With Garnet Exelby and Jim Slater recently signed to new contracts the Thrashers have taken care of all of their restricted free agents. No surprises there, but it's worth noting that both Exelby and Slater had filed for salary arbitration and both came to terms with the club well before their scheduled hearings.

That continues GM Don Waddell's remarkable streak of arbitration-free summers. Arbitration hearings are rarely civil things and as often as not they lead to salary inflation and ill-will between the team and player. That's why it's so impressive that Waddell has never had to walk into an arbitration hearing as Atlanta's general manager. Every single Thrasher that has filed for salary arbitration has signed a contract before their hearing. All of them. And you can be sure that's a point of pride for Waddell who is known for doing his best to keep contract talks civil. It's just not worth it to tear a player apart during negotiations (in arbitration or not) as you try to convince them they're not as valuable as they think they are. It's bad for their confidence, bad for their overall morale and bad for their relationship with the team. It also makes it a whole lot harder to sign that player the next time around. Getting a player to sign a short-term contract is much easier for general managers who are seen as being fair and civil, but they'll stay away from teams known for nasty contract negotiations. Look at Eric Boulton. He's entering his third season as a Thrasher and every year he's signed a one-year contract. He knows he's appreciated and he knows he's that next summer if he wants to stick around in Atlanta that he can have reasonable and honest conversations with management because they've built a good relationship. nobody will tell you that Waddell is a pushover at the bargaining table, but I've never heard anyone say he was difficult to deal with either.

That kind of thing counts. It mattered to Ondrej Pavelec and his agent in May and it mattered to Ilya Kovalchuk when he signed a long-term deal in 2005. It also mattered to Slava Kozlov, who took less money to stay with a team he's comfortable with, and it will matter as Don continues to talk to Marian Hossa and his agent about an extension.

So by now you've had some time to get used to the new and improved atlantathrashers.com. What do you think so far? We know it looks different, but all of the old features are still there, and there's plenty of new stuff. Some of it might be tricky to find if you don't know where to look, so I've taken it upon myself to create this handy user guide for the new site.

First up- the top five things you need to know about the main page, all conveniently labeled for you below.

1. The top story module. This is where any big news will go, whether it's player signings, trades, feature stories (like the Ondrej Pavelec story up now), or game previews and recaps. Note that there are five stories in this box. They will all change regularly, so make sure you check all of them each time you come to the site. If you don't touch anything they'll scroll through on their own.

2. Thrashers In Depth- Thumbnail Stories. Below the top stories there's a box with two thumbnail sized pictures and accompanying blurbs. If you remember the old site, it had two buttons on the top right-hand side that linked to news or stories, right above the list of five headlines. These thumbnails more or less replace those buttons. They might highlight players news, events in the community, this blog, or anything else we want to bring attention to.

3. Thrashers In Depth- Bullet List. This bullet list replaces the five headlines we had on the right-hand side of the old site. We'll probably use it to highlight smaller news items and events or to bring attention to older news that has been pulled from the top five story module.

4. NHL News. Simple enough- this is an NHL news feed with headlines pulled directly from NHL.com. It's automated and updates frequently. It's a cool feature that we don't have to lift a finger for. We like it.

5. Thrashers TV. This box has three tabs in it and the content in all of them will be changing during the season. The first tab is the sponsorship tab, the second will link to game highlights and the third will be Thrashers video content, which he plan to have a lot of this season. Make sure you check it regularly once the season gets rolling. 

There are a few more features on the main page of course, and for the most part they're pretty self-explanatory. The Ticket box has ticket info, and the Promotions box will have promotions and contests in it. The box directly below the video module is another tabbed box, and it's going to be nice and handy once hockey is being played  Tab one is a monthly schedule with the calendar built into it. Tab two is the NHL standings and tab three will give you you Thrashers stats. On the old site that information was a few clicks away.

