Ok, yes, I realize that this is just a re-publishing of my comment on Brad's article at Game Time questioning the ownership having the gumption to win. I would write an original response much like Jeff did over at Bluenote Zone, but I'm actually fairly short on time and slammed at work, so this'll have to do.  Go on and complain, 12 people who read my site.

Are you saying that having a bunch of irresponsible yet talented youths in their early 20s ISN'T all the Blues need?

In the comments section of Brad's thread, both TB and AverageJoe have very valid points on both sides of the line, but a lot of this falls to circumstance and luck of the draft draw (re: sucking for many consecutive seasons). Brad’s examples of Pittsburgh and Chicago are great instances of what having high draft picks can potentially bring. Having Kane and Towes together on a team with sub-par supporting cast doesn’t guarantee a winner – you have to assemble quality players. Does that mean that the whole team needs to be made up of 50 point scorers? No, because there are other qualities (defensive capabilities, locker room skills, shot blocking, PK time, whatever) that are just as important in winning games as getting on the scoreboard is.

The difference between us and Chicago, as Brad pointed out, is that they were assertive in getting free agents. It’s not necessarily about who we drafted – we’ve drafted very well and have gotten solid kids out of it – but it’s about who we have added to the mix of what we have to compliment the youth, and vice versa. Take veteran leadership, for example. Without Walt, Kariya, and Sydor that leaves us with Jackman, and to a lesser degree McDonald. Do we probably need an older gruff son of a bitch with ability remaining somewhere in the mix? Sure (I liked the idea that we weer rumored to be after Guerin). Do we need to get rid of Brewer and replace him with an actual first pairing defenseman to play with EJ? Hell yes. Do we need someone who can score? As insurance for Boyes in case he doesn’t bounce back, that would be nice.

Actually, the only position where we have taken care of all holes is goal. We have one of the most solid tandems in the league.

The ownership’s not the group responsible for getting the draft picks – that’s on the scouts. What the owners are responsible for is filling those holes around the picks. I’d never want us to do something stupid like throwing mad ducats at a player like Brian Campbell, but there are (or were) reasonably priced individuals who could add a lot to the team just sitting there.

Also, as half of the readers of my blog can attest to, having high picks without getting the goods around them is useless - see:Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk c. 2002.

Honestly, the only thing keeping me from being a bit cranky about the ownership situation right now is the fact that our major investor and large source of dough backed out. I was hoping for some sort of statement move, and I guess Halak was it. I’m still really excited about having him, but I wanted someone up front as well.

Oh well – Bobby Ryan’s still fighting with the Ducks, right?

If the KHL is an "old man's league," as Thrashers prospect Alexander Burmistrov put it, they got an extremely fast elderly gentleman today.  Former Thrasher Maxim Afinogenov disagreed with whatever the contract terms were that Atlanta offered him, and has left to join SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL, signing a five year deal. Afinogenov going home to Russia is not a huge surprise, seeing as how slow the UFA market has been here recently, and SKA is fairly stacked as far as the KHL is concerned - Petr Čajánek, Alexei Yashin, Denis Grebeshkov, Sergei Zubov, and former San Jose Shark Evgeny Nabokov all call the team home.  This is also the team that has flung big dough at Ilya Kovalchuk.

The length of the deal makes me think that it was the length of the Thrashers' offer, and not money, that led Afinogenov to turn it down.  The Thrashers are going to have to replace his scoring, and it's not a short order, considering Max scored 24 goals and 37 assists last season.

There was an interesting article posted by Chris Botta of NHL Fanhouse the other day.  He's landed a three part (part one and two) interview with Thrashers GM Rick Dudley that is worth checking out.  The first part centers mostly around new acquisition Dustin Byfuglien, and his role with the team.  Granted, Dudley does not determine how he is being used on the roster - Ramsay does - but the conversation was steered towards the possibility of Byfuglien filling in on defense.  Dudley had this to say:

[I]f we play him on one of our top 'D' pairs, he can also be one of the most dominating defensemen around. You saw how he played when the Blackhawks needed him on defense last season. Dustin's only 25 years old. Coming off that performance in the playoffs, he's only scratching the surface of what he is capable of.

