Last week readers of the Blueland Blog were given the chance to submit questions for new head coach John Anderson. I caught up with him while he was in town (he's currently in Ontario at a coaching clinic) and asked as many of those questions as I could in the time allotted. Due to time constraints not every question got asked so I chose the ones that I thought would be of the most interest to the broadest range of fans.
Q: How will you increase our defense so we can start playing in the offensive zone? ~ Sean

I think it might be the opposite way around. If we have the puck and we're attacking we don't have to defend. The more we have control of that puck the way we want it the less time we'll spend in our own zone. It's two different philosophies, but I don't want to sit back. I want to make sure that we have the puck and that we're moving forward.

Q. The Wolves have gotten plenty of scoring from the blueline while the Thrashers haven't. Do you have plans to change that? ~ JB

I had Mark Popovic when he was a third year pro, and I looked at his numbers. I don't know how familiar you are with Mark Popovic but he can really skate. He'd been in Cincinnati. I said 'Mark, the way you can skate, how come you only have two or three goals?' Well, they didn't want me to go up. Well I said 'How about this? Green light. It's professional hockey. If you have a lane to go you can take it all the way to the net and we will come back and cover for you. Do you understand?' And if you look at his numbers that first year he got 12, then 16. My D has the green light to go all the way to the net and it's up to the other guys, the forwards, to read who is up ice and cover for them. So we will have some more defensive scoring. I'll even tell Garnet Exelby to do that.

Q. In all of your championships you have won in your coaching tenure, what was the one that meant the most to you as a head coach? ~ JB

They were all the ultimate. This year might have been a little more special after the six-year drought, but there's always a few things in every year that are huge obstacles to overcome, so every one of them was very special to me.

Follow-up from Ben because Anderson wears a championship ring: What ring are you wearing right now?

That's my Quad Cities ring. It was the first one we won. I wear it just to remind myself how hard it is to do. It's very, very difficult.

Q. How do you plan on getting the most out of Ilya Kovalchuk? ~ Andrew

Open the gate and let him go.

Q. What do you think is going to be the biggest difference between Chicago and Atlanta, besides it being the AHL and NHL? ~ Jill

There are a couple of things. Certainly dealing with the referees. I have a tendency to get a little too talkative and certainly my first year as I get to know them maybe I should be a little bit quieter. And when you're in the American league you know the coaches, so you kind of know the styles they play and it helps you going in there. That will be the biggest thing- figuring out the other coaches are going to do on a nightly basis, especially the teams in our division, as quickly as possible.

Q. You are relatively new to the team so how will you evaluate which lines your players will play on? Will you go by who they played with last season or will you make your own judgments on which players have good chemistry together? ~ Floyd

I'm going to talk to our staff, and certainly Donnie. He was there. I'll certainly ask for his opinion and play it a little bit by ear. Nothing is set in stone and that's the beauty of setting up lines and D partners. Nothing is set in stone and you can always change it, even in games. So that doesn't concern me a lot. But I will listen to him for certain input just to start off.

Q. The Thrashers have consistently been at the bottom of the league for penalty killing. How do you plan on improving this aspect of the Thrashers? ~ Floyd

Well, the Wolves last year were very passive. As soon as we see a chance to jump the puck we will. Once one guy jumps everybody moves and they all rotate around the box. We'll be a little more patient than before. We won't like to give the other defensemen the middle so we'll try to cut that off and make them pass it down the wall and try to keep it on the wall and on the outside perimeter. As soon as we see a chance to go after the puck everybody will start rotating. It's worked in the past and if it doesn't we'll try something else.

Q. How will you make this season fun for the players? ~ Floyd

I think just making it a positive environment. I I think spending time together as a team is important and we're going to do a lot of that this year. We'll do some team-building things. I don't want to get into it because it's more of an in-house team thing. I think that everybody feels a need to have some input on the team, whether you play two minutes a game or you play half the game, so if you make everybody feel important in their own little niche I think that makes it important to each player, and of course winning makes it fun too. I think it all goes hand in hand.

 Q. Do you think that having fun is essential to being successful or do you think that fun is a result of being successful? ~ Floyd

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Q. How do you motivate players to succeed in general and do you alter that method of motivation depending on whether the particular player is a veteran or a rookie/offensive skater or defensive skater, netminder? ~ J.B.

