Newly re-signed Thrashers forward Eric Boulton recently did a radio interview with K106.3 FM in Sarnia, Ontario where he played a season and a half of his OHL career.
You can listen to the interview right here to hear him talk about playing hockey in the city of Atlanta, his role with the Thrashers this season, and more.
You have to love that he calls our new head coach “Mr. Ramsay”. That says a lot about how players perceive the veteran bench boss who is one of the most respected men in the game.
The Thrashers have officially re-signed goalie Ondrej Pavelec to a multi-year contract. The 22-year-old played his first full NHL season last year and put together a 14-18-7 record with a pair of shutouts, a .906 save percentage and a 3.29 GAA. At times he was stellar, like in his Halloween performance in Ottawa when he stopped 50 of 51 shots, showing that he has the potential to be an NHL starting goalie. At other times he was, well, a rookie goalie, going winless in six straight appearances on two occasions during the season.
It’s the hot Pavelec that the Thrashers will be hoping to see more of this season, and he has shown that he can run with the ball when he’s on his game, though he can also have extended periods of subpar play. That’s what the new goalie consultant or coach, as well as his new goaltending partner Chris Mason, will try to help him with.
Check out his stats by month:
| Month |
Starts |
Wins |
GAA |
Save % |
| Oct. |
8 |
4 |
2.60 |
.924 |
| Nov. |
8 |
4 |
3.09 |
.918 |
| Dec. |
8 |
1 |
5.29 |
.859 |
| Jan. |
6 |
3 |
3.33 |
.900 |
| Feb. |
3 |
0 |
3.28 |
.895 |
| Mar. |
5 |
2 |
2.16 |
.936 |
| Apr. |
2 |
0 |
3.53 |
.901 |
| Total |
40 |
14 |
3.29 |
.906 |
If the Pavelec of October, November and March is what we see most of the season he’s going to be getting a lot of starts. If December and January’s Pavelec shows up we’ll be seeing much more of Chris Mason.
Another stat- Pavelec had a 2.21 GAA and .941 save percentage in wins, a 3.90 GAA and .884 save percentage in losses. If the kid can find consistency he has a shot at being very, very good.
The Thrashers have exercised their walk-away rights in the arbitration case of Clarke MacArthur, making him an unrestricted free agent. MacArthur was awarded $2.4 million but the writing was on the wall when the Thrashers acquired Andrew Ladd from the Blackhawks.
Counting the remaining RFAs, the Thrashers have 12 forwards on their roster who played in the NHL last season, plus prospects like Spencer Machacek, Patrice Cormier, Carl Klingberg and Alex Burmistrov vying for jobs.
- Paul Postma’s answers to your Ask A Thrasher questions are up and there’s some good stuff in there, even if the sandwich he chose as the signature Paul Postma sandwich is pretty much the chicken bacon ranch sub from Subway.
- Maple Ridge News has a nice feature about Andrew Ladd and his day with the Stanley Cup. ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun got hold of some great pictures of Ladd on top of some mountains with the Cup.
- If you haven’t heard, Kovalchuk’s contract was rejected by the NHL. According to Kings GM Dean Lombardi the Thrashers supposedly offered him a 4-5 year deal in the $8 million range. What do you think? Would you welcome him back if NJ doesn’t end up re-signing him?
- There should be some Clarke MacArthur news soon, but probably not anything too surprising if you’ve been reading Chris Vivlamore’s stuff.
- John Kincade got into a debate with Thrashers fans on our Facebook page yesterday and some interesting points were made. What are your thoughts?
In case you were wondering, you may not bring your vuvuzela to Thrashers games or any other events at Philips Arena. The much-maligned noisemaker made famous at the World Cup has been placed on the list of prohibited items for all Philips Arena events.
According to the NHLPA web site arbitration hearings begin today. Here is when the Thrashers who filed are scheduled to have their hearings:
Clark MacArthur- Wed, July 21
Andrew Ladd- Thurs, July 29
Ben Eager- Tues, August 3
Arbitration hearings begin at 9 am and following the hearing the arbitrator has 48 hours to issue their decision. For cases heard on Thursdays and Fridays weekends are not usually counted against that 48 hour period. Teams have the right to walk away from an award if they choose and it is more than roughly $1.1 million (the amount is tied to the NHL average salary but is not the actual league average). Since the Thrashers have three players who filed for arbitration they have the right to walk away from two awards if all three cases go to arbitration. Their decision to walk away or not can wait until after the final arbitration award they have scheduled.
If a team exercises their right to walk away from an arbitration award the player instantly becomes an unrestricted free agent.
Don’t be surprised if one or more of the three Thrashers who filed for arbitration agree to terms on a new contract before their hearing, especially Ladd and Eager. It would be an odd situation for them to argue their worth without ever having played for the team they’ve taken to arbitration.
If you really want to get into the nitty-gritty details of the arbitration process you can read all about it in Section 12 of the CBA. My favorite clause? 12.9 (b):
Each brief shall be limited to 40 pages, exclusive of indices, tables of contents, and exhibits. The minimum spacing shall be double, and the font shall be Times New Roman.
Don’t you dare try to sneak Arial or any other font in there.
Ilya Kovalchuk has re-signed with the New Jersey Devils (they play at Philips Arena on Dec. 18 and Dec. 30) and if the rumors of it being a 17-year deal are correct an interesting scenario could play out. It’s a long shot, but hear me out.
Kovalchuk’s contract would expire on July 1, 2027. That summer his oldest son Philipp will be draft eligible (assuming he plays the game and inherits some of his father’s talent). How crazy would it be if 17 years from now Kovalchuk signed a one or two year deal with whatever team drafts his son so that he could play in the NHL with him his rookie year? That’s assuming Kovy wants to play in the NHL when he’s 45, but if he plans to play until he’s 44 (which is how old he’d be when his 17 year deal expires) what’s another year if it means he could play with his son? If he hangs on until 46 he could, in theory, also play with (or against) his second son who was born this past spring.
As Puck Daddy pointed out today, hockeyfights.com has handed out their annual awards honoring the best fisitcuff moments of the 009-10 season and it should come as no surprise that Evander Kane won TKO/KO of the year for his knockout of Matt Cooke in the season finale.
Here is the fight video with Dan Kamal’s outstanding call in case you want to watch it for the 100th time.
Maybe I should have been aware of this sooner, but did you now that pop sensation Justin Bieber (who is from Toronto but based out of Atlanta) played for the Knights youth hockey program at the Marietta Ice Center (the MIC) in East Cobb? The program has been getting a lot of attention lately, winning the USAH junior national championship in 2010.
It’s great to see local hockey go big, whether it’s on the ice or on the charts. For the record, Bieber wore #18. I doubt it was for former Thrasher Marian Hossa since Bieber is a Leafs fan. The last Leaf to wear #18? Chad Kilger, not to be confused with Chad Kroeger, of Nickelback.
There are still more Q&As and stories to come from prospect camp (most notably an Aliu/Cormier feature and Postma’s answers to fan questions) but here is a roundup of player, GM and coach quotes about the camp, individual performances, and what players have improved on since they started attending prospect development camp.
Prospect Camp- In Their Words
