Free Agency Pt 2

In the first installment we looked at Slava, Armstrong, Artyukhin, Slater and Boulton. Now we're going to take a look at some big names from this season and several impact players that the Thrashers will most likely be talking to soon.

Maxim Afinogenov - Mad Max was brought in during training camp this last season on a pro tryout and made the team, with a 800k contract for the season. With his reputation damaged and his career flagging, he was looking for a fresh start and it looks like he found one in Atlanta. The big Russian winger played all 82 games this season and set a new career high 24 goals along with 37 assists for a total of 61 points total. This was his first season in the NHL where he played the full schedule, his best before this year's campaign being 2001/2002 season where he played 81.

The Thrashers have a good chance of retaining the speedy Russian winger, earlier this week he made comments in the paper that look very good for the Thrashers.
“I like it here a lot. We’ll see what they are going to do, but I really like it here. That’s what I told [ Waddell].” Overall that bodes well for the Thrashers. If I were Dudley I would make signing Max a priority and I would like to see the deal done before June. I think an offer of 2-3 years at 2 to 2.5 million a year is about right and should get the deal done.

Pavel Kubina - The big veteran defenseman is among the first players that should be addressed this off season. GM Rick Dudley needs to make Pavel a priority and sign him quickly. His size and experience on the blue line make him a must sign in my opinion. He finished the season with 38 points, which is his 3rd best effort since being in the NHL, also finished the season even on +/-, given the overall goal differential of the team that's not bad. Kubina is 33 and still has time on his side. I would like to see a 4 year deal that would be close to the Antropov deal.

Christoph Schubert/Mark Popovic - I'm going to cover the two of these guys together. Both are depth defensemen and with the likes of Arturs Kulda, Paul Postma and Ivan Vishnevskiy in the wings there is a good chance that the Thrashers may only need 1 depth defenseman this coming season. If the decision were mine I would retain Schubert for one more year at the same money he made this season. Schubert has a little size on Popovic and a bit more of a scoring touch, along with the ability to play on the wing if really needed.

Next installment will be all about the Moose..and what we should do about that situation...it's going to be interesting.