I think you just have to deal with the individual. I've had a couple of guys that if I bark at them on the bench, you know, I can tell by how they feel and how they look and how they perform the next shift. If you do that to some guys it puts them in a cocoon and they don't perform. Some guys if I don't bark at them, they don't think I'm serious. I should take Psych 101 or something. I think as a coach you have a feel for who is who and what is what, and it takes a little while to understand each individual, but every
individual has to be coached in his own little way, especially when you're trying to teach or communicate what you want from that player.

Q. What will a training camp under John Anderson look like? ~Sam

Well, I want to set my systems in place right away. There's a lot of them and there's a lot they have to know. Sometimes when you're doing that it's a little boring and it takes away from the flow of practice. So once we initially start that type of process I won't have to go to the board all o the time. I sue different names for different situations that we have so that when I say that name they should be able to recognize right away. If they don't it's back in my office and I'm on the board with them so it doesn't screw up practice. So practice is going to be a little slower, but initially I want to start the things that I want to do as a team systems wise.

Q. How much say is Don Waddell giving you in off season transactions? ~Drock20J

Just a little bit at the draft. I appreciated that he asked for my comments right away at the draft table. Since then we sat down and went over the depth chart a little bit to find out my feelings on certain guys. Although I do know the players, I have to respect his opinion and the staff because they were here. As much as I like to think I know them, I didn't spend 80 games with them. Plus our schedule game was so busy, to watch more than 10-15 Thrashers games was very difficult. We got in cities that didn't even have
hockey coverage, so that was tough.

Q. What coach most influenced you? ~mo wanchuk

Two actually. One was George Armstrong who I talked to at the draft. He was my junior coach for four years. He wasn't the greatest X's and O's guy but he was one of those guys, if he told me to go through the wall I'd ask how far because he made me feel good about myself. Our team was really together and if you ask anyone else from those teams they'll tell you the same thing.

The other one was Roger Neilson because back then we just had VCR decks and stuff like that. We'd play Toronto on Saturday night and then play a game in Boston on Sunday. He'd cut tape all night and have it ready by morning for the afternoon game. So that kind of work ethic, I really appreciate. I didn't understand it at the time but I do now being a coach.

Q. What current hockey coach do you most admire?  ~mo wanchuk

Bruce Boudreau. I respect a lot of the things he does. We talk at least on a weekly basis and we talked about his growth through the Washington thing because every day the pressure was on him to win because they had to do the impossible just to get there. So that was a neat thing to share with him.

Q. Who is your favorite hockey coach of all time?  ~mo wanchuk

George Armstrong.

Q. What do you perceive the role of team captain to be?  ~mo wanchuk

I want him to be a positive person. A person who can lead by example but also have command of the intensity in the room. If there's bull going on he has to stop and say "This is bull." And he can lead that way too. I'm not going to say a bit of a coarse guy, but certainly a guy that's ready to stand up and be counted. I think if a guy stands up and starts yelling and screaming all the time you kind of lose that message. But if a guy is a hard-working guy and he stands up and says "Hey, this isn't right" then guys will respect him.

Follow-up Traditionally, how have you chosen the captains on your teams? Do you pick them or do the players have a say?

I like to do it, but it's not just me. It's the coaching and managerial staff. I'm not the Ayatollah. I don't want that type of environment here. I want input from everybody. If I make the final decision, well somebody has to make it. But I want to hear from everybody.  

The NHL just announced that the upper limit for the salary cap for the 2008-09 season will be $56.7 million. The mid-point (and I have no idea what purpose the mid-point serves) will be $48.7 million and the floor will be $40.7 million. According to NHLnumbers.com, which I find to be fairly reliable, the Thrashers spent roughly $45.7 million on salary last year. They project us as having about $27.6 million committed for next season (not counting Moose's new contract), leaving about $13 million to spend on 4-5 roster spots to get to the cap floor. Some of that money will go to Kari Lehtonen when he signs a new deal but that should still leave a nice little chunk of change for management to spend, especially if they get the same budget (or more) that they got last season.

