How Tragedy & Turmoil TANKED The Atlanta Thrashers

we think that's something the NHL would want to be in and we know that for us to maximize our potential we would love to have the NHL in it a few months later the city landed the Thrashers Atlanta's first hockey team since the Flames I'd also like to thank all the fans back in Atlanta all of us share in the excitement of our inaugural 1999 2000 season Philips Arena the home of the Crashers first ever first overall pick Patrick stefen feel got it back power truck I do not lay blame on Danny heedley for the accident that took our son from us but it's sad in the same time because I beat rer for 8 years and I appreciate it for everything I am excited beyond words to announce our purchase of the Atlanta [Music] Thrashers 1997 Bill Clinton begins his second term as president a provocative new animated series called South Park hits the airwaves and the NHL's expansion Blitz kicks into overdrive that June after adding five new teams over the previous 6 years the NHL granted franchises to four more cities Nashville Columbus St Paul and Atlanta that's right Atlanta as in Georgia as in the Deep South not exactly a hockey hotbed as a matter of fact the NHL had previously tried to set up shop in Atlanta and it flopped the Atlanta Flames which were formed in 1972 mostly as a means to keep the upstart World Hockey Association from grabbing the market lasted only eight seasons before relocating to Calgary on account of financial difficulties seemingly however this time around Atlanta's NHL Franchise would be on much firmer Financial ground after all the ownership group responsible for bringing NHL hockey back to Atlanta was Time Warner the media conglomerate fronted by billionaire Ted Turner who also happened to own Major League BAS B's Atlanta Braves and the NBA's Atlanta Hawks for Turner getting a new Stadium built which was a precondition for expansion was no problem and not 6 weeks after the NHL announced that it was returning to Atlanta the city demolished the rusting Omni Coliseum home of the Hawks and previously the flames and started building a new stadium in its place the multi-purpose Phillips Arena as construction got underway the fledgling franchise which was slated to begin play for the 1999 2000 season sought out its nickname it's identity and before long Turner settled on one that he figured would strike a chord with the people of Atlanta his new NHL team would be called the Thrashers a nod to Georgia state bird the brown thrasher we want this to be a landmark for downtown we want it to be a recognizable symbol and we want it to be a place where people feel like they have ownership of it we want atlantans to feel like this is their building then came the hard part putting together a team that could actually be respectable that responsibility fell on Don woodell who was named the Thrashers first general manager after serving as assistant GM for the Stanley Cup winning Detroit Red Wings in 9798 at the time however assembling a competitive team through an expansion draft was virtually impossible case in point the Nashville Predators who started play one year before the Thrashers and won just 28 games in their inaugural season back then the League's already established teams were allowed to protect even more players from the expansion draft than they are today which is to say there was little more than scraps available for The Thrasher the biggest names Atlanta landed in the 1999 expansion draft Mark Tori who actually retired before playing a game for the Thrashers a 33-year-old Kelly bger Johan GARP andl it was slim pickets hell the Thrashers didn't even try to find a starting goalie through the draft preferring instead to swing a trade with Ottawa for veteran Damen rhs as underwhelming as their draft was though the N Thrashers did have one big reason for optimism following a dizzying series of 11th Hour trades and Atlanta held the number one pick in the 1999 entry draft which wasn't exactly the greatest draft class in history but wasn't without its gems among the Future Stars taken in that year's draft Henrik Zetterberg Ryan Miller Daniel and Henrik sadine who respectively went second and third overall to Vancouver after hinting that they'd stay in Sweden if they didn't end up on the same NHL team together so which Superstar did the Thrashers end up taking first overall that would be Patrick stefen a Czech Center who spent seven underwhelming seasons in the NHL and is now considered one of the greatest draft PSS ever it was my dream you know go to number one and I just cannot bu it right now I was so nerv with but my D comes through you know and I think this team is a great future and I want to be part of them you know at the time though the Thrashers and their fan base were elated they had their franchise Cornerstone and the team had already sold more than 12,000 season tickets for its inaugural campaign and while there were bound to be growing pains the future was bright in Atlanta or so it seemed amid all the excitement and Novelty the Thrashers first season unfolded very much as expected on the ice it was ugly Atlanta won a League worst 14 games in 1999 2000 and also finished dead last in the NHL in both goals for and goals against perhaps the most troubling part though was that Stefan looked decidedly unexceptional in his first taste of NHL action in 72 games for the Thrashers the 19-year-old mustered just five goals and 20 assists he didn't even sniff a cder trophy vote ultimately however the Thrashers rough first season not withstanding the fans showed out in drows