Hockey's Future has completed its annual ranking of Thrashers prospects, and while I don't agree with everything in the article it's still well done and worth reading if you want to brush up on our prospects before they start arriving for training camp in mid-September.

Speaking of prospects, there's a poll on the front of the homepage asking people how many rookies they think will make the team. Just over 400 people have voted so far and almost 70% of them think two or three rookies will crack the lineup out of camp. So here's my question to you- who will they be?

Anybody on the Hockey's Future list counts, and so do Mark Popovic and Colin Stuart who aren't prospects by Hockey's Future's standards, but who will still be considered rookies in the eyes of the NHL if they make the team. Here are the NHL criteria for determining who is eligible for the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year:

It's still quiet around here. Really quiet. Fortunately it's only 2 1/2 weeks until the Traverse City prospect tournament starts (we should have a release up in the near future) and that leads right into training camp which kicks off on September 14 in Duluth.

Meanwhile here's what's been going on:

• Eric Boulton and Steve McCarthy visited Naval Air Station Atlanta recently and we have the pictures to prove it on the Community News page. Craig Custance spoke to Boulton about it in his beat blog.
• Speaking of galleries, there's also one up on the Blue Crew page where we unveiled this year's squad. Don't forget to read the last installment of Christina's Blue Crew Blog while you're there. Would any of you be interested in seeing more posts from Christina or one of the other members of the Blue Crew during the season? If so what would you like her (or tem) to write about? We're all about adding more content this season and we're open to your suggestions.
• Darren Eliot's new column is up over at CNNSI.com and Ilya Kovalchuk gets a mention. It's a great look at the Original Six teams and how they look heading into training camp. I'm really big on the Blackhawks right now, and as I hinted in my Six Must-See Road Games article I think they cold be this year's Pittsburgh- a young team with a few key veterans that exceeds expectations and predictions. They might even fight for a playoff spot.

Sometime in the next week I'm heading up to Duluth to watch some workouts and to catch up with some of the players that are back in town (or in town for the first time, like Ken Klee). Let me know if you have any questions for them.

All's quiet on the Thrashers front for the time being, so here's some light reading for you to kill some time.

• From Jon "J.P." Press at AOL FanHouse- Wayne Gretzky's top five single season records. Think anyone will touch them?
• Capschick has a post on Southeast Shootout that does a nice job of breaking down the national TV schedules that were released this week. Personally I think the Thrashers did alright. Four games on VERSUS is nothing to sneeze at and then there's an option for an NBC game. Throw in two games on Hockey Night in Canada and three more on TSN and we're getting pretty good exposure on both sides of the border.
• Darren Eliot has a nice rundown of some of the bigger off-season moves and what they mean  in his Sports Illustrated column.
• Robert Picarello's NHL.com Southeast Notes focus on the Thrashers. there's probably not much there that you don't already know but it's nice to see us getting some ink.

If you come across any other interesting links post them in the comments below.

Don Waddell has been a busy man lately, even though he's been keeping a pretty low profile. He's been spending a lot of time in Lake Placid, NY where he has been watching the 2007 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp (NHL.com coverage) and he's been in talks with Marian Hossa's agent as well as Mike Vanelli- the Thrashers' only unsigned college prospect. In the midst of all of that he fond the time to sign free agents Karel Pilar and Milan Bartovic.

Both deals are two-way contracts, so both players can be sent to Chicago if they don't make the team out of training camp. Bartovic also has an option to return to Europe if he is so inclined.

Pilar is a big defenseman (6-3, 210) who has averaged .333 points per game over his 90 NHL games, and those were all played pre-lockout. If he kept up that pace over the course of an 82-game season he'd pick up 27 or so points. Not bad. He also played close to 18 minutes per game in Toronto, so he can log decent minutes when called on. If he doesn't make the team he could be a valuable depth player in the event that one of the veterans gets hurt. And he's 29, which isn't bad for a depth signing.

Milan Bartovic is a former early second-round pick who was mis-cast as an offensive player. He's quick, gritty, and works hard, as he demonstrated while playing on the Slovakian national team at the World Championships. He's also from Trencin, Slovakia, home of the Hossa family, Andrej Meszaros, Marian Gaborik, Zdeno Chara. Not bad for a town of 56,000. At 26 he still has time to develop and it's not a stretch to see him as an energy player and/or penalty-killer. He's a low-risk singing that could pay dividends.