If the Heatley accident didn't happen and this core group had been allowed to gel in Atlanta as a unit the way teams in Tampa, Chicago, Washington and Pittsburgh have come together, how good do you think the Thrashers could have been this decade? Obviously there were issues with Lehtonen's health, and maybe adjustments would have been made in net, but generally, that's a pretty good base to start with. With some better depth, would the Thrashers have been good enough to be perennial contenders or even have a cup by now?
Some personal thoughts:
Lehtonen - The Thrashers were patient with him long enough. He just didn't have the work ethic off the ice to get his body right and eventually you can't carry a $3m per season goalie whom is always going to break down. Lehtonen has the talent to be as good as Lundqvist.
Coburn - Played awful in Atlanta and was unmotivated when assigned to AHL. However obviously Waddell gave up on him too early as he only had played one season.
Savard - A big Waddell stuff up. After proving his worth as an all star center, all Savard was looking for was fair value in a new contract. He was willing to stay in Atlanta as he was grateful that the team rescued him from a difficult time in Calgary. However Waddell baulked at the $5m per season asking price so Savard walked. Waddell then thought fit to spend $3m on Steve Rucchin as Savard's replacement (who hardly played, then retired) and another $2m on a couple of fringe defenseman - Vitaly Vishnevski was one of them, I think.
Heatley - If he stayed he would of eventually become Thrashers captain (was ahead of Kovalchuk in the pecking order). However as history dictated (Ottawa situation) he would of eventually got fed up with the lack of direction in the team and asked for a trade/walked when he became an UFA.
Hossa - Didn't really show any hint about re-signing in his last season in Atlanta and as history dictated was pretty driven about being on a team to win a cup. Obviously that wasn't going to happen in Atlanta.
Kovalchuk - He geniuinely liked the city but came to realise that success wasn't going to happen as Waddell had failed to improved the team after their only playoff performance as the team went backwards really bad. He also didn't like John Anderson as coach. The comment about being never coached is valid. Kovy has a very good work ethic but was never asked to play D in Atlanta.
In summary, Atlanta failed to become a cup contender because of a few key things. Off the ice, ownership was involved in a bitter legal battle between themselves and that didn't really help the team to attract free agents. Ownership were also very much tight with money and had an internal cap which handcuff Waddell. However when Waddell did spend he was a mixed bag, Holik and Rucchin were big free agent busts, letting go Brunette and Savard (both willing to stay) was stupid. He was decent on the trade front (aside from Coburn deal) picking up Savard, Kozlov and Kubina for next to nothing.
On the ice, Thrashers have been cursed with goaltending issues. I don't care how much talent you have up front if you don't have any consistency in the net you are going to leak goal. Rhodes, Maracle, Hnlicka, Nurminen, Dafoe and Lehtonen couldn't get healthy and as a result backup goalies like Moose Hedberg was asked to play way more than they should and was forced to be a no 1. Also until recently, not enough time and money was spent to improve the defence. Chris Tamer and Yannick Tremblay were an ever present first pairing on defense for Atlanta and when the team acquired Zhitnik, he immediately became the teams no 1 defenseman. They could of definately used better personnel on D.