Over on the right we'll have a regular poll and links to various sections of the site, like the Blueland Blog, message boards and the Ice Crew page. We had the same type of stuff in the same area on the old site, except the poll is in a different location.

And that covers the front page. Are you still with me? Let's move inside.

Once you start playing around with the yellow navigation bar above the top story you'll see that most things are exactly where they were on the old site with a few small changes. Community and Local Hockey are under the same tab, and there are a lot more drop-down items on each tab. Play around and you'll find everything. There are some new features we want to highlight though, and we're pretty excited about them. Starting at the left in the nav bar and working to the right:

• Team
  • Player pages look a lot more like their NHL.com pages. We put in the info for the Bio/News tab, which includes all of the stuff we had on the old bio pages. all of the other tabs are populated by the NHL. Make sure you check out the video tabs for highlight reels for each player. Right now you can watch every goal every current Thrasher has scored in an Atlanta uniform. 
  • The prospects and minor league guys are lumped together under 'In the System'. The NHL is working n that so we can distinguish between the two.
  • The History page is more or less the same, but now includes the Dan Snyder memorial page and an improved all-time stats page. It also features the all-time registry which is sortable and includes every player that has ever suited up for the Thrashers. Check it out.
  • The jobs link is under Team. We do have some positions open, so you might want to take a peek.
• Stats
  • Has player stats, standings, a great game-by-game log that we didn't have before and a link to the all-time player roster feature. The game-by-game log might be my favorite non-video feature on the site, even if it does make trivia questions way too easy. It was available through NHL.com last season but hardly anyone knew about it.
• News
  • This page is different. The news button itself goes to an automated page with all of the most recent news and feature headlines, which is incredibly handy. The drop-down sends you to the Transactions page (I need to update that), Daily Press Clips from around the intertubes, the blog, Game Notes and the All-Star page which will be built out as we it gets closer.
  • This is very important- the news page has an RSS feed. I can't tell you how many times people requested an RSS feed for the old site, but it was a lot. We can't make one for the entire site, but there is one for news and a separate one for top stories. If you use an RSS reader (and you should), add both feeds now. It will keep you up to speed on everything worth knowing about the Thrashers.
• Multimedia
  • Not much changes here, except the main multimedia landing page now has highlight video for each returning player. That ought to take care of your video fix for a while.
  • Note the podcast page, which will be used a lot more this year.
• Fanzone
  • I don't think there's under here that wasn't on the old site, but a lot of stuff should be easier to find on the expanded drop down menu.
• Community
  • Aside from combining local hockey and community this section is the same as before. Use it to keep tabs on what the Thrashers are doing to help out local causes.

And that should be everything you need to know about the new site. Basically, there's going to be a lot more video content, and you should have a lot more stats at your fingertips without leaving the Thrashers site. We also have a new photo gallery tool that you'll see soon, and new video and podcast tools. Plus a lot more real estate on the front page for posting news and features. And we finally have an RSS feed.

Enjoy. I don't want to say our feelings will be hurt if you don't like the new site, but it is the biggest project the web staff has ever taken on and we only spent months and months preparing for it...

 Seriously though- enjoy the site.

You may or may not have noticed that atlantathrashers.com has a new look. If you're not seeing the new and improved site you should in a little while- it will just take some time to kick in on some systems.

We've tried to keep some of the design elements of our old site that were popular and bring them over to this new NHL template which is now published on a league-wide system (which makes our jobs a whole easier). The NHL choose this design to accommodate the league's growing multimedia library -- you'll find a lot more video on our new site. And once the season actually starts, the homepage will change a little bit to incorporate even more video and will feature live scoring during games. Stay tuned.

If you bookmarked any inside pages of the old site, please be aware that all old individual page URLs will no longer work. All pages on this new site have an entirely different URL structure, so adjust your bookmarks where necessary.

