During a summer in which players signed mammoth contracts for exorbitant sums of money you have to give Don Waddell credit for keeping a cool head while still managing to upgrade his roster with quality pieces. Yes, he swung for the fences with Brian Campbell, and when that didn't work he had a good back-up plan in the form of Ron Hainsey. Then he went shopping for a forward and signed Jason Williams, who James Mirtle referred to on Saturday as one of the best forwards left on the market.

Neither player has ever been an All-Star, but both are young (27) and both are power play experts. Neither one is past his prime playing years and both of them were signed to very reasonable contracts. To mix sports metaphors, home runs are flashy but it's tough to build a team based on them. You need singles, doubles and triples as well. Hainsey and Williams should turn out to be solid extra-base hits for the Thrashers.

So what do you need to know about Jason Williams? He's 27, he's from London, Ontario and he can play center and right wing. He played almost exclusively on the wing in Chicago and that's where he'll probably fit here since we have Christensen, Little, Slater and White down the middle already (note that I listed them in alphabetical order, not in order of where I expect them to play).

Williams was a member of the 2001-02 Red Wings Cup team, though he only played 25 games in the regular season and nine in the playoffs. He was undrafted and signed with the Red Wings as a free agent in 2000. He played his junior hockey in Peterborough (as did Zach Bogosian). He was traded to the Blackhawks in 2006 and 13 goals, 23 assists and 36 points in 43 for Chicago last season. He missed all of December and most of January and February with a sports hernia but came back with a vengeance, scoring 17 points in the last 23 games of the season, including a six-game nine-point scoring streak. Four of his 13 goals were game-winners and he led the Blackhawks in PP time-on-ice per game when he played. He's 5-10 and 194 lbs, so he's an averaged sized NHL forward. He has a nose for the net and doesn't mind going into the corners. He had a 12.9 shooting percentage last season, better than all Thrashers except Kovalchuk.

As for where he'll fit, pencil him in on one of the top two lines as a right wing. It's way too early to play the line combination game but Williams could replace Recchi on Kovy's line. Recchi had 40 points in 53 games as a Thrasher. Williams had four fewer in 10 fewer games. Recchi had five goals and 14 assists on the PP with Atlanta. Williams had six goals and 13 assists with the man advantage (again in 10 fewer games). So while you shouldn't compare Williams to Recchi in terms of experience and presence, his numbers match up favorably and he's 12 years younger. Williams could turn out to be a great, affordable piece for the Thrashers, and if not he's only on a one-year deal (according to TSN) so there's really no downside.

Last summer the average age of the Thrashers went up through free agent signings. This year it has gone down considerably, and that's something for fans to be excited about. I still don't think Don Waddell is finished upgrading the roster, but so far I'm very pleased with what he has done upgrading the defense with Hainsey (and Bogosian) and the forwards with Williams.

A couple of quick notes:

• Free agency will start on July 1 once again. The NHL wanted it moved to July 7 to move it away from Canada Day (July 1) and Independence day but the NHLPA shot the idea down pretty quickly. Once again I'll be spending Canada Day on my couch with my laptop, waiting for our PR guys to call me with free agent news. Thanks for nothing NHLPA.
• Montreal, Detroit and San Jose have all clinched playoff spots. Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Anaheim can join them tonight if the chips fall just the right ways.
• Don Waddell is talking to his coaching staff about using the last callup spot. He said we have enough defensemen for the rest of the season but that they might opt to look at another forward. If the Thrashers want to look at someone who hasn't gotten any NHL time under their belt then Jordan LaVallee is probably the leading candidate. He has 19 goals and 20 assists in 69 games with the Wolves. Nothing spectacular, but he's 6'3" and 210 lbs, so he's a big body that can bang and grind.
• Speaking of prospects, Riley Holzapfel is playing in the opening round of the WHL playoffs with Moosejaw. If the Warriors get bounced could he be sent to Chicago to get some pro experience? That's what happened to Bryan Little last spring, and Holzapfel is under contract.

Now that the trade deadline has come and gone trade breakdowns are popping up. You can never filly judge a trade until you see how the acquired pieces fit into their new roles but the early reviews are good based on the quotes below:

Ross McKeon on Yahoo!:

"[Don Waddell] said he wouldn’t deal pending unrestricted free agent Marian Hossa unless he could get players who could help right now, and he did that in fleecing Pittsburgh for Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen, which doesn’t mention prospect Angelo Esposito, who could emerge as a player in a year or two."