The free agency market is open for business at noon on Tuesday, but don't be surprised if NHL Gm's start moving some big-ticket players this weekend to make room for new acquisitions.

Let's go shopping!

Got it?

Qualifying offers went to Kari Lehtonen, Brett Sterling, Nathan Oystrick and Joey Crabb. Guillaume Desbiens is the odd man out.

Garnet Exelby was also there and took questions after the press conference.

Ex called Anderson a demanding coach who demands passion from his players but he also said he's great to play for. Ex won a Calder Cup with him in 2002 and said that he's good at creating a fun playing environment. He also has the ability to find out what makes a player tick and then use that to motivate them.

"He won't pressure a guy to the point where he can't perform," Ex told me. "He lets him play through his problems. He likes to work with them without giving them an ultimatum." 

Anderson isn't afraid to tinker with systems and lineups if something isn't working and Ex called him a great motivator. He also agreed that having more than 800 games of NHL playing experience is a huge point in Anderson's favor.

"Definitely. Obviously there's much more respect for a coach that's played and who has been through the trenches and knows what it's like.  He has that angle when he tries to present his philosophy and strategy. It's absolutely a key."

**UPDATE**

Here is Anderson's Fox5 in-studio interview from this morning.

Wow. It feels like this is the first time I've been at my desk in a month. the Ottawa trip was a whole lot of fun, not to mention tiring, but it was also incredibly valuable. Having had the chance to talk to him a few times now I'm really excited about the John Anderson hire. Hell be in town this week and you'll hear more about a press conference later. I'm also excited about our draft, even if most of these guys are a few years away from playing in Atlanta. I know Waddell and his staff get criticized for their drafting fairly often but the last few years they've done a commendable job- it just takes a while to see the results. I think we'll tart to see those results in the next year or two as guys like Ondrej Pavelec, Boris Valabik, Arturs Kulda, Spencer Machacek and Riley Holzapfel compete for roster spots. Combine them with Bryan Little, Zach Bogosian and Toby Enstrom and that's a lot of potential youth on the roster that came from within.

I think that potential depth is the reason the Thrashers took three college players in this year's draft. With so many recent picks about to go pro and compete for spots in the next two years Waddell could afford to take a more long-term approach after nabbing Bogosian. that's not to say Leveille, Saponari and Redmond couldn't leave school early, but that's not the usual approach of the Thrashers. Not only is keeping players in school good for their development (both on and off the ice), it's also cost-effective.

Speaking of Vinny Saponari, he was in Duluth this morning at the Thrashers' youth summer hockey camp. He was on the ice with the kids and he did at least three TV interviews with local stations. I talked to him for a few minutes and I should have an article up on him sometime today or tomorrow if all goes well. It's a big deal for hockey in Georgia to have a kid that grew up going to Thrashers hockey camp get drafted by the hometown team.

I'm about to start writing up my own draft review but in the meantime here is one from NHL.com.

I wasn't the only Thrashers blogger tied to their keyboard this weekend. Here are some other sites that have some analysis on the draft and John Anderson's hiring.

It would also be worth your while to stop by the AJC site to see what Mike Knobler has been up to.

And that's a wrap for the Thrashers. They used their last two picks to take goaltender Chris Carrozzi and defenseman Zach Redmond. I talked to Chris (he's a local kid so he was here for the draft) and then followed him through all the post-drafting photo ops and I'll post more about that later. Chris played for the Mississauga St. Nike's in the OHL where he posted a 2.75 GAA and .911 save percentage this season. Like most Thrashers goalies he's a big kid- 6'3", 185. He calls himself a butterfly goalie and compares himself to Henrik Lunqvist. He says his strengths are his positioning and his calmness. Carrozzi has two years of junior eligibility left and then a third overage year if needed. There's a pretty good chance you'll see him at prospect camp in a few weeks since most of the regulars aren't going to be available.

Zach Redmond is a 6'2, 200 lb American defenseman from Ferris State. He had 6 goals and 19 points in 37 games as a freshman after spending two years in the USHL.

It's time to pack things up here at Scotiabank Place but keep an eye on the blog and atlantathrashers.com over the next few days as we follow up with some of our picks and roll out some features and photo galleries. Internet problems aside it's been fun. Thanks for joining me for the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

There's not a whole lot of information out there on Swede Niklas Lasu, Atlanta's 5th round pick, so here's what I have.