We know it will take a bit of getting used to, but as much as we liked the look of our old site we know that this new platform is going to make for a much better experience for everyone that frequents atlantathrashers.com.  We'll keep you updated as new features get rolled out during the season, but for now take a look around and let us know what you think. Pay special attention to the five main story boxes on the front of the page. you're used to seeing just one top story, so make sure you scroll through all five. We have some great new content in there, including features on Spencer Machacek and Brett Sterling.

You may have seen the news last night on Sportsnet.ca or on various message boards, but it's official now- Ex is back. There was never really any doubt that he'd be a Thrasher next season, but he and Waddell were able to work out a deal before Exelby's arbitration hearing (which had been scheduled for July 31). Ex might be young (he turns 26 in August) but he's already a leader in the locker room and he's not afraid to speak up when people are pulling their weight. He loves Atlanta and before everyone packed up for the summer back in April he said that he considers the city home now. The fact that he's locked up to a long-term deal for a reasonable price is an added bonus for a guy that doesn't seem to have any plans to leave.

He won't put up big offensive numbers and he's probably not going to play top-pair minutes, but Exelby will be a key to this year's defensive squad. He'll be counted on to bring his usual toughness and bone-jarring hits, just like he did back n Feb. 8 in Colorado. You know what I'm talking about...

And don't be surprised if Ken Klee takes the young blueliner under his wing over the next year or two. They play a similar gritty style and off the top of my head I can't remember Ex ever having someone like that around who could teach him the tricks of the trade (aside from assistant coach Brad McCrimmon, but it's different when it comes from a teammate).

Welcome back Ex. Here's to plenty more highlight reel hits.

Another Prospect Development Camp is in the books, and though I didn't get to see as much of it as I would have liked I still came away impressed. The quantity of prospects may be down from past years but the quality has gone up. Plenty of the attendees will get invited to training camp in September and I can think of about half a dozen who will be fighting for spots on the Thrashers' roster before the year is over. 2-3 could make it right out of camp.

And then there's Ondrej Pavelec, who has every intention of challenging Kari Lehtonen for the starting job in Atlanta in the near future. Odds are he won't get a chance as long as Johan Hedberg is here, but if Pavelec thrives in Chicago I'm all for having him start a "goalie controversy" at next summer's camp. As Craig Custance wrote in the AJC earlier this week, Pavelec wants to be better than Kari. Some people think that's awfully bold of him to say, but if he wasn't willing to say it I wouldn't want him in our system. Who wants prospects that have already decided that they're never going to be as good as our current roster players? I want people that think they can be the best, and that's the kind of attitude Pavelec has.

Enough from me though. What did you think of Prospect Camp this year? Who impressed you? Who do you think could fight for a roster spot this year? Who is a strong contender to get called up from Chicago? Was there anyone that showed a lot more than you expected? Keep in mind that there were some solid prospects who didn't come to the camp for one reason or another- guys like Nathan Oystrick, Mark Popovic and Boris Valabik on the blueline, and then more experienced players like Colin Stuart, Darren Haydar and Jason Krog who have done well in Chicago.

Fire away in the comment section, and please leave a name, real or otherwise, so we don't have "anonymous" posts from multiple people.

We still have some prospect features in the works that will be posted over the next few days, so keep checking back.

The 18-year-old center from Regina, Saskatchewan (he turns 19 in August), has improved his offensive output in each of his three seasons with the Western Hockey League's Moose Jaw Warriors. Included in that ascension was a superb 2005-06 season, when he finished fifth on the team with 19 goals and 38 assists in 64 games, with a remarkable plus-35 rating. He then proved instrumental in the team's march to the WHL Finals, scoring 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in 22 playoff games.

He raised his game again during the 2006-07 season despite playing on a team that had 10 rookies and seeing both of his line mates from the previous season leave Moose Jaw for the pros. The 5-11, 185-pound center carried more of the load offensively, leading the team with career highs in goals (39), assists (43), points (82), and power play goals (17), while playing in a career-high 72 games.