that year Atlanta finished 11th in the league in attendance an impressive and auspicious showing for a quote unquote non-traditional hockey Market meanwhile the Thrashers wful first season positioned them to net their first true Superstar with the second overall pick in the 2000 entry draft the Thrashers selected Denny Heatley a standout Winger at the University of Wisconsin and it wasn't long before Atlanta added another foundational piece after stumbling through a dispiriting 23- win sophomore season the Thrashers ended up with the number one pick in the 2001 entry draft and there was no question who they were taking IIA Kovalchuk an offensive Dynamo and the first Russian player ever to go first overall in the NHL draft suddenly after two rough introductory seasons in which their best player was assumed to be retired Ray Ferraro the Thrashers had an actual core of young talent and a promising one at that Stefan clearly wasn't working out but in heat and Kovalchuk the Thrashers had the makings of a dynamic offense and as the 20012 2002 season loomed the Thrashers looked ready to take the next step not necessarily to contention but at least to respectability except they weren't despite the outsized efforts of Heatley and Kovalchuk who finished first and second respectively and called her Trophy voting the Thrashers actually took a step backwards in 20012 2002 with no goal tending no defense and no secondary scoring to speak of Atlanta finished with the worst record in the NHL for the second time in 3 years and the fans were getting impatient That season only two years removed from their Inception the Thrashers finished third last in the NHL in attendance averaging less than 14,000 fans per game clearly wedell had to do more than simply banking on early first round draft picks to hit not an easy task given his persistent payroll limitations in fact not once in the pre-s salary cap era did the Thrashers payroll equal even 2/3 of The League average still he did what he he could that offseason wadell overhauled his roster brokering trades for Slava klov and sha mckern among others before fleecing the Calgary Flames for Mark saard early into the 0203 campaign and those moves along with a mid-season coaching change that saw onetime Stanley Cup winner Bob Harley replaced Kurt Fraser led to tangible progress for the Thrashers That season the Thrashers easily said a new franchise record for wins and finish less than 10 points back of a playoff spot meanwhile they also f temped the NHL in goals with Heatley and Kovalchuk notching 41 and 38 respectively Heatley by the way ended up with 89 points good for ninth in the NHL and took home All-Star game MVP honors with a historic four-goal effort leaves it heat in the middle for four Heatley a shot he's got it heatley's the fifth ever to score four goals in an allstar game Danny Heatley how about that the East has score goals to TI he's got them all finally it seemed the the Thrashers were a team on the rise not only were their youngsters blossoming into stars and Not only was there considerable depth on their roster but the Thrashers also had their ostensible goalie of the future in kry Leon their second overall pick in 2002 it might have taken longer than they'd hoped but there was genuine promise in Atlanta heading into the 0304 campaign and then disaster struck on September 29th 2003 just over 2 weeks before the Thrashers season opener Heatley lost control of his Ferrari while driving around Atlanta ATA with his friend and teammate Dan Snider according to police heatly was driving at approximately 130 kmph when he spun out of control and crashed into a brick and rod iron fence the Collision split the car in half and Snyder was thrown from the vehicle resulting in a fractured skull Snyder who was 25 at the time went into a coma from which he never woke up meanwhile Heatley suffered a broken jaw a concussion and tore three ligaments in his right knee among other injuries years later heatly pleaded guilty to Second deegree vehicular homicide a charge that could have led to jail time had Snyder's family not been so gracious and on top of forever changing heatley's life and the lives of Snider's loved ones that Unthinkable tragedy also changed the trajectory of the Thrashers organization heatley's injuries kept him sidelined for much of the 0304 season a somber one that saw the Thrasher stagnate despite a hot start and a monster campaign from Kovalchuk who finished in a three-way tie for the league lead with 41 goals eventually the suen heat Le decided that he needed out of Atlanta over the course of the 0405 lockout during which Heatley played in both Switzerland and Russia the 24-year-old sold his home in Atlanta and formally requested a trade and in August of ' 05 with a new CBA ratified and a new NHL season around the corner the Thrashers obliged him trading Heatley to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for fellow All-Star Winger Marian HOSA and Veteran defenseman Greg D just like that the Thrasher's first Superstar was gone although to his credit HOSA did a remarkable job replicating heatley's All-Star production in the years to come for that reason it's a stretch to say that the Heatley tragedy in and of itself doomed the Thrashers organization frankly the heatly tragedy obscured the going on behind the scenes that ultimately played a much larger role in the Thrashers collapse before we go any further though let's clarify something by 2003 Time Warner the Thrashers original owners had merged with AOL in other words by the early 2000s it was AOL time Warner that