With the Thrashers' prospect team down by three goals in the third period on Monday, but still earning power plays, they kept doing the same thing: finding defenseman Chad Denny open for his powerful slapshot.

Twice Denny's thunderous shot beat Tampa Bay's 2006 first-round pick Riku Helenius and helped to rally the team to a 6-5 win.

Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk has been fined but not suspended by the NHL for the match penalty he received in a preseason game against the Nashville Predators.

Atlanta Thrashers captain Scott Mellanby is expected to announce his retirement Tuesday.

The Thrashers have scheduled a telephone news conference for the 40-year-old Mellanby and general manager Don Waddell for Tuesday morning. A team spokesman said Mellanby's future with the team will be discussed.
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''I want to take a couple of days to be sure, but I'm 99 per cent there,'' Mellanby said.

''I still feel like I can play the game. It's all the outside stuff, the training, the preparation. I don't think I'm prepared to go through that again.''

"I've been fortunate to live my dream for the past 21 years, and it's with a heavy heart that I'm retiring from the National Hockey League," the 40-year-old right-winger said. "I'd like to thank all of my great teammates, the fans who have supported me, and all the wonderful people I have met along the way."

GM Don Waddell has been asked by the Atlanta Thrashers to give up his duties and accept another management position, ESPN.com has learned. Link

Here’s the latest. I spoke with Atlanta Spirit Co-Owner Michael Gearon this morning…

Gearon said via cell this morning, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Waddell has not been asked to step down from his post as general manager. He called any reports that say otherwise “completely false.” Link

The Atlanta Thrashers have launched the team’s 2008-09 marketing and advertising campaign, which calls for fans to "Become One in Blueland".

The Atlanta Thrashers have claimed forward Rich Peverley off waivers from the Nashville Predators, according to Executive Vice President and General Manager Don Waddell.

The Atlanta Thrashers have named forward Ilya Kovalchuk as the team captain, according to Executive Vice President and General Manager Don Waddell.

The organization elected to go without a captain for the first half of the season, utilizing five alternate captains (Kovalchuk, Colby Armstrong, Niclas Havelid, Slava Kozlov and Mathieu Schneider).

“Ilya has earned the opportunity to take a larger leadership role on this team and has grown into this position over his six-plus seasons as a member of the Thrashers,” said Waddell. “We’re very pleased, and excited for Ilya, that his fellow alternate captains approached us and felt he should be given the responsibility at this time. We’re confident that he’ll embrace it and represent the organization and his teammates appropriately.”

In the past, he resisted the idea of responsibility to do more than be the best player he could be. Over the past several weeks, though, he has been more active in one of the captain’s duties, as a team spokesman. But he still plans to pick his spots when exercising his authority or setting himself apart.

“I want to be an example on the ice,” he said. “I’m not going to be one of those guys who’s going to scream and yell in the locker room. When I have to say something, I will for sure. But the most important thing, we have to be 22 captains if we want to make the playoffs.”

Hockey in Atlanta on thin ice

Worried about the future of hockey in Atlanta?

“The way things are going, yeah, it’s worrisome,” said the 60-year-old die-hard fan from Marietta, while awaiting a faceoff at a recent Thrashers game.

In 1980, Atlanta lost one NHL team — those old Flames — to the Canadian wilderness.

“It was like a divorce,” Fischer remembered. And Calgary got the kids.

... And now, another set of uncertainties swirl around the Thrashers, who brought hockey back to Atlanta in 1999, playing on all those old hockey insecurities.

Welcome to Blah-land — formerly Blueland — where the ownership is fighting itself, the team is in the cellar and angst grows over the very future of hockey in Atlanta.

A Feb. 3 story in the Toronto Sun listed the Thrashers among six NHL teams most vulnerable to either being moved or being shuttered.

“This could be a blueprint of how not to operate an expansion franchise,” the newspaper warned, referring to the Thrashers.

There is no consolation to be found in the local paper, either.

This week, the three-year-long dispute among the eight-man Atlanta Spirit group — which owns the Thrashers, Hawks and Philips Arena operating rights — goes to trial again...

LINK

A Finnish newspaper reports that based on Russian sources, the Thrashers are re-signing Ilya Kovalchuk to a contract worth $11.36/year, the maximum salary allowed under CBA (20% of the cap). Not sure how many years though...

http://www.iltalehti.fi/jaakiekko/200907249976835_jk.shtml

I guess Kovalchuk isn't interested in winning a Stanley Cup or anything sometime soon...

I guess Kovalchuk isn't interested in winning a Stanley Cup or anything sometime soon...

We don't know the number of years yet, maybe it's just for like 5 years .

Wonder what happens if the economic recession keeps going on and the cap would drop to $40M with Ilya earning over $11M ...ouch

That much queso would be hard to pass up, depending on how many years.

... Waddell has been the architect from day one and built only one playoff team in nine seasons...

Atlanta's AHL affiliate signs Chelios -- LINK

Not sure whether to laugh or cry at this.

I think I'll laugh.

Veteran defenseman Chris Chelios signed a second professional tryout contract with the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League on Sunday.
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This season, Chelios has recorded 14 points in 22 contests with the Wolves, who are the AHL affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers.

Apparently Ilya Kovalchuk will be traded very soon.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=308800

Compounding the muddiness of the picture is what Waddell and the Thrashers expect to get in return for Kovalchuk.

Keep in mind he is a rental. At this point, Waddell is not going to allow teams to talk to Kovalchuk or his agent about a long-term contract extension because to do so would put the power into the hands of the player and his agent. It's true that a team might be willing to give the Thrashers more to acquire Kovalchuk if they knew they could sign him long term, but that would also put Waddell over a barrel to accept whatever that one team and one team only is offering. And he won't allow that to happen.

ATL releases statement from DW that confirms 12-year $101 million offer and says they also met his desire to be game's highest paid.
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Waddell says anything beyond the offers ATL made would have hurt efforts to "retain the young players on our roster."
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Kovalchuk has to be the first athlete in NHL history to turn down a $101 million contract offer. NHL bought the Phoenix Coyotes for $140 mil.

Wait wait so ATL is offering him $101 mil over 12 years to stay in ATL?? Does he want out THAT bad?

Who ever would make that deal would have to think they are one Kovy away from a cup and can do without some other good talent.

I'm betting that Kovalchuk is traded before the Thrashers next game.

I'm betting that Kovalchuk is traded before the Thrashers next game.

I wouldnt doubt it, i just dont see where it makes sense to loose that much for a rental... unless of course you win the cup, if not its a complete waste.