The respect Holzapfel has earned as a scorer is added to the praise he was already receiving for his work ethic and play-making,

That respect is a double-edged sword, as it will likely earn him extra attention from the opposition's top defenders and hitters during the 2007-08 season, when he will surely be the center of attention in Moose Jaw. Atlantathrashers.com was able to slow down the fleet-footed center long enough to ask him a few questions during a break in the Thrashers Prospect Development Camp.

1. This was your second Prospect Development Camp. What has been the biggest difference between this year and last year?

HOLZAPFEL: Coming into it I kind of knew what to expect a little more than coming into it my first year last year. I knew it'd be a tough camp so I just came in ready and better prepared than last year. You don't realize how tough it is until you've been through one. This year is kind of the same thing as last year. All the guys are here to compete and battle in practice. The drills are tough and you just have to work through the week here and get it done.

2. Last season you scored more goals (39) than in your previous two seasons combined (15 in 2005 and 19 in 2006). How do you build off that success this year?

HOLZAPFEL: I always try to beat my point totals and individual stats from the past year. This year was a successful year for me. The team lost a lot of guys from the year before going pro and playing in the NHL (including Moose Jaw's top three scorers from 2005-06- Troy Brouwer, Dustin Boyd and Blair James), so I knew, being a third-year guy, that I'd have to take on more of a role and I tried to put as many pucks in the net as I could. Things worked out well for me. After this past year I proved to myself that I can score and I can also set goals up. So I can do both just as well.

3. How does it feel to have earned a reputation in the organization as an up-and-comer?

HOLZAPFEL: It's a great feeling, obviously. Coming into this camp I'm probably still one of the younger guys here (NOTE: For the record he is the second youngest draftee behind Spencer Machacek). It's my second year in the camp, so I just try to work hard every time I come to Atlanta or camp. I'll work hard wherever I play during the season, whether it's here or back in moose Jaw playing junior hockey. Wherever I end up I just have to work hard and prove myself.

4. What is the strength of your game and where would you like to improve?

HOLZAPFEL: Obviously my strength is scoring. I'm more of an offensive type of player so that would be the stronger part of my game. I have to work harder on getting bigger and stronger (NOTE: Holzapfel has added 15 lbs of mostly muscle since being drafted at 170 lbs. in 2006). To play at the next level, play pro or NHL, you have to be a lot stronger and have to be a lot better in all parts of your game. So I'm working on improving my all-around game.

5. What are your goals heading into the 2007-08 season?

HOLZAPFEL: This year we should have a pretty good team back in Moose Jaw. We have a lot of offensive power. Hopefully I can improve my individual points and if I do that it should help the team win even more games. I'll try to beat my totals from last year and improve on every year.

Is there anyone more uptight that hockey fans in July? Everyone's panicking because their GM didn't make the rights move in free agency and entirely too many people are trying to figure out how their team will do next year without even knowing what the final roster will look like. Who are the division favorites right now? Who are the Cup favorites right now?

Breath. Rosters get set in September and October- not July.

In the midst of all the hand-wringing and rumor mongering it's nice to have fun sites like LCS Hockey that keep us grounded. If you have a few minutes to spare take a look at their "More Than Meets The Eye" post about similarities between Transformers (awesomely fun movie) and certain NHL players and staff. The Thrashers escape unscathed, so it's all good. Here's a quick preview that I think most Thrashers fans will appreciate:

Repeat after me... Prospect Development Camp is not a tryout. It will not be used to decide who does or doesn't make the final Thrashers roster and it will not make or break any one player's career. It's used to judge how much progress the prospects have made since last summer, or since the Thrashers last checked in on them. It's to give them a taste of NHL  life and to let them know what is to be expected of them when it comes to fitness, nutrition, work ethic and off-ice behavior.

All of that being said, the performances of the prospects during scrimmages and drills shape the attitude of the organization towards them. They have to show that they're working and they have to show that they've made progress in their development.