What Dudley could be hinting at here is something along the lines of "yes, well, we'd like to have him up-front, but we want to give Pettersson or Burmistrov a chance to crack the roster along with Cormier, so if two of those guys make it, we can put Buff at defense."  Dudley has a point.  If he doesn't see Valabik sticking with the D, and Kulda comes up regardless, playing Byfuglien at defense could set up these pairings:

Enstrom-Sopel

Hainsey-Oduya

Bogosian-Byfuglien

I'm more of a fan of pairing Bogosian and Enstrom together personally (Bogo's numbers were far higher with Toby his rookie year than they were with Hainsey last season), but getting Bogosian and Byfuglien together could spark some scoring chemistry that could offset the +/- rating being a bit low.  The last full season Byfuglien played defense, 2007-2008, he had 19 goals and 17 assists in 67 games.  A healthy Bogosian is a scoring threat, and he should be healthy again this season without the wrist injury.  The two of them together are space clearing scoring threats that could work out well.

Rawhide looked at the sophomore slumpers of last season, and rightfully tagged Bogosian as one of the biggest offenders.  His +/- dropped from a +11 to a -17, which is a huge plunge.  The main reason for this is the absolute lack of chemistry he had playing with Ron Hainsey, and the stubborn idiocy of keeping that pairing together further complicated the problems.  Placed with Enstrom at the beginning of the season, his play was far better.  Yes, some of this can be chalked up to being hurt, but he also played markedly better with his old juniors partner Kulda.  A pairing with Buff, or anyone other than Toby, for that matter, won't bring Bogosian's numbers back up as high as his freshman year, but they should be higher than they were that season.  A Bogosian-Buff pairing would also be more potent than an Enstrom-Sopel one, and better matched.  Hainsey and Johnny Oduya played well together last season, but I can't help but hope that Oduya and Brent Sopel's positions are flip flopped from my speculative pairings above.

Big Johnson'll be hanging around for a little while longer.

I know that I'm a bit late on this (thank you, work).  The Blues re-signed their 2006 first overall draft pick Erik Johnson to a two year, $5.2 million contract today that has a cap hit of $2,600,000 a season.  If this deal seems familiar, it could be that you're having a flashback to David Perron's recent contract.  Both players will be RFAs when their contracts expire, which lets the Blues look more at their development and gives the team a chance to work with the kids and work with them fairly for both sides before re-signing them to a long term deal that should carry well past their first year of UFA eligibility at age 27.

I would do some in-depth whatchamacallit, but I am dead pooped.  Tomorrow, sure thing.  As it stands, though, the blueline looks solid so far for the season, with the possible exception of Eric "I'm on the ice for every GA" Brewer.

This wasn't seen often in Atlanta last year, and probably won't be in New York.  Sorry.

In something that of course had to happen overnight, not be confirmed until the AM, and went down when I was entirely away from a computer, center Todd White was traded to the New York Rangers today for Donald Brashear and Patrick Rissmiller. It was more than a salary dump for the Thrashers, whose fans questioned White's cap hit ($2,375,000) and age (35).  White's production dropped sharply from 2008-2009 to last season, where he scored only 7 goals (down from 22) and 19 assists (down from 51) in an injury shortened season.  Prospect Patrice Cormier has been talked up by both Don Waddell and Rick Dudley since being acquired in the Kovalchuk deal, and this gives the young center the perfect chance to slide into a 3rd or 4th line role out of camp.

Don't get too excited about Brashear - he was a salary dump for the Rangers who acquired Derek Boogaard over the summer for an insane salary.  Huggy Bear was placed on waivers and if he clears will be bought out for the 2/3rds of his cap hit over two seasons.  It's still cheaper than buying out The Todd, and we got Rissmiller in the deal.  Rissmiller's contract hit is a 2 way at $1 million, which might seem a lot for the AHL, but he'll work for depth for the Wolves, presumably to replace Cormier.

Aging center for $2.4 million a year... yep.  This has Glen Sather written aaaall over it.

I'm fairly sure that the fans at Philips will me more enthused about Laddie than Bart was.

The Thrashers won't have to deal with any more arbitration worries this season, as they signed forward Andrew Ladd this morning for $2.35 million, which is a nice little raise from his previous salary of $1,650,000.  Ladd was fresh off a career season in Chicago where he netted 17 goals and 21 assists for the Blackhawks.  His numbers dropped off a bit when Marian Hossa returned from injury in November, but Ladd was still good for three goals and three assists in the playoffs for the Cup champs.

I would expect his two Cup rings (Chicago and also Carolina in 2006) would add a bit of drive to the locker room, and make him a player to turn to should the Thrashers find themselves in playoff contention this season, God willing.  Ladd'll probably end up on the 3rd line much as he was for most of the season in Chicago, but he does have top six experience if necessary.

