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FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2008
Breakfast with Don Waddell and John Anderson – July 11
The Thrashers invited 16 season ticket holders to a breakfast
this morning to hear Don Waddell and John Anderson
speak and answer questions. I believe the season ticket holders were
people who were “on the fence” about renewing their seats or had
already told their ticket rep that they were not renewing (that is
an assumption I have based upon some of the comments made by the
people in attendance...nobody officially told me that was how the
group was chosen). I've already purchased tickets for next season so
I was invited because I asked if I could go...and they said yes.
The meeting was at the Replay Lounge which is upstairs at the Ice
Forum overlooking the practice facility. There were plenty of ticket
reps there to talk with their customers. The food was actually
pretty good...eggs, ham, sausage, yogurt, danishes, drinks, etc...
We ate for around 40 minutes and then Don and John came in to talk.
Don started off saying that prospect camp was basically a warm up
for the regular training camp and is designed to make the players
comfortable with the facility, with the other players who they are
possibly competing against, and basically comfortable with the
training camp idea.
Don said it was a “crazy world out there”...referring to the free
agent market which started July 1. He said his focus was to get a D
man who could help us defensively as well as who could put up some
points as our D corps was amongst the bottom of the league in point
production. Hainsey was what he was looking for and was happy
to get him.
He said that Kari has the tools to be a great goalie although
just needs to continue to mature...which he is doing and has done
over the last few years. Don reiterated his desire to have adequate
depth at goalie...which I took to mean that he is very comfortable
having Kari and Moose on the big team and Pavlec in
Chicago getting playing time and growing as a player.
Don said that Havelid and Toby may not necessarily be
paired together although that was John's decision. He also said that
some of the D men (X and Klee) were asked to play too
many minutes last season and this season that situation should
change.
Don said that Bobo (Valabik) is the “meanest” player he has
ever seen and that Boris likes to play that way. He's a big body
with lots of strength and enjoys pushing people around on the ice.
Regarding Bogy, Don indicated that he will have every chance
to make the team and where he ends up (in the NHL or in Juniors)
will be dictated by how he plays. He can play up to 10 games in the
NHL according to Don and still be able to go back to the Juniors (if
I understood him correctly).
Ilya Nikulin's Russian contract is being translated, at a
cost of $1,000, so that the NHL can make sure that the agreement the
Thrashers have with Nikulin can be approved. A contract price and
terms have already been agreed upon with Nikulin.
Don said that Slava was very disappointed in his performance
last season and in how the season ended. He expects Slava to come to
camp in peak shape and ready to produce during the season.
Don still is hopeful about adding a center and right wing before the
season starts. Talks with free agents are still ongoing.
Lastly, regarding the coaching search, Don indicated that he
interviewed 5 candidates before deciding on John.
Next John Anderson spoke a bit before the 2 took questions from the
crowd. He's excited about the opportunity and excited to coach some
of the guys from the minors he's worked with before. Don called
Kovy about John before hiring him and said that Kovy was excited
to have John as the coach. John wants a “close” team and wants a
real relationship with the players. He gave the example of how he's
a boat person and how he felt good that during the offseason some of
his players called him for advice about what boats to buy. That's
the type of relationship he's talking about.
John said that we have one of the best goalies in the league and one
of the best goal scorers in the league and that was a great thing.
He wants to play a puck control game and shrink the forwards back
into the defensive zone to help out. He's told defensemen in the
past that if “they have ice they have a green light”. He talked to
White and told him that he needs to be more “offensive” and that he
should be scoring more than he did last season. (was not a criticism
but more of a...”you can do it” type of comment”)
Now came the questions. I was most encouraged by the questions asked
and the answers given. It was a much better session than the town
hall meeting last March about which much has been written so I'll
let that go. The questions are paraphrased below:
1. We are still waiting for top line scorer that you promised
us at the last town hall meeting. If you want me to spend money on
season tickets I want to see you spend money on players. With the
situation of UFAs not wanting to come to ATL why have you not done
offer sheets on RFAs as they would not have a choice to come here?
