Dudley Putting His Stamp On Thrashers

Rick Dudley continues to put his stamp on the Atlanta Thrashers in another move yesterday by trading away center Todd White for Patrick Rissmiller and Donald Brashear. Dudley then straight away put Brashear on waivers. A move that will ultimately end with the Thrashers buying out his contract at 1.4 million for this year, this will put a 700k hit on for the next 2 years. The move was designed to both free up space for an up and coming forward like Cormier and to dump White's bigger salary.

This was nothing more than a maintenance move for both clubs. What is interesting is that it is yet another move that shows that Dudley is totally retooling the organization. Rick Dudley has made some sweeping changes to the club, both in it's roster and behind the bench. If nothing else Duds has spent the summer doing everything he can to undo all the Waddell (damage) that was done to the club. He's building a young club and he's keeping contract terms low both in money and term.

Dudley so far has put together a roster that has some good size to it and will also be more physical. So far the only thing that this team really lacks is a big name scoring threat. Dustin Byfuglien is a big name, but it's not like he's going to light the lamp for 40 goals per season. I think that Dudley's vision for the team though is to grind out the win if you're playing responsible hockey on both sides of the ice you don't have to be an offensive power house to win hockey games. Lest we all forget the real "keys to the game" is to score more goals than the other team...that's all.

What has been your overall impression so far about Dudley? So far I'd have to give him a B+ for all his efforts. The only criticism I have really is that I think he should have signed Max, I think he's being a little tight on his contract. The guy did a great job for us last year. I don't think 4 million for 2 years is too much but I guess Dudley does.