Yesterday evening I headed up to Duluth and watched the 4-on-4 scrimmage along with plenty of fans and team staff. It was about what you'd expect from a scrimmage in the middle of the off-season, and some of the players were clearly rusty from not having played in anything resembling a game in two or three months. There wasn't as much offense as I had hoped (the final score was 4-1 for the red squad) and it was mildly disappointing that three of the five goals were scored by undrafted invitees. but still- it was hockey in July, and that's never a bad thing, right?

I suspect there would have been more offense and more speed if the guys hadn't practiced for 90 minutes before the scrimmage (they had a 30 minute break before it started).

The scrimmage was broken into two 25 minute halves, with the score being 1-0 after the first half. It's worth noting that the lone goalie of the four who didn't give up a goal was Chris Kamal, the son of Dan Kamal. Dad was definitely proud as he watched from up in the Breakaway Grill.

Overall several players stood out for me. Up front Colton Fretter had a good first half, throwing his body around and generating some quality chances. He has a nice combination of speed and strength and was playing with an edge. He's not Thrashers property anymore, but I imagine the team is keeping a close eye on him. Bryan Little had plenty of chances to show off his puck-handling abilities but nobody was able to convert on his cross-ice passes that came after his rushes. He's definitely a pass-first player. He might have been able to score a goal or two if he had been more selfish. I liked his hustle though, and he looked tireless. Likewise for Jordan LaVallee, who conserves his energy by skating mostly in straight lines. If someone gets in his way he just goes through them. Nice and simple. Brett Sterling had a relatively quiet scrimmage, but he went to the net every chance he got. The GM of the Wolves joked that it probably didn't feel like a real game to him because nobody was punching him in the face or trying to knock hi on his tail in the crease. Sterling is used to taking plenty of abuse, and it helps him ramp up his intensity level. He always seemed to be n the ice at the same time as Colton Fretter and the pair had a knack for running into each other every shift.

Spencer Machacek was quietly solid, going to the net and banging along the boards. He's almost a smaller, less experienced Jordan LaVallee. They've both won Memorial Cups, so they're clearly doing something right. Riley Holzapfel was also quiet, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. He didn't make mistakes and seemed to have a knack for doing things the easy way, making crisp passes instead of trying to stickhandle through a crowd. On the blueline Grant Lewis was the cream o the crop, digging the puck out of corners, making nice outlet passes to the forwards and jumping up when the opportunity came. Chad Denny did much of the same for his squad, but Lewis looked a bit more polished and confident. You could tell Denny was looking for chances to use his slapshot, but everyone knew it and made sure he didn't get it off. At one point he faked a defenseman out of his skates as he wound up for a shot from just inside the blueline and then skated around the defender. I want to say it was Grant Lewis but it might have been Arturs Kulda (who was simple yet solid in his own end). That leaves Tobias Enstrom, who was the smallest defenseman on the ice, but still managed to come up with the puck more often than not. Enstrom is incredibly good with his stick, whether he's poke-checking the puck from opponents or battling along the boards. He's appositionally sound, but you can tell he's still adjusting to the smaller North American ice surface.

Overall it was an entertaining scrimmage, but I'd like to see them open things up a bit more on Thursday evening when they do it again. I'm sure the fans would like to see a little bit of razzle dazzle from the future Thrashers.

For other reports on Monday's scrimmage check out The Falconer and Jennifer over at Southeast Shootout.

The lighting at the Duluth IceForum really isn't conducive to taking pictures, so this is about as good as I could do with my ultra professional camera this morning up at the prospect camp. The above picture is of the defensemen and two of the four goalies (Ondrej Pavelec and Chris Kamal).

I love watching the prospects but I have trouble trying to evaluate them based on drills, simply because they're so different from game situations. Given that this was the first day I'm going to hold off on any type of scouting reports and just stick to things that caught my eye.

