The roster changing summer the Atlanta Thrashers have had is coming to an end but not before they can get some o their own taken care of first. Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution says that the team is close to reaching a deal with restricted free agent forward Bryan Little.
I talked to Bryan Little and one of the things we talked spoke about was his contract. The Thrashers made him a qualifying offer this offseason and I’ve been told that re-signing him, and Niclas Bergfors, were next on the team’s priority list. It sounds like they are close on a deal with Little. This is what he told me:
“I’m letting my agent handle that, like everyone else does, I’m just worried about the season. It’s looking like it hopefully is going to be done pretty soon and I can start concentrating on this year. It would be nice to have it done as soon as possible. No matter how much you want to concentrate on the season its still in the back of your head that it’s not taken care of. I know it’s going to be pretty soon so I’m not worried about it. I’m just concentrating on getting ready for the year.”
The question with Little is which player is the kind you can expect? In his 31 goal season, Little’s shot percentage was a robust 18.0% whereas last year after scoring just 13 goals he shot 7.9%. Ideally, you’d have to think where Little’s real productivity falls somewhere in between those numbers so aiming for around 22 goals doesn’t seem unreasonable. With the Thrashers having added some bulk and meanness this off-season in the form of Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, and Ben Eager getting Bryan Little some extra room to move around shouldn’t be too hard.