On an unrelated note, Luke DeCock from the Raleigh News and Obersever has a nice post-mortem on the Canes, who were eliminated by the Penguins last night. It's a shame they'll be remembered for being swept by Pittsburgh, because in all honesty they made it a lot further than pretty much anyone expected- even Hurricanes fans I bet. They were a long-shot to make the playoffs at one point, and not only did they claw their way in, but they won two games sevens on the road against very good teams. There's no shame in what they accomplished. Good for them.

**UPDATE**

This was published last week but I missed it. Hockey's Future has posted their yearly review of our pro prospects in the AHL and ECHL. It's worth your time.

Happy Memorial Day hockey fans. Did you know that today is the first day of the NHL Draft Combine in Toronto? It gets about one one-hundredth  the publicity that the NFL Combine gets, but it's more or less the same thing- a battery of physical and psychological tests as well as interviews with team management. The Thrashers tend to place a lot of emphasis on the interviews, which last about 20 minutes each.

The top 100 prospects will be at the combine, and I'm hoping NHL.com's draft microsite will have plenty of coverage of both the written and video variety.

The draft, of course, is one method for improving a team over the offseason. Another is through free agency, and Jamie Fitzpatrick has a list of the main unrestricted free agents from each team in the NHL. Who do you think would be a good fit for this team? Don Waddell has said he'd like to add a top-four defenseman and a top-six forward. See anyone that makes sense?

The blog and the rest of the site have been quiet this week because I've been working away at getting this Q&A with Thrashers GM Don Waddell ready for you. It's fairly long because I didn't see a reason to cut anything form our 20 minute conversation. I know two of the biggest questions on the minds of fans are re-signing Kovy and how the goalie situation is going to play out, but I intentionally avoided those topics for two reasons. First, I suspect that any media members who talk to Waddell over the course of the summer are going to ask about the same two things, so I preferred to spend my limited time talking about other topics that don't get much coverage. Second, I didn't think I would get different answers than what has already been written in the AJC and other spaces. I hope you find the interview interesting. Within minutes of finishing the actual interview I had a dozen things running through my mind that I wished I'd asked him, but that's the way interviews go.

In other news, the Blue Crew will be unveiled via video on the site tomorrow morning by 10am if everything goes according to plan. Feel free to stop by if you want to know who made the team.

IF the Thrashers trade a goalie, who should they trade and what do you think the return would be for that player?

If you're wondering how Angelo Esposito has been doing since his knee surgery and you can read French, you should check out this article.

The basics, as I understand them, are this:

I know I'm opening myself up for a lot of criticism by asking, so try to be nice about it. Your feedback matters and it will help shape our planning for next season. Thanks for all of your support this season.

If you don't want to leave your feedback in the comments feel free to shoot me an email or hit me up on Twitter.

The World Championships always play second fiddle to the NHL playoffs in North America, but to many European players the tournament is a huge deal. They're held after all of the European leagues playing, so countries that don't rely on NHL players to fill their rosters (pretty much everyone except the USA and Canada) have most of their best players available. If you question how big of a deal it is for these players to win gold, just check out this video of the Russians singing the national anthem yesterday after beating Canada for the second year in a row. The highlight comes right around the 1:00 mark when the camera pans to the captain of the Thrashers (found via hockeybelle31 on Twitter):

By the way, Kovalchuk was named the tournament's MVP and top forward. Here are some pictures from the tournament. It shouldn't be a surprise that they're heavy on Ilya.

In other Thrashers-related news, Colby Armstrong received plenty of praise from Team Canada GM Doug Armstrong (no relation) for his role as a character guy. Universal Sports has that story. And Johan Hedberg likes to read to relax and unwind. What does he like to read? Check the AJC and find out.

Well, as expected, Thrashers Executive Vice President and General Manager Don Waddell has come out and dismissed those rumors. You can read it on AJC.com.

"“There is no truth to it... We are not a movable franchise. I have talked to our owners, and no one has had contact with any group.”

He also issued a statement to Pierre LeBrun of ESPN:

"I have spoken to our owners again today on this subject," said Waddell. "The Atlanta Thrashers hockey club is a vital part of the Atlanta area. We also own the Atlanta Hawks and have controlling interest in a 99 year lease with Philips Arena. Our franchise is not available to be moved, we will continue to be part of this community for many many years."

I was debating whether or not to weigh in with reasons why selling/moving the Thrashers make little sense from the team's perspective, but Phil Foley at Examiner.com beat me to it. His post is more than worth your time.

I was watching the Bruins/Hurricanes game last night and it struck me how many connections there are between the Bruins and the Thrashers, from former players to less obvious ties:

That's an unusual number of connections if you ask me, and that's without getting into players that were teammates at various international tournaments like the World Juniors or World Championships.

It's really a shame that the series is getting so little love on Versus or NHL.com, because from what I've seen on Center Ice, it's been a great series. As a former Bruins fan I was kind of pulling for the Bruins in the beginning, but the more I watch them the more I like what the Canes are doing this year. Eric Staal has been a beast, and once again the Hurricanes are showing that you can play great defense without having all-star defensemen. It's like it's 2006 all over again.