Don Waddell called him a strong two-way forward that his scouts loved. He's a strong skater who isn't short on skill either. He piled up 53 points in 41 games in his last year of junior hockey in Sweden and he was +33. The NHL lists him at 5'11", 176 lbs. Our European scouts were excited about being able to get him in the fifth round.

It's going to take some confirmation from Elias Sports Bureau and/or the NHL but I do believe Vinny Saponari is the first Georgia-born player to be taken in the NHL Draft and he's now a Thrasher prospect after being taken 94th overall. Vinny isn't here at the draft but according to the fine fans on our message boards he was at the draft party at Philips Arena last night.

From what I hear Saponari is going to Boston University in the fall. He's a 5'10", 175 lb forward who has been playing in the US Development Program. The Saporani and Kamal families are close so the Kamals are headed over to the Saponari's this afternoon. I don't want to interrupt the party but I'll see if I can get Vinny on the phone at some point.

Danick Paquette is the Thrashers' third pick of the draft, 64th overall. Here's his NHL.com draft profile. Danick is 6'0", 210 lbs, and plays a mean right wing. He's a Montreal native with limited English but he doesn't mind speaking it one-on-one. He told me he'd like to compare himself to Chris Neil and Jarome Iginla since he's a power forward that plays with a nasty edge. He had 29 goals and 13 assists last season to go with 213 PIMs. He said he's not very familiar with Colby Armstrong but I'm going to go ahead and call him a French-speaking Armstrong right now. He'll go back to Lewiston for the next two seasons where he plans to work on his skating. He's also working with a power skating coach this summer one-on-one. Paquette played with Chad Denny two years ago so he plans on getting in touch with him today to learn a bit more of what to expect as a Thrashers pick.

For those who are curious, Paquette has his number tattooed on the back of his shoulders. He's worn 47 since it was given to him as a kid.

NHL Central Scouting's Chris Bordeleau on Paquette:

"He is the type of player who we always say there is going to be one player like him, like a Sean Avery or a Brandon Dubinsky -- the players that work really hard and work at their game. I think Danick's mental and physical toughness together with his smarts -- he's smart with the puck, give him a good upside. He scored 30 goals and he's really tough -- he comes to play every night."

It's day two of the draft and the internet is still pretty spotty here at Scotiabank Place. We're midway through the second early in the third round at this point and so far there's nothing much to report. Picks are being made, a couple have been traded, and I'm just waiting for the third round to roll around when we can do something.

The most interesting part of the morning so far is watching the people in the stands react when a player gets chosen. There are plenty of friends and family here to cheer on the players but it's still exciting to see the random fans in the stands wearing jerseys of junior teams that are hundreds of miles away cheer when one of their guys gets taken. Without looking at a full list it seems that there are more QMJHL kids getting taken today. As a rule of thumb the Q cranks out goalies and offensive wingers, the OHL tends to produce centers and skill players with grit and the WHL is a defense factory. The first round clearly belonged to the OHL though and that's thanks in part to Drew Doughty and Zach Bogosian going second and third overall.

So far the biggest name to get drafted today is Jared Staal, the fourth and final of the famous Staal brothers. He's going to Phoenix where he'll be the lone Staal in the western Conference. Jonathan Toews' younger brother is still available. He's ranked 79th among North American forwards.

Atlanta's up and we just took Danic Paquette. 6'0", 210 lbs right-winger. I'll take him. He scored goals and piles up the penalty minutes. Now it's time to see if I can track him down.

You can be forgiven for not knowing much about Daultan Leveille who was taken 29th overall by the Thrashers. He's a bit of an undersized center from a second tier junior program in Ontario, but don't think for a second that he wasn't good enough to play major junior hockey. Daultan could have gone to the OHL but chose not to forfeit his NCAA eligibility. He told me that education has always been important to his family and he'll pursue that avenue in the fall when he enrolls at Michigan State. Aside from it being a chance for him to get an education it also gives him a few extra years if needed to develop his game and his body before going pro. Odds are the soon-to-be Spartan will have Jim Slater's phone number before the end of the night. Knowing Slater and his love of Michigan State it won't surprise me if Slater has already left him a voicemail message.

