My Readers Are Very Wise...Odds n' Ends

First of all, before we get into the latest news nuggets of interest surrounding the Atlanta Thrashers of 2010-11, let me just say that my readers, though they may be few, are most certainly knowledgeable when it comes to Thrashers' roster decisions. As evidenced by my most recent poll in which I posed the question about who should get to suit up as the Thrashers' 4th line right wing, 8 of the 20 voters nailed it by selecting Anthony Stewart! Well, sort of.

While Anthony Stewart -- erstwhile Florida Panther who came to us via free-agency in the summer of 2009 before playing a full season for our minor league affiliate in Chicago -- certainly earned his chance to start the season in Atlanta for the parent club, the recent news report from Chris Vivlamore of the AJC shows that he may have even earned a spot in the top 6 collection of forwards! According to C-Viv, Coach Ramsay is so enamored of Stewart that he is willing to give him a chance to play solid minutes -- top 9 minutes at least -- alongside center Rich Peverley and opposite winger Evander Kane!

Obviously such a move seems like a big jump in responsibility for the 25 year-old Stewart, who has never really enjoyed the luxury of more than 8-10 minutes a game at the NHL level. And his 2 career goals certainly attest to that fact. However, Stewart will be counted on to do what he does best: utilize his speed to chase down loose pucks, hit like a wrecking ball to create space for his linemates and be an overall nuisance to his opponents at both ends of the ice. In the pre-season, Stewart cemented his spot with the big club by playing big and feisty recording 10 official hits, 10 shots on goal, 1 assist and a +3 plus/minus rating over 5 games.

If Stewie can continue that type of play for the big club in the month of October when the games count and the opponents are generally better from top to bottom, then we will definitely have to get used to seeing big ol' #22 buzzing around the ice making life difficult for Thrashers' opponents. When you're thinking of line combos for this season, you wouldn't normally associate Anthony Stewart with top 9 minutes, but should Craig Ramsay's hockey wisdom prove out in the form of a tenacious, tough-to-slow-down line of Kaner-Pevs-Stewie -- by the way, there's your AK-47 line for 2010 -- then Ramsay may just be smarter than I even imagined possible!

Okay, on to other assorted news items and developments since training camp closed over the weekend! A very hearty and loud tap of the stick to Chris Vivlamore for chasing down all of this delicious news:

1) The Thrashers, as expected, will start the year once again without a Captain and will instead rotate the 'A's among various players to see who thrives in an alternate captain leadership capacity. I like this decision as there is no need to rush into a decision when perhaps certain key veterans prefer to lead by example and not with a strong voice (Antropov, Peverley etc.). Also, the damage that could result by awarding the 'C' to a younger player with leadership potential (Kane, Bogosian etc.) only to have to remove it at a later date could prove greater than what a perceived lack of leadership could cause in the short-run playing without a captain in name.

2) In all likelihood, Jimmy Slater will have to start the year on Injured Reserve as his mysterious wrist injury will need time to heal, perhaps as long as 3 - 4 weeks. This is a tough blow for Slater, who established himself as an on-ice leader at the end of last season as well as cemented his role as a grinding, never quit 3rd line C. But Jimmy's tough luck is Alexander Burmistrov's good fortune, making it a bit easier for the coaches to justify continuing his extended try-out with the big club, at least until Slater's health improves.

3) That brings me to Burmistrov, the 8th overall pick of this spring's draft, who has steadily improved his level of play throughout the pre-season. Coming into camp, his size, especially his weight, was a big question mark, but Alex worked tirelessly on his strength conditioning as well as his diet -- the eat everything you see in your path diet -- to tip the scales at a more robust 178 - 180 lbs before camp started. Today, the kid known round these parts as "Johnny Burma" will take his +3 P/M, 1 assist and 5 games of NHL pre-season experience into Friday nite with a new signing bonus in his back pocket. Announced today, his Entry-Level Contract will pay him a pro-rata portion of a base salary of $810,000 plus bonuses (performance as well as signing) until he is asked to return to Juniors -- as long as he doesn't play in more than 10 games -- or perhaps he will lock up a spot with stellar play as the Thrashers' 4th line C.

4) Lastly, Vivlamore provided us the latest iteration of practice lines from the Duluth practice center today. The lines, which were the same as Monday, appear to be what we may see take the ice for Game #1 Friday nite against the Washington Capitals. Thrashers' radio voice, and all-around good guy, Dan Kamal tweeted to his followers that Ramsay had intimated that the following lines would be used for Opening Night: Kane-Pevs-Stew; Modin-NikA-Dawes; Ladd-Lits-Bergy; Eager-Burma-Thorbs along with Tobes\Buff; Oduya\Bogo & Hainsey\Sopes as defensive pairings. Later in his updated blog, Vivlamore would confirm this to be the apparent case although Ramsay said they could still possibly change in some fashion. Lastly, a starting goalie has not been named as of yet for the opener.

There you have it, the latest important news out of Doo-looth concering your Thrashers. I shall follow-up this report with a more original entry in which I delve into the good, the bad and the ugly with respect to the 0 - 5 - 1 pre-season performance of the Atlanta Thrashers. Think of it as sort of a pre-meal appetizer leading up to my Season Preview of the boys in blue, and white, and sometimes red, um, I mean "burgundy". Okay! Sure, right.