From TSN:

"Considering the virtual inevitability that Marian Hossa was heading for unrestricted free agency, the Thrashers brought in a substantial haul of talent
in return."

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (it's always a good sign when the paper in the other team's city is unhappy):

"This flies directly in the face of the philosophy the Penguins supposedly have as far not giving up too much of the future for the present."

ESPN's Scott Burnside (who doesn't routinely go out of his way to compliment Don Waddell):

"As for Atlanta GM Don Waddell, he pulled off a strong deal in difficult circumstances."

Sportsnet's Jim Kelly-

"That's a great player for Pittsburgh and Atlanta got two good players off a very good roster, a highly-regarded prospect in Esposito and a
first-rounder for what could well be a rental player if the Penguins can't find the money to sign Hossa. When it comes to players you can't sign that's
good value indeed."

AP via SI.com:

"Still, the price Pittsburgh paid for Hossa was unusually high on a day when name players were routinely dealt for draft picks. The Penguins, for example, also picked up 6-foot-7 defenseman Hal Gill from Toronto for second- and fifth-round picks.

For Hossa, the Penguins gave up two quality young forwards in Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen; 19-year-old Angelo Esposito, last year's first-round pick and this year's first-rounder. Once the draft is over, Atlanta will have acquired four players from Pittsburgh who are 25 or younger.""

Toronto Star:

"Pittsburgh sent forwards Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, prospect Angelo Esposito and a first-round pick to Atlanta, a team that didn't want to see Hossa walk for nothing this summer. The Penguins also picked up Pascal Dupuis. The price for Hossa was steep." (Emphasis added)

Chicago Tribune:

"The Penguins paid a big price to get a player who will become a free agent on July 1, dealing two of their top forwards, plus 2007 first-round draft pick Angelo Esposito and a future first-round draft pick" (Emphasis added)

Boston Globe:

"It's expensive," [Boston GM] Chiarelli said of the price Pittsburgh paid. "[Hossa] is a very good player. It's expensive. It rivals, if not exceeds, the going price for [Keith] Tkachuk and [Peter] Forsberg last year."

Breaking things down on the statistical level is the ever reliable Falconer who has a nose for numbers. He takes a look at both the roles of the new players and the monetary implications of the trade. His first post on the trade was titled "Two Thumbs Up" so it's pretty clear how he feels.

Some more news- as you may have heard three players were called up from Chicago today in case they were needed. all three of them will play tonight. Watch the game on SportSouth to see what the lines are going to look like, but Bryan Little, Colin Stuart and Joel Kwiatkowski will all play. Little and Stuart fill the forward spots vacated by Hossa and Dupuis and Joel Kwiatkowski steps in on defense. Mark Popovic and Alexei Zhitnik Steve McCarthy will both be healthy scratches.

Flying under the radar was a deal between Atlanta and Washington swapping Alex Giroux for Joe Motzko. Motzko was Hershey's leading scorer this season (21 goals, 27 assists) and should fit right in with the high-octane Wolves in Chicago where he's headed for now.

Here are the player pages for the new acquisitions from Pittsburgh so you can read up on them. Armstrong and Christensen are tentatively expected at practice tomorrow (pending travel arrangements) while Esposito will stay with the Quebec Remparts where he's playing out his junior career.

• Colby Armstrong
• Erik Christensen
• Angelo Esposito (Hockey's Future profile)

More analysis will come, but so far I'm thrilled with this deal. Hossa was and is an incredible player, and Pascal Dupuis added a lot to this team, but you have to step back to really analyze this trade. Waddell was able to deal two pending unrestricted free agents for two young roster players who are under contract through next season and who are restricted free agents after that. To get a top-level prospect and a first round pick in a deep draft on top of that is some high quality gravy. Hossa's offense (and defense) will be missed but don't count out what Armstrong and Christensen can add. I've been listening to TSN all day and they're questioning whether Pittsburgh paid too much to get Hossa and Dupuis. Likewise with Sportsnet. Various sites will publish their trade report cards over the next 48 hours and I have a feeling they will speak highly of what Waddell accomplished.

