Thrashers preparing to visit Hockeyville

Thrashers forward Bryan Little will likely be a player to watch this Monday in Hockeyville. Photo by Chris Dawson.

This is the first of three special features which can be seen here on BayToday.ca as Sports Director Chris Dawson traveled to the NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City.

Don Waddell has a lot of decisions to make in the next few weeks.

For the past five days the Atlanta Thrashers G.M. has been watching his young prospects very closely as they took part in the 10th annual NHL Prospects tournament in Traverse City, Michigan.

The Thrashers finished up third overall in the 8-team tournament with a 3 and 1 record.

Waddell is taking a very long look at Thrashers forward Bryan Little. The Barrie Colts forward was the Thrashers top pick in the 2006 draft and finished second in scoring at the tournament with 4 goals and 3 assists in four games.

“I need to work hard at camp so I can prove that I can play at the next level,” said Little who was born in Edmonton but grew up in Cambridge, Ontario.

But the Thrashers will try to mix a little business with pleasure next week when they travel to North Bay for the Hockeyville game against the New York Islanders on September 17th.

“There is the business part of the sport that we have to watch out for but you also got to have some fun in this game,” said Waddell about playing in the 2007 Hockeyville game.

“When you have an opportunity to be a part of something like this that the city of North Bay I know is very excited about so -- to be able to be a part of that -- for the players that are playing in that game, I think it will be a very unique experience for them because we are used to playing in 20,000 seat arenas here a smaller venue I’ve been up there years ago a smaller venue with the people right on top of you this is going to be a great atmosphere for us and we are really looking forward to it.”

Little is likely to be one a handful of Thrashers prospects from the Traverse City rookie team that will make the journey to Hockeyville.

“I know they used to have an OHL team up there and they must love hockey to get that kind of game up there,” said Little, who played four seasons with the Barrie Colts.

“I hope to be (playing in the game) if I am it will be a great experience you know anytime you play in Canada no matter where it is its always a great atmosphere and I’m sure in North Bay they’ll get a great turnout it’ll be a good atmosphere especially for an NHL exhibition game.”

While Little isn’t a household name Waddell says there will be some well known faces wearing the Thrasher colours in Hockeyville.

“We go into training camp saying all our players have to play ‘X’ amount of games,” said Waddell noting the NHL pre-season schedule was shortened this year.

“So we are hoping that if everything goes well Ilya Kovalchuk will be playing in that game we want to play some of our best players here to not only showcase to those fans but they have to play games and it doesn’t matter if it’s in North Bay or Atlanta we are going to put a good product on the ice and we’ll be very competitive.”

Local flavour

According to North Bay hockey fans Don Waddell’s greatest transaction of all-time likely unfolded on draft day this summer.

On that day he sent a draft pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins for former North Bay Centennial Chris Thorburn.

The Sabres 2001 2nd round pick was put on waivers last year and picked up by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

After starting the season strong -- playing alongside Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby for a short time – Thorburn fell into the numbers game and appeared in 39 games with the Pens scoring 3 goals and adding 2 assists along with 69 penalty minutes.

“We were looking to add some size to our third or fourth line and add some grit,” Waddell said about Thorburn who signed a 2-year deal with the Thrashers this summer.

“I think he’ll be nervous especially with a new team, and thinking; ‘How are my new teammates going to take to this?’ They will have some fun with it, but to play in front of his home crowd is a great thing.“