1999 NHL Expansion Draft

For more information see the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft

The Atlanta Thrashers were the second of the last four NHL expansion teams to take to the ice. The Nashville Predators debuted in 1998, and in 1999 it was the Thrashers' turn.

The Thrashers were owned by Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a division of Time Warner. TBS also owned the Atlanta Hawks basketball club and Atlanta Braves baseball club. Harvey Schiller, president of TBS's Turner Sports division and the Thrashers, hired Don Waddell as the Thrashers' first GM on June 23, 1998 (two months to the day after the "cyber-launch" of the team's logo, unveiled on their website). In his youth Waddell was a defenceman at Northern Michigan University; in fact he was one of the last cuts to not make the 1980 U.S. Olympic team. He played most of his pro hockey career in the IHL, and after he retired as a player in 1988 at the age of 30 he became GM of the IHL's Flint Spirits. By 1995 he had become GM of the IHL's Orlando Solar Bears and a vice-president of RDV Sports, the Solar Bears' parent company that also owned the Orlando Magic basketball club. He left Orlando in 1997 to become assistant GM of the Detroit Red Wings under Ken Holland.

The rules of the 1999 Expansion Draft were set well in advance and were almost identical to the rules of the 1998 Expansion Draft. The only differences were that any team that lost a goalie in 1998 was exempt from losing another in 1999, and in 1999 teams could only chose to protect either one goaltender, five defencemen and nine forwards or two goaltenders, three defencemen and seven forwards—they had been afforded an extra forward or defenceman in 1998.

The Thrashers would chose only one player from each of the other clubs except for the Predators. The Predators, being that they had just finished their first season, were exempt from the draft entirely. Of those 26 players the Thrashers had to choose at least three goaltenders, eight defencemen and 13 forwards; the other two players could be of any position.

The draft announcement was made on Friday, June 25, 1999 beginning at 3:00 pm Eastern Time from the FleetCenter in Boston. A trade freeze went into effect on Sunday the 20th at 5:00 pm (less than 24 hours after the Stanley Cup was won by the Stars), and protected lists were filed on Monday the 21st.

Protected Lists

All teams chose to protect one goalie, five defencemen and nine forwards.

Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	Boston Bruins	Buffalo Sabres	Calgary Flames
Goaltenders
exempt	Byron Dafoe	Dominik Hasek	Fred Brathwaite
Defencemen
Kevin Haller	Ray Bourque	Jay McKee	Tommy Albelin
Jason Marshall	Kyle McLaren	Richard Smehlik	Jamie Allison
Fredrik Olausson	Don Sweeney	Rhett Warrener	Sami Helenius
Ruslan Salei	Mattias Timander	Jason Woolley	Cale Hulse
Pavel Trnka	Darren Van Impe	Alexei Zhitnik	Todd Simpson
Forwards
Frank Banham	Jason Allison	Stu Barnes	Valeri Bure
Ted Donato	Ken Belanger	Curtis Brown	Rene Corbet
Travis Green	Anson Carter	Michal Grosek	Hnat Domenichelli
Paul Kariya	Rob DiMaio	Brian Holzinger	Jarome Iginla
Mike Leclerc	Steve Heinze	Mike Peca	Andrei Nazarov
Marty McInnis	Dmitri Khristich	Wayne Primeau	Jeff Shantz
Steve Rucchin	Randy Robitaille	Miroslav Satan	Cory Stillman
Teemu Selanne	Tim Taylor	Vaclav Varada	Jason Wiemer
Jeremy Stevenson	Landon Wilson	Dixon Ward	Clarke Wilm
Carolina Hurricanes	Chicago Blackhawks	Colorado Avalanche	Dallas Stars
Goaltenders
Arturs Irbe	Jocelyn Thibault	Patrick Roy	Ed Belfour
Defencemen
Steven Halko	Jamie Allison	Greg de Vries	Derian Hatcher
Sean Hill	Brad Brown	Adam Foote	Brad Lukowich
Marek Malik	Anders Eriksson	Jon Klemm	Richard Matvichuk
Nolan Pratt	Boris Mironov	Aaron Miller	Darryl Sydor
Glen Wesley	Bryan Muir	Sandis Ozolinsh	Sergei Zubov
Forwards
Bates Battaglia	Tony Amonte	Adam Deadmarsh	Brett Hull
Ron Francis	Eric Dazé	Shean Donovan	Mike Keane
Martin Gelinas	Doug Gilmour	Theoren Fleury	Jamie Langenbrunner
Sami Kapanen	Jean-Yves Leroux	Peter Forsberg	Jere Lehtinen
Andrei Kovalenko	Josef Marha	Valeri Kamensky	Grant Marshall
Kent Manderville	Dean McAmmond	Claude Lemieux	Mike Modano
Jeff O'Neill	Chris Murray	Shjon Podein	Joe Nieuwendyk
Keith Primeau	Reid Simpson	Joe Sakic	Derek Plante
Gary Roberts	Alexei Zhamnov	Stephane Yelle	Jamie Wright
Detroit Red Wings	Edmonton Oilers	Florida Panthers	Los Angeles Kings
Goaltenders
Chris Osgood	Tommy Salo	Sean Burke	exempt
Defencemen
Chris Chelios	Sean Brown	Bret Hedican	Aki Berg
Mathieu Dandenault	Roman Hamrlik	Filip Kuba	Rob Blake
Nicklas Lidstrom	Christian Laflamme	Paul Laus	Jaroslav Modry
Larry Murphy	Janne Niinimaa	Robert Svehla	Mattias Norstrom
Aaron Ward	Jason Smith	Mike Wilson	Sean O'Donnell
Forwards
Kris Draper	Josef Beranek	Pavel Bure	Donald Audette
Sergei Federov	Mike Grier	Radek Dvorak	Craig Johnson
Tomas Holmstrom	Bill Guerin	Ryan Johnson	Ian Laperriere
Vyacheslav Kozlov	Chad Kilger	Viktor Kozlov	Glen Murray
Martin Lapointe	Georges Laraque	Bill Lindsay	Zigmund Palffy
Kirk Maltby	Todd Marchant	Scott Mellanby	Luc Robitaille
Darren McCarty	Ethan Moreau	Rob Niedermayer	Bryan Smolinksi
Brendan Shanahan	Ryan Smyth	Chris Wells	Jozef Stumpel
Steve Yzerman	Doug Weight	Ray Whitney	Marko Tuomainen
Montreal Canadiens	New Jersey Devils	New York Islanders	New York Rangers
Goaltenders
exempt	exempt	Felix Potvin	exempt
Defencemen
Patrice Brisebois	Ken Daneyko	Eric Cairns	Jason Doig
Vladimir Malakhov	Scott Niedermayer	Vladimir Chebaturkin	Brian Leetch
Craig Rivet	Lyle Odelein	Kenny Jonsson	Rumun Ndur
Igor Ulanov	Sheldon Souray	Rich Pilon	Peter Popovic
Eric Weinrich	Scott Stevens	Barry Richter	Mathieu Schneider
Forwards
Benoit Brunet	Jason Arnott	Mariusz Czerkawski	Adam Graves
Shayne Corson	Patrik Elias	Sean Haggerty	Todd Harvey
Saku Koivu	Bobby Holik	Brad Isbister	Mike Knuble
Trevor Linden	Randy McKay	Olli Jokinen	Eric Lacroix
Martin Rucinsky	Krzysztof Oliwa	Jorgen Jonsson	Darren Langdon
Brian Savage	Jay Pandolfo	Claude Lapointe	John MacLean
Turner Stevenson	Denis Pederson	Mark Lawrence	Petr Nedved
Scott Thornton	Brian Rolston	Mats Lindgren	Kevin Stevens
Dainius Zubrus	Petr Sykora	Vladimir Orszagh	Niklas Sundstrom
Ottawa Senators	Philadelphia Flyers	Phoenix Coyotes	Pittsburgh Penguins
Goaltenders
Patrick Lalime	John Vanbiesbrouck	Nikolai Khabibulin	Tom Barrasso
Defencemen
Igor Kravchuk	Adam Burt	Keith Carney	Sven Butenschon
Janne Laukkanen	Eric Desjardins	Jyrki Lumme	Kevin Hatcher
Lance Pitlick	Karl Dykhuis	Teppo Numminen	Darius Kasparaitis
Wade Redden	Dan McGillis	Deron Quint	Jiri Slegr
Jason York	Chris Therien	Oleg Tverdovsky	Brad Werenka
Forwards
Daniel Alfredsson	Rod Brind'amour	Greg Adams	Matthew Barnaby
Radek Bonk	Keith Jones	Shane Doan	Jan Hrdina
Viacheslav Butsayev	Daymond Langkow	Dallas Drake	Jaromir Jagr
Andreas Dackell	John Leclair	Tavis Hansen	Alexei Kovalev
Bruce Gardiner	Eric Lindros	Robert Reichel	Robert Lang
Steve Martins	Sandy McCarthy	Jeremy Roenick	Kip Miller
Shawn McEachern	Mark Recchi	Keith Tkachuk	Ian Moran
Vaclav Prospal	Mikael Renberg	Rick Tocchet	Martin Straka
Alexei Yashin	Valeri Zelepukin	Juha Ylonen	German Titov
St. Louis Blues	San Jose Sharks	Tampa Bay Lightning	Toronto Maple Leafs
Goaltenders
Roman Turek	Steve Shields	Kevin Hodson	Curtis Joseph
Defencemen
Jeff Finley	Bryan Marchment	Drew Bannister	Bryan Berard
Al MacInnis	Jeff Norton	Cory Cross	Sylvain Côté
Ricard Persson	Marcus Ragnarsson	Sergey Gusev	Alexander Karpovtsev
Libor Prochazka	Mike Rathje	Petr Svoboda	Chris McAllister
Chris Pronger	Gary Suter		Dimitri Yushkevich
Forwards
Jim Campbell	Michal Bros	Colin Forbes	Sergei Berezin
Craig Conroy	Vincent Damphousse	Chris Gratton	Mike Johnson
Pavol Demitra	Jeff Friesen	Steve Kelly	Igor Korolev
Mike Eastwood	Steve Guolla	Michael Nylander	Fredrik Modin
Jamal Mayers	Stephane Matteau	Robert Petrovicky	Yanic Perreault
Scott Pellerin	Brantt Myhres	Mike Sillinger	Steve Sullivan
Pascal Rhéaume	Owen Nolan	Corey Spring	Mats Sundin
Pierre Turgeon	Mike Ricci	Darcy Tucker	Steve Thomas
Scott Young	Ron Stern	Rob Zamuner	Todd Warriner
Vancouver Canucks	Washington Capitals
Goaltenders
Kevin Weekes	Olaf Kolzig
Defencemen
Chad Allan	Sergei Gonchar
Adrian Aucoin	Calle Johansson
Ed Jovanovski	Ken Klee
Bryan McCabe	Joe Reekie
Jason Strudwick	Brendan Witt
Forwards
Todd Bertuzzi	James Black
Donald Brashear	Peter Bondra
Darby Hendrickson	Benoit Gratton
Brad May	Steve Konowalchuk
Mark Messier	Andrei Nikolishin
Alexander Mogilny	Adam Oates
Markus Naslund	Chris Simon
Dave Scatchard	Jaroslav Svejkovsky
Harry York	Richard Zednik