• Atlantathrashers.com- Streaming video of TSN's trade show, compliments of the NHL Network.
• NHL.com- Completed trades list (they won't break stories but it's a handy list)
• TSN.ca- Jay Onrait's blog (the man is funny and it'll be a nice distraction from the chaos)
• NHLnumbers.com- Salary and contract length breakdowns for every team
• Thrashers message boards- A lot of crazy and wildly inaccurate things will be said on there today. It's my job to make sure people don't get too crazy.

I'm going to be doing my best to get you Thrashers trade news before it gets to the media, but given that the team is in Montreal that's going to be tough. I can't make any promises.

It's the most exciting time of the year and at the same time the most maddening.

We all know that trades are going to be made around the league and odds are the Thrashers will be involved to some degree. With a week to go until the trade deadline something could happen at any time. Don Waddell could wait until next Tuesday to pull the trigger on a deal or he could pull something off by the time you finish reading this post. You never know.

And that's just it. Rumor hounds are having a field day trying to predict who will end up where and who's available versus who isn't, but when it comes to the Thrashers nothing is clear. That's Don Waddell's style.

In the three seasons I've been doing this job I can't think of a single time when the Thrashers were heavily rumored to be involved in talks for a player that they actually got. Maybe Keith Tkachuk, but nobody thought Atlanta was a front-runner in that bidding war. Don Waddell has a knack for keeping things under wraps, and that's why I don't put any stock in any of the rumors swirling around the Thrashers. Odds are the deals you read about ahead of time aren't the ones that are going to happen. That's the rule of thumb in general with the NHL and it definitely applies to the Thrashers.

The only reason to leak a possible trade is to drive up the price general managers will pay to get a player, but the price for a guy like Marian Hossa doesn't need to be inflated. If he hits the trade market there's going to be a bidding war whether Waddell tries to build it up or not.

So while I'll be keeping an eye on the rumor sites from now until the trade deadline passes I won't put much stock in anything involving this team, because the more you read about a deal the less likely it is to happen.

I do feel confident that the Thrashers have the green light to go out and make something happen. Billy Knight pulled of a great trade on the weekend, picking up Mike Bibby and turning the Hawks into a legitimate threat, and there's no reason to think our owners wouldn't sign off on something of similar magnitude for the Thrashers if the opportunity was there.

It's going to be an interesting week.

I don't have a lot to say about last night's game aside from this- I'll take that forecheck and defensive effort over anything we've seen from the Thrashers in the last week or so. Maybe that stats folks were a little trigger happy with their buttons, but wow- 42 hits for the Thrashers? When was the last time you saw them come out hitting like that? There could have been more shots and there could have been more scoring chances, but New York played well. the Thrashers stuck to their game plan and played a solid road game in a tough building against an amped up opponent. If they play exactly the same at home next week against Pittsburgh there's a pretty good chance they'll win. I would have liked to see something other than wrist shots from our guys in the shootout, but that's life. The Thrashers picked up a key point, but more importantly they put in a solid effort. I'll take it. Hats off to Bobby Holik (8 hits), Alexei Zhitnik (20:46 of ice time) and Todd White (4 shots and 3 hits) who all stepped up their games noticeably. There were improved efforts all around, but those three stood out for me. Johan Hedberg was spectacular in net, putting the Buffalo loss squarely behind him and keeping the Thrashers in the game when the Rangers pressured.

There's no update on Ken Klee yet, but based on what Craig Custance wrote in the AJC it sounds like he'll be okay.

In roster news, three players are in transit to Chicago. The Wolves play three games this weekend including one tonight to it's a chance for them to get some action in while the NHL takes a break. No news on if any of them will come back immediately after the break, but Brett Sterling, Joel Kwiatkowski and Colin Stuart have all been reassigned for the time being (look for a press release later). They all played well in their time in Atlanta and made it easy for Waddell to give them another call-up if they're needed. Sterling and Kwiatkowski will both be at the AHL All-Star Classic on Monday and Tuesday though, so they'll be participating in six games/events in six nights. That's a lot of hockey.

Stay tuned to the blog this weekend as we try our best to give you exclusive stories from behind the scenes at All-Star Weekend.

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.

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.