There’s good news and bad news for the Atlanta Thrashers as they enter the first off-season of the post-Ilya Kovalchuk era. The glass half-full side will point to their $31 million-plus in cap space and handful of decent young players such as Evander Kane and Zach Bogosian. On the other hand, the team has as many questions as answers.
The Thrashers answered one of their smaller questions today, as they signed 2002 first round pick Jim Slater to a two-year contract. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shared the news.
The forward, one of 10 Thrashers scheduled to become unrestricted free agents, agreed to terms on a two-year contract worth $2 million Tuesday. The deal will pay Slater $900,000 next season and $1.1 million in 2011-12.
Slater, 27, scored a career-high 11 goals last season. He appeared in 61 games after being a healthy scratch for much of the early season. He was awarded the team’s Dan Synder Memorial Trophy and the Community Service Award following the season.
Dudley and Ramsay have a history. They played together for three seasons with the Buffalo Sabres, even skating on the same line at times. Later at Tampa Bay when he was GM, Dudley hired Ramsay as associate head coach to work with John Tortorella. Dudley considers him the best hire of his career.
“I was very proud of that,” Dudley said. " ... The truth is John Tortorella is a volatile guy. He needed an intelligent guy to come in and know what his role had to be. We didn’t need another volatile guy in there. Craig softened all the blows there. When John undressed somebody, he would go and make them feel good again. He knew that was his role and he did it really well.”
Ramsay has served as head coach of the Sabres (1986-87) and the Philadelphia Flyers (2000-01). After six seasons with the Lightning, including a Stanley Cup title in 2003-04, Ramsay has been an assistant with the Bruins since 2007.
“All [the candidates are] very good in their own way,” Dudley said.