Leveille (who is from St. Catharines, ON so don't going putting a French pronunciation on that last name) is an avid golfer off the ice. Asked how good he was he replied "Well, most of my friends are getting scholarships for golf academies so I have to be pretty good to hang with them.

On the ice he describes himself as a playmaker with good vision whose greatest asset is his speed.

In the history of the Thrashers exactly one player that I know of has left college early to go pro, and his name was Dany Heatley, so don't expect Leveille to factor into the Thrashers' short-term plans.

I just spoke to Don Waddell about Daultan and he said Leveille is one of the top skaters in this year's draft. He's excited about him going to Michigan State where he'll learn from one of the best and get the experience of practicing four times a week with a top program. Waddell was getting plenty of calls about that 29th pick and if Leveille had been gone he might have moved the pick. They were high on Leveille though and all of the offers were for other draft picks. The only way Waddell was going to move either pick today was if it benefited the team immediately by adding roster players, and those opportunities never arose.

That's it for me from the draft tonight. I'll be back tomorrow morning and you can follow along with live streaming video from NHL.com.

How would you rate Atlanta's first round drafting?

Ben will add nuance to this later, but for now, here are the basics I've found on the guy:

A 5'11" center, Leveille scored 56 points in 45 regular season games (29 goals and 27 assists) last year for the St. Catherine's Falcons in the Golden Horseshoe League (sounds like a casino). That's all well and good, but where he really stood out was in the playoffs, where he posted a ridiculous 14 goals (30 points overall) in 16 postseason games. That's the kind of guy you want to add to your roster.

It appears Leveille will start out his career in college as he plans to attend Michigan State (alma mater of Jim Slater, of course), but who knows if being a first-round pick will alter those plans at all.

If you want to read the full article on him, click here.

With the Bogosian pick, it seems like a pretty great start to the 2008 entry draft if you ask me...

Sorry for the lack of updates from Ottawa but the wireless connection got shot down. I'm piggy-backing on one that isn't supposed to work so who knows how long I'll have it.

Don Waddell is understandably excited about the Bogosian pick and is confident that  Zach can adjust quickly to the NHL game.

"We're really excited about adding Zach to our organization," he told me. "We had him ranked as being one of the top players of the draft this year and being
able to add a defenseman of his caliber to our existing group is very exciting. We expect Zach to come in to our hockey club this year and compete for a roster spot in camp. There's no reason to think that he can't play for our team in the '08-09 season."

True story- Zach Bogosian's first act when he left the draft floor was to find a men's room and answer nature's call, so to speak. After regaining a sufficient comfort level Zach headed to the interview room to talk to the press. There might not be a lot of Atlanta media here in Ottawa (it's limited to me if I count) but the third overall pick is a big deal no matter where he's going to play.

NHL.com did a video interview with Zach and a one-on-one with one of their writers so I'm not going to try to reinvent the wheel by writing another feature on the kid. There'll be lots of time for that later. Instead here are the things I learned from the 20 minutes or so that I followed him around while he talked to various media outlets.

Thrashers fans should be very, very excited about Zach Bogosian. If LA had decided to go in another direction and draft someone other than Doughty or Bogosian I think Atlanta would have taken Bogosian anyway. His combination of size, meanness, competitiveness, skill and pedigree made him just too good to pass up. When you consider that Doughty's defense and conditioning aren't as strong as Bogosian's it would have been an easy choice.

This should be an interesting night. Traffic to get to the arena was absolutely brutal (rush hour traffic + draft traffic + construction= mess). I'm all set up in the last row of the media risers behind the draft floor. I couldn't be any farther from our draft table without going up into the stands, so the odds of me being able to see Waddell talking to other GMs are slim to none. they do all that stuff by phone anyway, right?

Here's the link for the first round results. It'll be updated in real time, even if I don't. The wireless connection here is grinding under the weight of dozens of users so forgive me if I go silent for a little while. We've got about 10 minutes before the draft kicks off and I expect to be talking to our top pick about half an hour to 45 minutes after that. Any last guesses on who it might be? LA says they aren't moving their pick and all indications are that they're taking Doughty. We'll see if the buzz is right.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more about new coach John Anderson. I'm hoping to talk to Bruce Boudreau from the Capitals at some point about the hiring of his best friend.

