NHL Insider - Lehtonen Stays With Thrashers

Across the board, the Thrashers are a pitiful excuse for a hockey franchise. Yet somehow they’ve managed to retain the services of Kari Lehtonen, the Finnish goal tending sensation. So there’s really no better reason to dissect the Thrashers than now, because I really need to figure out why the hell anyone would sign to stay in Atlanta considering the club’s direction.

The Thrashers are one of the many embarrassments in the NHL betting because they went just 35-41-6 SU last season. Overall they notched just 76 points, finishing out of the playoffs for the second straight year. In fact, in ten seasons as an NHL franchise, the Thrashers have made the playoffs just once, where they were swept by the New York Rangers in 2007. Who’s to blame for this debacle?

You guessed it – Dany Heatley.

The most hated man in hockey and Ilya Kovalchuk were one of the best young tandems in the entire league and were looking to become a dangerously effective franchise in the playoffs. In 2002-03, Heatley was ninth in the NHL in scoring with 89 points off of 41 goals and 48 assists. In 2003, however, Heatley was responsible for a car wreck that subsequently killed his friend and teammate, Dany Snyder, while suffering injuries of his own. Unlike Donte Stallworth, Heatley was able to avoid sever punishment for the accident, albeit it was just that – an accident.

But that incident forced the Thrashers to move the depressed Heatley and break up their tandem of Kovalchuk-Heatley. The team that bailed them out was the Ottawa Senators who gave up perennial Stanley Cup loser, Marion Hossa, who posted fantastic numbers alongside Kovalchuk, but never replicated the leadership that the Thrashers so desperately needed as a young club.

So Atlanta should thank the Lord that a guy like Lehtonen actually wants to stay in the hell whole that is Atlanta hockey. The second-overall draft pick from the 2002 entry draft is a specimen. At 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, he fills the net like a fat guy in a movie theater seat. Groin injuries have slowed down his career, allowing him to play just 46 games last season, of which he won just 19 with a save percentage of .911 and only three shutouts. His goals against average was 3.06, and although it was the best on the team, that’s not saying much. The problem for Lehtonen has always been a lack of help up front.

The Thrashers somewhat mended that broken fence when they shipped in Pavel Kubina, formerly of the Toronto Maple Leafs. But Kubina is a lone wolf on a blue line whose only other formidable player is a guy named Ron Hainsey, who you’ve rightfully never heard of. Protecting the crease is the simple job of defensemen, but Atlanta’s blue-line has more holes than a golf resort.

Up front, the Thrashers lone wolf is Ilya Kovalchuk, who registered 91 points with little to no help at his flank. Slava Kozlov and Todd White both put up admirable 70+ point seasons, but after that, there’s a significant 20-point drop-off to the fourth leading scorer on the Thrashers. In short, with a goalie letting in 3.06 goals per game, and a team that only has one guy capable of scoring more than 30 goals per game, the Thrashers are going to remain a joke for the long-term.