have one great owner, a f'd up group of "owners" that don't know what they are doing, and a corporation in Colorado that owns the Braves because of tax writeoffs. This is disheartening.

I want Blank to buy the Braves, first and foremost. We have been one piece away for a decade. Plus it's an uncapped sport; you have to spend money these days.

If we just got a decent owner for Hawks/Thrashers, we could at least contend.

I looked it up, not too long ago, and the Spirit average in the bottom three in payroll and revenue. Yet the Hawks average 17th in attendance and I don't know what the Thrashers rank.

All I know is they don't market the teams and I guess expect fans to just show up for mediocre teams and spend money during a recession, only to see the money spent go to God knows what (it won't be to land a superstar or advertise in either sport).

I'm 34 and I've been a lifelong fan of all Georgia sports. The Smith family was horrible but the ASG are worse. Its kinda like comparing crap to piss.

[Atlsport]

I'm going to rip into this **** so don't take it personal.

The Atlanta Spirit Group is the hands down worst ownership in professional sports. They are still at each other's throats with Steve Belkin STILL a part of the ownership. They nickle and dime both the Hawks and the Thrashers. The Thrashers don't even get that much actually: they intentionally keep the team as the league MINIMUM payroll.

The Thrashers had the worst GM in hockey in Don Waddell forever. This guy wasn't even fired, he was PROMOTED to get him out of the GM position. This franchise has let every single important player in team history walk out the door. Savard, Heatley, Hossa, Kovalchuk, Lehtinen...I can keep going. This team retains NO ONE that is is any good. Every single player traded here treats this like the NHL **** it really is.

So for anyone to try and paint trading away the franchise in Kovalchuk as some kind of positive is sheer lunacy. The best player to ever play for your team watched player after player go in and out like a revolving door with a cheap as living **** ownership and decided he wasn't going to stay. Who can blame him? How can any rational hockey fan expect Byfuglien to stick around? He's a RFA after this upcoming season. He'll do his year in **** and then he'll sign a tender offer with another team. The ownership is too cheap to match and he's gone.

This team desperately needs new ownership and until it gets it the Thrashers will remain nothing more than a glorified minor league team.

I'm not even going to attempt to defend Spirit or Waddell, see my previous post but trading Kovalchuk isn't the doom that so many made it out to be. The ownership was never going to build much more around Kovy while he was here anyway, besides the teams record was about the same after the trade as before. So without saying that it's good, which it really wasn't it certainly wasn't as horrid as the Hossa trade and by comparison this trade has been working out better than that one, in terms of the teams return on the trade.

I know that lots of people have said that they refuse to renew their season tix, after the Kovalchuk trade as long as the ownership stays, I can't blame them one bit, but they did somehow manage to sweep the Eastern champions in the Stanley Cup playoffs and they beat some of the teams they should have beaten down the stretch, which I did not expect at all after the Kovy trade.

Byfuglien probably won't be around for long, given our history. Just wait for the next blockbuster Waddell trade sometime in February even though it will have Dudley's name on it. First there was Tkachuk, then Chelios next is Mike Eruzione!!!! Who better to sell tix than the hero from Lake Placid, but he's just the warm up act, in a few years Waddell will bring in the grey one - Wayne Gretzky to the Atlanta Thrashers.

[dyoshot]

Me either. At the very least, one would think ownership in the Hawks would be appealing. Although we have never won the 2nd round of the playoffs here (ever), there is a crowd to be had for basketball in this town.

Maybe I am being naive here, but some marketing and a true superstar could plant the seeds for some lifelong Hawks fans here.

That's what I'm saying. Several NBA players live here in the offseason, the team has talent, been to the playoffs, and this city really loves basketball. There is no reason this team shouldn't be in contention for one of the big free agents except the ownership group. So sick and tired of these broke owners who get a hold of our Atlanta teams.

[Warrior999]

I'm going to rip into this **** so don't take it personal.

The Atlanta Spirit Group is the hands down worst ownership in professional sports. They are still at each other's throats with Steve Belkin STILL a part of the ownership. They nickle and dime both the Hawks and the Thrashers. The Thrashers don't even get that much actually: they intentionally keep the team as the league MINIMUM payroll.

The Thrashers had the worst GM in hockey in Don Waddell forever. This guy wasn't even fired, he was PROMOTED to get him out of the GM position. This franchise has let every single important player in team history walk out the door. Savard, Heatley, Hossa, Kovalchuk, Lehtinen...I can keep going. This team retains NO ONE that is is any good. Every single player traded here treats this like the NHL **** it really is.

So for anyone to try and paint trading away the franchise in Kovalchuk as some kind of positive is sheer lunacy. The best player to ever play for your team watched player after player go in and out like a revolving door with a cheap as living **** ownership and decided he wasn't going to stay. Who can blame him? How can any rational hockey fan expect Byfuglien to stick around? He's a RFA after this upcoming season. He'll do his year in **** and then he'll sign a tender offer with another team. The ownership is too cheap to match and he's gone.

This team desperately needs new ownership and until it gets it the Thrashers will remain nothing more than a glorified minor league team.

We all know ASG is crap infested ownership. For now they are not entering the process. I am concentrating on how this team look heading into next year. Right now Dudley is putting together a very good and tough team that should be in the playoff hunt come next season.

[BTL FED]

The F is a Trasher?