• Dan Turple is a giant. I'm pretty sure he's grown since last summer, and he's definitely a legit 6-6. It's not unheard of for heights to be stretched a little in player bios but there's clearly no need to pad Turple's height. He makes Kari Lehtonen look short.
• Jordan LaVallee looks bigger than he did last summer, and Guillaume Desbiens is a beast on skates. I don't know what Guillaume's NHL prospects are, but I wouldn't mind seeing him get a shot sometime in the next year or two.
• Tobias Enstrom can skate and shoot as advertised. He's not a big guy, but he's incredibly smooth on the ice.
• Ondrej Pavelec has the quickness and technique to cover a whole lot of the net. It's not a stretch to think that he could find himself competing for an NHL spot in a year or two, especially when you consider that Hedberg and Brathwaite's contracts expire after the 2007-08 season.
• Chad Denny isn't the only defensive prospect with a cannon of a shot. Arturs Kulda (a late 2006 pick) showed some unexpected shooting prowess, picking some corners and blasting shots on net.

I got a chance to talk to a few of the guys this morning as they took a snack break before some meetings.

Tobias Enstrom is excited about playing in North America this year and came over with the intention of making the Thrashers roster. He did everything there was to do in Swedish hockey over the last four seasons and he says he's up for the challenge.

Spencer Machacek (the Thrashers first pick in this year's draft at 67th overall) is enjoying his first taste of a pro camp. Most of the players at the camp were here last year, so there aren't many rookies. Spencer is taking it in stride and soaking it all in. He doesn't claim to be a high-skill player but takes pride in being a two-way grinder that can do the dirty jobs. He models his game after the play of Doug Gilmour and he pointed out that Gilmour won a Selke Trophy for his defensive prowess. How many young forwards can you name that come into camp talking about Selke Awards instead of Hart and Art Ross Trophies? That's a good sign if you ask me. Spencer is rooming with Chad Denny, who was one of his opponents in the Memorial Cup tournament that saw his Vancouver Giants skate away with the title.

Grant Lewis is excited to be in camp and is relieved to have a freshly signed contract. He wasn't particularly worried about it, but he said he was glad to get it out of the way. I asked him if he would have come to the prospect camp without being under contract and he said he definitely would have if he had been invited. The benefits outweigh the risk of injury. Grant is three credits short of graduating from Dartmouth with a degree in psychology and though he doesn't plan to work on getting those credits right away he does intend to graduate and thinks he might get into sports psychology down the road when his playing career is over.

It's going to be a busy week for the Thrashers we staff as we get ready to move the site onto the NHL publishing system (21 teams have already made the move) but I'll be going up to Duluth as often as I can. The highlights of the week are going to be the 4-on-4 scrimmages on Monday and Thursday evening, so ideally I'll have reports from those.

Meanwhile, feel free to pick up the slack and send in scouting reports of your own. Who is catching your eye up in Duluth and who have the surprises been?

There are plenty of young prospects to keep an eye on over the next week at the Thrashers' annual Prospect Development Camp. There's AHL rookie sensation Brett Sterling who piled up 55 goals with the Chicago Wolves, or 2006 first-round pick Bryan Little, who also projects to be an offensive star. Or Chad Denny- the defenseman with a blistering slapshot who loves to hit. Then there's Ondrej Pavelec, who was at the dangerous end of many of Denny's rockets from the point as a goaltender in the QMJHL this past season.

But one of the rising stars who didn't necessarily stand out last season might have one of the best chances of actually making the Thrashers roster in September.

Jordan LaVallee quietly put together a respectable rookie season in the AHL, scoring 16 goals and adding 18 assists as he learned the pro game before going on a tear, potting seven more goals and an assist in Chicago's 14 playoff games. Not bad for a rookie.

Looking back on his season during the playoffs the Oregon native who grew up in Massachusetts was happy with how things had gone.