Atlantathrashers.com and the Blueland Blog have been informed that John Anderson was hired as the new head coach of the Thrashers this morning. Anderson coached Atlanta's AHL affiliate Chicago Wolves to the Calder Cup Championship last week and has won for league championships with the Wolves (IHL Turner Cup in 1997–98 and 1999–00; AHL Calder Cup in 2001–02 and 2007-08) as well as a Colonial League title with the Quad City Mallards in 1997, giving him five titles in 13 seasons as a head coach. Prior to becoming a coach the Toronto native enjoyed a 17-year pro career as a player that included 814 games in the NHL where he amassed 282 goals, 349 assists, and 631 points with Toronto, Quebec, and Hartford.

I spoke to GM Don Waddell about Anderson's hiring about what made him choose Anderson over other candidates and here's what he had to say:

"There's no doubt that we had a great pool of candidates to pick from and John brings a wealth of experience to the table and most importantly he's had great success at every level he has coached. He played 12 years in the National Hockey League and had a great pro career and now we've given him the opportunity to coach the Thrashers. I think it's a great move for our franchise and it puts our franchise in the position to take the next step."

Waddell also sees Anderson's hiring as a sign of maturity for the franchise as it draws from within to hire a coach.

"John's done everything we've asked him to do in the American League by not only winning championships but also by helping to develop some of our key young players," Waddell said. "We see that as a big benefit moving forward as he get a chance to coach some of the players he's had a hand in developing. He's going to get the opportunity to take those players to the next level."

Anderson has worked very closely with many of Atlanta's prospects and has done nothing but win in Chicago since the Wolves became the Thrashers' AHL affiliate. Anderson likes to play up-tempo hockey and wants his players to enjoy coming to the rink every day, whether it's for games or practice. His 800+ games of NHL experience will help him earn the respect of his players as he makes the jump from the AHL to the NHL. Click here for Anderson's playing and coaching stats. Players who played for the Thrashers  in 2007-08 and are under contract for next season who have played for Anderson include:

Garnet Exelby
Brad Larsen
Jordan LaVallee
Kari Lehtonen
Bryan Little
Ondrej Pavelec
Jim Slater
Brett Sterling
Colin Stuart
Boris Valabik

John Anderson will be at the draft tonight and will be in Atlanta next week.

**UPDATE**

I just finished speaking to John Anderson a little while ago and he's obviously excited about the job. He's been in pro hockey in one capacity or another for 30 years now and has been coaching for 13 seasons. It's been a long road for him to get back to the NHL and now that he's here he's finding it both overwhelming and exciting.

"When Don offered me the job last night it had been such a long time since I was in the National League that I went up to my room and cried," he said. "I couldn't
believe it and I was so excited. My family can't believe it either. They're so excited about going to Atlanta. I can't wait for the future now."

Coming from the Chicago Wolves is certainly going to make the transition easier for the veteran coach as he already has a strong working relationship with many of the players. In addition to all of the guys he's coached in Chicago he has seen many current Thrashers at training camp.

"I've been to the Thrashers training camp the last six years so I know most of the players that are with the Thrashers now, or I at least have a good idea of
them, so that will make the transition a lot easier. Plus working for the Thrashers the last six years I have a good relationship with the staff."

Fans will probably wonder what type of hockey they should expect to see in Blueland next season and they're in for a treat. The Wolves played an exciting offensive style in the AHL without sacrificing defense. Chicago scored the most goals in the AHL last season, beating their closest competitor in that department by 20 goals. They also scored 74 more goals than they gave up- tying them for the best GF/GA differential in the AHL.  They also scored almost a full goal per game more than they gave up in the Calder Cup playoffs.

"We like to play an attack type game," said Anderson this afternoon. "We don't like to sit back. I will tell you this though- we change our systems throughout a game sometimes and it takes a little while to get all of the sub-systems implemented. But because I've had some of the players already they know some of the thing we do so hopefully that transition will come easier. But it's going to be a lot of hard work in practice though, a lot of positioning and just u