Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Thrashers fire Anderson as coach, Waddell becomes team president

On Monday we wrote about how the Atlanta Thrashers should fire Don Waddell as the team’s general manager, stating how he could be moved to team president.

Today, we’re getting preliminary reports that the team has fired the coaching staff, including head coach John Anderson, and that Rick Dudley will take over general manager duties.

While the front office changes aren’t that surprising, it is a bit unexpected to learn that Anderson will not be retained. Of course, we’ve been getting hints that the coaching staff wasn’t exactly working hard at getting the team to win, and it’s likely the Thrashers are wanting a fresh start in all facets of management.

Update: Here’s the statement from the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Atlanta Thrashers have promoted Don Waddell to President and Rick Dudley to General Manager, according to Co-Owner Bruce Levenson. The team also announced that it will not retain Head Coach John Anderson and Assistant Coaches Randy Cunneyworth, Todd Nelson and Steve Weeks. In his new role, Waddell will focus primarily on all business aspects of the organization, and as General Manager, Dudley will be responsible for all hockey operations.