Don said that there are generally
not many offer sheets, and even fewer successful offer sheets,
because people don't want to give up 3 first round picks at the next
draft. He said we looked at some RFAs which would not cost us first
round picks but it did not work out. He said you can't build a team
through F.As. Don said that we still need a top 6 forward. We went
after some and since the players have choices where they go we did
not end up with the players we went after. Players choose cities
which were more appealing.
2. How can we retain the players we have now?
This started the Kovy
conversation. Basically Don said that they understand how important
Kovy is to our team and franchise. Don discussed the coaching
situation with Kovy before a decision was made and has talked to him
about our plan for the future. He said several times that we have to
support Kovy with the players and support he needs to win. Don said
that Kovy wants to win. Basically there will be a different type of
contract negotiation with Kovy...Don is going to find out what he
wants salary/term wise and will prepare the ownership for what Don
thinks Kovy is going to ask for so that it's not a shock. The day
after Ovechkin signed his contract Kovy walked into Don's
office and asked Don if he had seen Ovie's deal. I felt very
comfortable after hearing Don's comments that he feels we need to do
whatever we have to do to keep Kovy in Atlanta.
3. After that someone asked about Kovy's plus/minus (as in it
was not so hot last season).
John said that the stat can be
misleading. As long as the player's plus/minus is within 4 or 5 of
the team's average it's not a bad thing. He was also asked about
Kovy getting the C. He said it was only July although it was a “big”
possibility.
4. When are you going to get Kovy a center?
The answer, from Don, was that he
thinks Christensen can be Kovy's center. He has the skills and size
needed to center Kovy but that it was John's decision on who plays
with who.
5. I asked Don, exactly how many offers have you made thus far
to free agents?
Don said that he's not made that
many, maybe a few, because in most cases he did not get to the point
in the negotiations where he could actually make an offer...the deal
got killed for one reason or another before it got to that point. He
said that Brian Campbell called him and said that he really
wanted to play for an original 6 team because that was important to
his father and brother.
6. I've not renewed my seats for many reasons....why do you
still have a job as GM and how is the ownership lawsuit affecting
the organization?
The question about why does Don
still have his job is obviously a tough question to answer.
Regarding the lawsuit, he said that there's a court date in February
2009. Don said that he's not accomplished what he wanted to
accomplish and that his number 1 goal is to win games and run a
successful business. He said that he knows the fans don't care about
this but the business part of the organization has always made their
budget. He said maybe he's been a bit too conservative in how he's
done deals because he has always wanted to protect the future of the
organization.
7. Why did we not trade more players at the trade deadline who
were going to be free agents given that we were not going to make
the playoffs and get picks in the upcoming deep draft?
Don said that he felt he owed it
to Army and Crusher, and the rest of the team, to try to make a run
at the playoffs last season even though it was going to be an uphill
battle thus the reason he did not trade away FA assets (like Holik
and Recchi I believe). Don said that he did not receive any first or
second round offers for any of the FA players we could have traded
at that point.
8. Someone asked about if there were going to be any “new
marketing programs” introduced to help make hockey grow in Atlanta.
Don said that the organization and
players had received community involvement awards, that there is a
new marketing campaign coming as the season gets closer, and that
our website has the 2nd or 3rd most hits of any NHL site. He also
said that the AJC tends to be negative at times which may not help
matters (I'm paraphrasing what he actually said). He added that they
are working with the TV stations to enhance and improve the
telecasts of the games. He concluded that they are going to continue
to spend significant monies on advertising and marketing.
9. I asked the next to last question which was, how are you
planning on getting to the league minimum payroll?
He said we were already there as
we were at $35mil or so, add in Kari's contract, and what he expects
to pay Bogo ($4 mil) and we were over the minimum and in the mid
$40s mil range. He did not appear to feel that reaching the minimum
was any issue at all.
There were a few other questions although these are the main ones I
wanted to cover. I felt good about the discussion and Don's
willingness to answer what I felt were tougher questions than they
had, for the most part, at the town hall meeting.
I'm participating in a question and answer session tomorrow with 5
other Thrashers bloggers and John Anderson. I'll do a similar post
tomorrow night covering that session.
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