"It was a great season. I think I learned a lot. We had a lot of great veterans on this team that were able to teach me a lot of the little things and obviously Coach Anderson has been around the game a long time so he always knew how to lend a helpful hand. So I think I learned a lot this year."

As a 6-4, 210 lbs winger LaVallee has power forward written all over him, and he doesn't mind throwing his weight around in the corners or using his size to make some space in front of the net. All he had to do this year was learn how to take care of that body, which is still packing on muscle.

"It was my first year out on my own not being with a family or anything," said the rookie pro who was used to being billeted with a host family while playing junior hockey with the Quebec Remparts. "You learn pretty quickly that you've got to get the right stuff in you. You have to be sure you're getting solid meals and not eating too much crap in between."

Coming out of last summer's prospect camp the Thrashers were happy with LaVallee's progress after coming back from a serious concussion in 2005 and they knew he had the physical tools to succeed. But this is the new NHL and size alone isn't enough. That's why he was told by the Thrashers staff that he needed to focus on his skating.

"They wanted me to work on my foot speed and my skating stride. That's something I put a lot of work into last summer after that camp and all this year. I think just being in the pro game, which is faster than what I was used to in junior, has helped that a lot."

It helped enough that LaVallee has gone from being a blue chip prospect taken in the fourth round (116th overall) in 2005 to being one of the most talked-about prospects in the Thrashers' system. He has been mentioned as a player who can play in a variety of situations and who could play on an offensive line or be effective as a checking or defensive forward. He simply doesn't have any glaring flaws in his game, and that fact has led to strong reviews from Atlanta's scouts, coaching staff and management. While the praise has probably been higher behind closed doors than it has been in front of the young forward (lest he get the idea that he doesn't need to keep working hard), LaVallee has gotten updates on where he stands.

"I've been getting very positive feedback from the staff in Atlanta and this summer will be very important for me," he said back in May. "The fact that my name has come up (as someone who should compete for a roster spot) is a very good thing to me. It means I'm on the right path but it means I can't slow down at all."

And that's exactly the attitude the coaching staff will be looking for this week at the Prospect Development Camp.

On top of his size, strong two-way play and good hands LaVallee will have one more ace up his sleeve in training camp when it comes time to decide if he's ready to play for the Thrashers. He has a huge head start on learning Bob Hartley's system thanks to a year spent playing for Patrick Roy in Quebec. When Roy decided to take over the coaching duties of the Quebec Remparts QMJHL team which he owned and managed he needed someone to act as a mentor while he learned the ins and outs of coaching. He turned to his old coach from Colorado- Bob Hartley. As a result the Remparts played a very similar style of hockey to the Thrashers, and LaVallee may have an advantage over other potential new players as a result.

"I think it helps me a lot. "Patrick plays almost the same system that Hartley runs in Atlanta, so that really gave me a two-year head start with his system. I know it already so it won't be hard for me to adjust."

And the system isn't the only similarity between the Thrashers and Roy's Remparts.

"Playing for Patrick- he's a real intense guy," said LaVallee. "He loves to win. It's what he does and it's what he did his whole career."

Sound like any other coaches you're familiar with?

At this point in the off-season it's hard to know how many roster spots will be up for grabs in training camp in September, but as long as there's one slot for a winger Jordan LaVallee's size, skill, experience and hockey smarts should keep him in the mix.

Click here for the complete Prospect Development Camp roster and schedule.

Chris Drury and Scott Gomez are still available, as is Slava Kozlov, but otherwise the madness is in full swing. How else do you explain an eight-year contract for Daniel Briere and $18 million for Corey Sarich? How about $30 million for Brian Rafalski?

The most interesting part of the spending spree so far is that non-playoff teams are buying up most of the talent while the perennial powers and big spenders are staying quiet. I imagine that'll change soon, but Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, San Jose, New York and New Jersey have all been pretty inactive. Gomez and Drury anyone?