As expected and noted last night, the Thrashers have gotten the results from the Clarke MacArthur arbitration case. The arbitrator has awarded MacArthur $2.4 million and the Thrashers promptly walked away, making MacArthur a free agent immediately.
Like I said last night, I'll be interested to see what MacArthur gets on the open market. There was no place in Atlanta for a $2.4 million third liner, especially when Slater, Boulton, White, Eager, Thorburn, and depending on how things shake out, Peverley, Cormier, and Machacek can fill the bottom two lines.
I'd still like to see Todd White traded--for anything. I know he was a little injured last season, but his $2.375 million cap hit is a burden. A return will likely be low--very low, if anything, but this is one of the last bad contracts we have to get rid of. And the concerns of reaching the salary cap floor? Niclas Bergfors, Ben Eager, Andrew Ladd, Ondrej Pavele and Bryan Little all have to be re-signed as restricted free agents, so there are no valid concerns there.
The Ladd case is a little more concerning. I don't see the Thrashers letting him walk in the least, but I think it would be crucial of GM Rick Dudley to try and hammer out a deal before his July 29th arbitration ruling because in arbitration Ladd could get a pretty steep contract. Nothing earth-shattering, of course, but more than the Thrashers may want to pay. It has also been reported that Ben Eager's contract will be settled before arbitration. No word yet on the term or dollar value being discussed.
Lastly, Maxim Afinogenov and his agent have not spoken for the Thrashers in quite some time. It's been said that Afinogenov wants a multi-year deal while Atlanta's management has drawn the line on a one-year deal. At first I was really pushing to have Afinogenov re-signed, but where the team is now--after acquiring Ladd, Eager, and Byfuglien up front--I'm not necessarily sure there's room for Afinogenov. There are still plenty of viable scoring options in the likes of Byfuglien, Peverley, Kane, Little, and Antropov, not to mention Andrew Ladd has a bit of a scoring touch. It would be interesting to see Afinogenov playing on a line with say, Byfuglien and Antropov, two bigger bodies who would create space for Max to use his speed. But at the price Afinogenov's camp likely wants, I'd say pass at this juncture. If management can find a way to finagle a one-year, $2.5 million deal then I'd lock him up...if not, I hope he finds NHL work somewhere because he can be a great asset to another NHL club.
More to come in the near future.
TC
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
First Blog: Late-night Updates
Hello all and welcome to Thrash Compactor, an unofficial blog about the Atlanta Thrashers. Just a quick disclaimer before we get going on things: I don't claim to have any awesome inside knowledge; simply insight. I hope to get this thing up and running relatively quickly, but as some of you know this can be a time-consuming process. I hope to actively participate in the blogosphere throughout the rest of the summer, through hockey season, and hopefully through many more seasons to come.
So, in this late hour of the night (it's currently 2:35 on the East Coast) reports have started coming in from all over the place that ex-Thrasher Ilya Kovalchuk's bank-breaking 17-year, $102 million deal has been rejected. I still find this humorous because Kovalchuk's best offer still came back in February when world-renowned GM Don Waddell dropped $101 million on his plate over twelve years. The term of the contract would have been the same for each season, not an absurdly long contract that was clearly lengthened to screw the CBA. I mean, anyone who thinks Kovalchuk would actually be playing when he's 44 is on some pretty cool drugs.
Anyways, the Kovalchuk saga may be captivating but is finally, at least it appears, not Thrashers news. The real news is that Clarke MacArthur is going to arbitration and, as reported by Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday morning, is going to recieve $2 million. If the Thrashers don't like the ruling in the arbitration case, they can simply walk away and make MacArthur a free agent.
In today's salary cap system spending $2 million on a player who at this point can essentially be pegged as an extra forward on a team already bursting at the seams with bottom-six talent is useless. Letting MacArthur walk will also be a waste of the 3rd and 4th round picks in the 2010 Entry Draft. It was a gamble that failed, but MacArthur, whose two-way game is flawed, simply does not have a place within the roster. Losing the picks does hurt, but likely those guys have about a 10% chance of making the NHL anyways.
In addition to MacArthur departing, this opens another roster spot a prospect who the Thrashers want to get into their line-up; be it Patrice Cormier (acquired in the Kovalchuk deal), Spencher Macachek, or, if they can finagle it, Alex Burmistrov. So while the two picks--assets--were essentially wasted, the team has backed themselves into a corner with the situation and is much better suited to walk away from Clarke MacArthur. I don't think MacArthur would command nearly $2 million on the open market despite potting 16 goals last season (3 in 21 games with Atlanta).
I feel like that was way to much time talking about Clarke MacArthur.
In a side note, vuvuzelas have been banned from Philips arena, as well.
I feel like that was way too much time talking about vuvuzelas.
And so, this concludes the first post on Thrash Compactor. Kudos to Kevin Brooks for the clever title and snazzy banner atop the page. MacArthur's arbitration hearing is in a matter of hours, so I'll have more coverage of that tomorrow.
So, in this late hour of the night (it's currently 2:35 on the East Coast) reports have started coming in from all over the place that ex-Thrasher Ilya Kovalchuk's bank-breaking 17-year, $102 million deal has been rejected. I still find this humorous because Kovalchuk's best offer still came back in February when world-renowned GM Don Waddell dropped $101 million on his plate over twelve years. The term of the contract would have been the same for each season, not an absurdly long contract that was clearly lengthened to screw the CBA. I mean, anyone who thinks Kovalchuk would actually be playing when he's 44 is on some pretty cool drugs.
Anyways, the Kovalchuk saga may be captivating but is finally, at least it appears, not Thrashers news. The real news is that Clarke MacArthur is going to arbitration and, as reported by Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday morning, is going to recieve $2 million. If the Thrashers don't like the ruling in the arbitration case, they can simply walk away and make MacArthur a free agent.
In today's salary cap system spending $2 million on a player who at this point can essentially be pegged as an extra forward on a team already bursting at the seams with bottom-six talent is useless. Letting MacArthur walk will also be a waste of the 3rd and 4th round picks in the 2010 Entry Draft. It was a gamble that failed, but MacArthur, whose two-way game is flawed, simply does not have a place within the roster. Losing the picks does hurt, but likely those guys have about a 10% chance of making the NHL anyways.
In addition to MacArthur departing, this opens another roster spot a prospect who the Thrashers want to get into their line-up; be it Patrice Cormier (acquired in the Kovalchuk deal), Spencher Macachek, or, if they can finagle it, Alex Burmistrov. So while the two picks--assets--were essentially wasted, the team has backed themselves into a corner with the situation and is much better suited to walk away from Clarke MacArthur. I don't think MacArthur would command nearly $2 million on the open market despite potting 16 goals last season (3 in 21 games with Atlanta).
I feel like that was way to much time talking about Clarke MacArthur.
In a side note, vuvuzelas have been banned from Philips arena, as well.
I feel like that was way too much time talking about vuvuzelas.
And so, this concludes the first post on Thrash Compactor. Kudos to Kevin Brooks for the clever title and snazzy banner atop the page. MacArthur's arbitration hearing is in a matter of hours, so I'll have more coverage of that tomorrow.
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