The Thrashers re-signed RFA Ben Eager today to a one year deal at the exact same salary as he made last season, avoiding arbitration.  Speculation on Twitter is that he took the team to arbitration to actually trim the length of the contract down to a year.  At the end of this season, he'll be a UFA and free to test the market if he wishes to.  Here's hoping that he has a hell of a contract year this season to get the bucks next summer.

No, I'm not above ATL getting a bit mercenary for their own needs.  It could be mutually beneficial.  Or else Eager'll just start some on-ice skirmishes.  That's fun too.

Yep.  He'll fit in really well in STL.

The title says it all - fighter DJ King signed a 2 year contract extension with the Blues and then promptly got dealt to Washington for prospect Stefan Della Rovere.  Della Rovere was captain of the Barrie Colts last season, and racked up 65 goals and 73 assists in 230 GP for them.  He also managed to start a fight at the Capitals development camp last week (s/t to @jprutherford for the stats).  He appears to be a bit of a scrapper, if not as renowned as King is.  Looking at HockeyFights.com's page for him, he has a few fights under his belt, especially in 2007-2008.  I obviously don't see him making the team (we're full and we have Janssen), but if he doesn't return to juniors, I wouldn't be shocked to see him in Peoria with the Rivermen next season.

On a Thrashers/link-pimping note, please to read my write up on the Thrashers' defensive holes and who will be plugging them over on SB Nation Atlanta.

Even Luke had to train a little bit.

I've never been anti-Ondrej Pavelec like some people are (not that there's anything wrong with that!)  Watching him over the past two to three seasons when he's either been called up as a temporary fix for a broken Kari or he's been a replacement for the former starter full time, there have been some outstanding flashes of goaltending skills.  He started off last season on a holy tear, and then sometime during late October or early November, it started to break down.

You could chalk that up to just being tired, but that lack of endurance comes from the fact that he's 22.  Goaltenders are notorious for being somewhat unique individuals - you have to be to have galvanized rubber shot at your face 50 times a night - and they're also generally regarded as late bloomers.  There are a few young goaltenders who amaze, but a good many of them don't fully hit their stride until they're in their mid to late 20s.  There are quite a few who are in their 30s or even pushing 40 who are still out in the crease almost every night and performing in peak conditions.  As a goaltender, you have plenty of time to develop, and should be given that time.  Pavelec shined as goaltender for the Chicago Wolves, and was seen as a capable replacement for Kari Lehtonen when he went down during the doomed 2007-2008 season.  He was, with a save & of .911.  The GAA left a bit to be desired at 3.11, but as any Thrashers fan can tell you, that entire season was Futility on Ice.  2008-2009 was significantly worse for Pavs in the 12 games up with the big team, but last season a good many fans expected his development to be complete and for him to be the starter that he'd been hyped to be.  Boy howdy, did he start out hot.  By the middle of the season it was almost like he had a quota of 4GA a night to fill, and then by the end of the year he worked it all out.

Of course, reactionaries in the fanbase called for his head midyear through, with little thought to the kid's development.  To even show that talent at 22 is impressive, even if it isn't constant.  Not every young goaltender is Patrick Roy, and the Thrashers certainly weren't the 1985-1986 Habs.  The young goalie will have two more years to develop with the team, since he accepted his QO today to the tune of 2 years and $2.3 million dollars... a total for both years.  If you were wondering about the state of the goaltending market before, this should confirm it for you - the Thrashers have Ondrej Pavelec and Chris Mason as a tandem for two seasons at a total cost of $5.7 million.  The workhorse Mason should be able to be a good influence on Pavs, and if Pavelec falters the team has someone to go to that doesn't mind playing, oh, 33 games straight to lead a team to the playoffs.

Calm down, non-proponents of Pavs.  Give him some time.

Moment of silence for Clarke MacArthur, please.  The third liner acquired at the trade deadline from Buffalo is now free to roam as a UFA.  The arbitration hearing today went well for him, with the arbitrator offering MacArthur $2.4 million dollars for a season.  The teams in arbitration are more than welcome to walk away from rulings that they disagree with, and they disagreed with this one.  As did I.  MacAwesome scored three goals and nine points in just 21 games.  Ok, not bad, but not irreplaceable - and certainly not worth $2.4 million.  Dudley is presumably more interested in locking in Andrew Ladd and Ben Eager before their meetings, and MacArthur's place can be easily filled by Fredrik Petersson or Karl Klingberg if one of those guys impress at camp.  There's also a large UFA pool out there to choose from for the team.  All is not lost.

Actually, most peoples' radar probably didn't even blip at this news.