owned the Thrashers and well AOL Time Warner was having a real rough go of it in the early 2000s in fact in 2002 the company reported a net loss of almost $99 billion in light of their financial troubles AOL Time Warner started to liquid day and in September of 2003 just days before the Fateful heatly crash AOL Time Warner agreed to sell the Thrashers the NBA's Hawks and the rights to Philips Arena to a Consortium of nine businessmen known as the Atlanta spirit and that more than anything else was the death nail for the Thrashers see the spirit were never all that interested in hockey or the Thrashers who by their accounting were losing tens of millions of dollars per year in fact as they later admitted in a lawsuit filing the spirit wanted to sell the Thrashers during the 0405 lockout practically 10 seconds after acquiring them before they could finalize a deal however a rift erupted within the ownership group a yearslong legal battle that began Believe It or Not Over the Hawks trade for Jo Johnson as you can imagine amid the infighting within an already disinterested ownership group the Thrashers were little more than an afterthought ironically enough however it was during this period of distracted and apathetic ownership and with their very future up in the air that the Thrashers reached the Pinnacle of their existence Upon returning from the lockout with HOSA replacing Heatley and several veteran additions like Peter bondra and Bobby H leag filling out the roster the Thrashers enjoyed their finest season yet in 056 the thrash managed a winning record for the first time ever finishing second in the Southeast Division and missing out on their first ever playoff Birth by only two points meanwhile Kovalchuk sard and HOSA each recorded 92 or more points since the turn of the century a trio of teammates each hitting 92 points has only happened three other times still the best was Yet to Come despite losing svard to free agency that summer the Thrashers enjoyed their best ever season in 0607 propelled by an 100 point out burst from HOSA a 42g goal effort from Kovalchuk and a stellar Year from Leon the Thrashers went 43 28 and 11 That season capturing their first and only Southeast Division title and their first and only playoff birth it was momentous it was cathartic it was also extremely brief in their first round matchup against the New York Rangers the number three- seated Thrashers barely put up a fight Atlanta lost games W and two at home each by a margin of one goal then got pummeled 7 nothing in game three at Madison Square Garden before getting swept out of the best of seven with a 4-2 defeat in game four from there things unraveled quickly for the franchise after getting off to an 0 and6 start The Following Season the Thrashers asked heartly months later with a second straight playoff appearance not in the cards and HOSA nearing free agency wadell traded The Talented Winger to Pittsburgh for a first round pick and a package highlighted by grinder Colby Armstrong suddenly Kovalchuk was the only star left in Atlanta's dressing room and soon enough he'd be gone too after two more seasons of sub 500 finishes and poultry attendance numbers and with little progress made in extension talks with Kovalchuk the Thrashers traded away the only icon they ever had in February of 2010 Atlanta traded Kovalchuk their all-time leader in games played goals and assists to New Jersey a ferial move that hinted at the broader demise that was looming because shortly thereafter the legal Quagmire that had tied ownership's hands for years was resolved in December 2010 the consortium's dissenting member so to speak was finally bought out clearing the way for the now seven-man ownership group to do as they pleased and with the Thrashers allegedly losing roughly $20 million per year they were all very much in agreement over what they wanted to do they wanted to sell and despite their stated preference to keep the team in Atlanta everybody knew what their top priorities were getting the right price and getting a deal done quickly and sure enough after only a few months of searching they found a buyer and for the second time and NHL fans in Atlanta watched their team disappear in May of 2011 the spirits sold the Thrashers to True North sports and entertainment a Winnipeg based company that intended to bring NHL hockey back to Manitoba's capital on behalf of my family our partner David Thompson and our entire organization I am excited beyond words to announce our purchase of the Atlanta Thrashers NHL welcome home here in Winnipeg Manitoba Winnipeg had lost their beloved Jets when they relocated to Arizona and rebranded into the coyotes in '96 but now just like Atlanta Winnipeg was getting a second shot except they were sticking with their original nickname less than a month after the sale was finalized True North announced that the former Thrashers franchise would henceforth be known as the Jets the Winnipeg Jets who would begin play in 201122 and would make their home at the then- named MTS center which had H Manitoba's AHL team since 2004 and just like that the Atlanta Thrashers were no more history ing glorious history at that one playoff birth in 11 Seasons consistently poor attendance dysfunctional ownership their existence simply put was forgettable but maybe just maybe the story of the Atlanta Thrashers isn't over yet maybe there's another chapter still to be penned maybe for hockey fans in Atlanta the third time's the charm [Music]

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Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2024