June 23, 1999

Not only will the man be hanging out at a brand-spankin'-new barn a couple of offices away from Lenny Wilkens, but the former New Haven Nighthawk has a near-blank canvas (and splotches like Damian Rhodes and Andrew the Scoring Machine Brunette surely don't detract from the design) and a shot to build a halfway competitive Atlanta Thrashers hockey club right out of the starting gate.

Acquiring potential rock goalie Rhodes from Ottawa in a convoluted only-in-the-NHL deal is a fine way to get things started, provided the resources follow.

And Waddell's got resources. Oh, baby, does he have resources.

This is Atlanta.

This is Turner/Time Warner/Duke Phillips (remember The Critic? If not, go to Comedy Central and watch. Hard). This posse has more money than God, Bill Gates and the Cablevision Dolan Family put together. Most expansion teams might want to take the young'n and hope he develops into something like the older player is now, eventually -- Waddell can probably afford to take the older player and let him loose now.

And to top it all off, Waddell doesn't even have a coach screaming personnel demands into his ears -- yet.

So with all that going for him, Donny gets to spend his free vacation to Boston stocking his little startup and spending Uncle Duke's money. While guessing who he'll take from each team is a mighty messy thought process (if you know about all the different side deals, like who if anyone is going back to Ottawa and to Nashville in the Rhodes and Brunette deals, more power to ya), here's how we'd set the cash flow if given the opportunity to be young and Don Waddell for a couple hours Friday:

GENERAL PHILOSOPHIES: The restrictions on positions and free agency have to play a huge part in the decision-making -- an expansion team has to pick at least 13 forwards, and at least eight defensemen, while selecting no more than six players (no more than one goalie, and no more than three at defense or three at forward) that will be free agents of any kind in six days. It's very easy to piece together a full 26-man draft, only to find that half of the guys you've slapped down are free agents (read that as, guess what I did!).

Since this is Atlanta, we won't obsess over salaries. They will surely enter into Waddell's thoughts, probably heavily, but we're going after, generally, the best player available on each team, playing around with the position and free agency restrictions. There are places where we weighed the cost of Team A goalie and Team B forward vs. Team A forward and Team B goalie, for sure.

I might have missed a minor-league free agent in my couple of non-NHL picks below; if so, I apologize, I hereby resign as Thrashers GM, and I go with head hung in shame back to the sandlots of Bridgeport... or at least the Bridgeport Wonderland of Ice.

GOALIES

• Trevor Kidd, Carolina. Because one-time juniors phenoms don't grow on trees.
• Rob Tallas, Boston. Young and highly regarded, if the kid doesn't make the scene in Hotlanta, he'll be decent trade-bait.
• Scott Langkow, Phoenix. The best goalie in the AHL two years ago, he had some spot duty this year with the big club, and got jerked around with the demise of Las Vegas (IHL). Has plenty of potential. Meanwhile, Stan Neckar might be the best other Coyote on the board -- Langkow it is!
• Stormin' Norm Maracle, Detroit. The kid is a workhorse, and was the saving grace of a nothing-special Adirondack team in the AHL a couple of years ago. Waddell, ex-Wings exec, is said to be quite high on him.

DEFENSEMEN

• Scott Lachance, Montreal. Lachance was dealt from the Isles for a fourth- rounder during the season; Stephane Quintal may bring more by walking out himself, particularly if the Rangers are as interested as rumored. Lachance has upside in that he could probably play his way either deeply into our lineup or profitably into someone else's, so he's our pick.
• Luke Richardson, Philadelphia. Especially if, as rumored, Bobby Clarke eats some salary, he's worth the grab. Besides, if he falters, every good hockey town needs a good whippin' boy.
• Chris Tamer, New York Rangers. SegaMan (a bad nickname with an even worse derivation, so ask only if you're willing to groan) was an enigma wrapped in a puzzle tucked into a minus-4-in-four-minutes-played for much of last year, but he's a physical defenseman in his physical prime that isn't making an exorbitant amount of money. For those hoping for another Ranger to go, well, sorry, folks, but not even Uncle Duke can take Scott Fraser off this Ranger team.
• Maxim Galanov, Pittsburgh. Speedy, young and inconsistent, Maxy provides something the rest of Pittsburgh's available list doesn't: upside. Worth the shot.
• Dave Manson, Chicago. Yeah, he's getting creaky, but it's him or Zmolek. He could have at least a decent shot at being movable.
• Yannick Tremblay, Toronto. Y'know, until we read that Waddell is planning to take him, we weren't all that interested in putting him on this list. But upon further review, Tremblay's got some decent numbers, reasonable size and relative youth (24 in November). A nice shot here.
• Nolan Baumgartner, Washington. Young defensive-type defenseman is a decent shot here.
• Eric Charron, Calgary. Hard to believe he's 29; harder to believe, with Tyler Moss taken out of our options list because of Robbie Tallas's contract status, Charron is the best thing on the Flames' unprotected list. He's been around the block, and if nothing happens in camp, he could be a decent veteran presence for the Orlando Solar Bears of the IHL, Atlanta's top farm team.
• Eric Messier, Colorado. We'd like to take Draft Pick -- er, Sylvain Lefebvre here, but we're out of free agents. Messier's a good defenseman who's learning the game well. You kind of wonder if there isn't some kind of side deal going on here as well.

