DULUTH -- Bobby Holik had no trouble summing up the Atlanta Thrashers' disappointing season.
The team's captain said Sunday, ``It was a long, drawn-out process of failing.''
Less than 24 hours after beating Tampa Bay and ending 2008 as the second-worst team in the Eastern Conference and third-worst overall, the Thrashers were looking ahead.
Ownership has indicated to Don Waddell that he will remain as general manager despite missing the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years.
Waddell said, ``They haven't told me that I wouldn't be back, but I think I'm all right.''
Waddell plans to begin the process of hiring a head coach, a job he held after Atlanta's 0-6 start doomed Bob Hartley. Though the Thrashers went 34-34-8 with Waddell on the bench, he wants no part of staying in that role.
The list of candidates is likely to come from coaches who could be soon unemployed and from leading assistants currently working for playoff-bound teams.
First on Waddell's agenda is to watch the NHL lottery, when Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, Atlanta and St. Louis will learn the order of the first four picks in this summer's draft.
The Thrashers' embarrassment of 2007-08, however, was still too fresh in some players' minds to look ahead to next season.
Franchise centerpiece Ilya Kovalchuk, whose 52 goals trailed only the 65 scored by Washington's Alex Ovechkin, just wants some stability when training camp starts in August.
Kovalchuk said, ``I think it's real obvious we need to make some moves, and hopefully the right ones. We'll see where we're going. Hopefully we're going to get better and make it to the playoffs.''
Wednesday
May 7th, 2025
4:13AM