FORWARDS

• Kelly Buchberger, Edmonton. He's been the team leader through thick and thin (and a lot of it has been thin) at Northlands, and he's been steady throughout. He'll make a fine first captain. (Notes on Edmonton -- Rem Murray is a decent selection, but we'll stick with Bucky. We'd pick Rexi Ruotsalainen and get the joke out of Sather's hands once and for all, but we don't want to waste that pick -- especially on a defenseman -- that badly. Also, Daniel Lacroix might not have been a bad pick in this spot -- if he weren't at that magical point in his life and career where he can walk on out.)
• Sergei Brylin, New Jersey. Eventually things have to break right for this guy. He's close to the full package, and at 25 is young enough to be a good fit here.
• Herbert Vasiljevs, Florida. Okay, call this one a sentiment pick if you will (the author covered him in the AHL in 1997-98), but Vasiljevs has developed from walk-on minor leaguer into minor league scoring threat (64 goals in the last two years, played with New Haven and Kentucky of the AHL). He is quick and can kill penalties, and is responsible on defense. If he doesn't make the Thrashers' third or fourth line, he'll help the Solar Bears. The only other worthwhile Florida option is defenseman Jeff Ware, which would not be an awful pick.
• Andreas Johansson, Ottawa. Of course we'd take Ron Tugnutt, but to do that would be to presume that Marshall Johnston is a complete moron and dumped his entire stellar goaltending staff plus Ted Donato for Patrick Lalime. We don't believe that -- there's a side deal here, be it part of the Rhodes considerations or something else. So the best of the rest is the somewhat skilled, somewhat cheap Johansson -- although there's a good chance he's been side-dealed as well.
• Nathan Lafayette, Los Angeles. This spot could go one of three ways: Steve McKenna, because you can't teach 6-8, 250. Vladimir Tsyplakov, because he's got some skills despite being 30. Or Nathan "Ding" Lafayette, because the league has to eventually expand enough to thin out the talent such that he can play the kind of game he showed flashes of in the 1994 playoffs. We'd like to take the monster McKenna and see if he could develop some more, but we've got way too many free agents (as he and Tsyplakov are) on the spot already.
• Tony Granato, San Jose. Granato will provide a nice piece of veteran leadership for the Pigeons, while chipping in in both ends of the rink. Joe Murphy was a possibility here for the draft pick he'll net (once again Waddell could be rooting for the Rangers), but we like other Group II free agents in this draft a lot more.
• Blair Atcheynum, St. Louis. He's a bounce-around type, but he's got speed and skill, so he should be a solid pick.
• Geoff Sanderson, Buffalo. Paying Sanderson -- a Group II free agent -- won't be a problem (Atlanta, remember?). And even if he wants more than Waddell and Uncle Duke want to pay, well, great. There could be compensatory picks or a trade involved.
• Ted Drury, Anaheim. No, he isn't Chris. But he's a great player for an expansion team -- defensively super-responsible, with a little bit of a scoring touch showing up every so often. He'll help out.
• Aaron Gavey, Dallas. Yes, he's been "potential" for several years now, but it's a combination we like. We can throw ice time at him and see what happens. We considered Brian Skrudland heavily, as well as the idea of picking a defenseman (Shaun Chambers or the ageless Craig Ludwig), but went with the younger guy on a hunch.
• Trent Klatt, Vancouver. Can play two ways, and has been around the block enough to be a steady guy for a new team. Gotta have someone who can crash the net.
• Alexandre Daigle, Tampa Bay. Because he's less of a problem than Jason Bonsignore. There's nothing on the Lightning list, so why not take a "Flyer" on a former No. 1 pick, let alone one that's only 24?
• Dane Jackson, New York Islanders. The Islander list is almost as scary as the Calgary list, and probably their most attractive major-league types are free agents. So we'll take Jackson, who if he doesn't sneak onto our roster at a fourth-line forward spot will be a help in Orlando.

The free agents in the bunch are Tallas, Tremblay, Tamer, Sanderson, Drury and Lachance. All are Group II, with all the fun restrictions that accompany it.