Available Players

In the days leading up to the expansion draft the existing clubs made a few trades:

• Damian Rhodes from the Senators to the Thrashers for future considerations on June 18 (TRIVIA: Rhodes was therefore the very first Atlanta Thrasher)
• Ted Donato and the rights to Antti-Jussi Niemi from the Senators to the Mighty Ducks for Patrick Lalime on June 18
• Mathieu Biron, Josh Green, Olli Jokinen and a first round pick (8th overall—Taylor Pyatt) in the 1999 Entry Draft from the Kings to the Islanders for Marcel Cousineau, Zigmund Palffy, Bryan Smolinski and a fourth round pick in '99 (Daniel Johansson) on June 19
• Roman Turek from the Stars to the Blues for a second round pick in '99 (Dan Jancevski) on June 20
• Andrew Brunette from the Predators to the Thrashers for a conditional pick in the 2000 Entry Draft (5th round—Matt Hendricks) on June 21

Rather than try to acquire a starting goalie in the expansion draft Don Waddell made a deal with the Senators for Rhodes. Rhodes and Ron Tugnutt combined to make a very strong goaltending duo in Ottawa, but Tugnutt was coming off an excellent season and Rhodes was a pending Group II restricted free agent. Had they protected both Rhodes and Tugnutt they would have had to have offered a goalie with at least 10 games played in 1998-99; Tugnutt and Rhodes were the only two goalies the Senators played in '98-'99, so they would have had to have acquired one from another team. Being that Rhodes was a pending free agent (albeit restricted) and was expected to demand a hefty pay raise, the Senators acquired Patrick Lalime from the Ducks and traded Rhodes to the Thrashers for future considerations. Reportedly the future considerations were to not select one of the Senators' other goalies in the expansion draft, in effect making both Lalime and Tugnutt safe (officially the Senators protected Lalime). The Thrashers got themselves a bona fide starting goalie without having to draft one in the expansion draft and the Senators came through the draft pretty much scot-free.

The Blues acquired Roman Turek only hours after the Stars won the Stanley Cup. Grant Fuhr was 36 years old and about to turn 37, Jamie McLennan was a solid if unspectacular backup and former Vezina Trophy winner Jim Carey's career was over at this point. The Blues needed a new goalie and they found one in Stars' backup Turek. Turek would lead the Blues to a President's Trophy season in 1999-2000 but became known as a choke artist in the playoffs; the Blues were upset in the first round of the 2000 playoffs by the eighth-place San Jose Sharks and in 2001 they lost unceremoniously to the Avalanche in the conference finals. Turek was traded to the Flames in the summer of 2001.

The Panthers were also looking for at least one new goalie. Sean Burke was an adequate starter, filling in for the departed John Vanbiesbrouck in 1998-99, but backup Kirk McLean was an unrestricted free agent and was sure to leave for greener pastures. They didn't acquire one prior to the trade freeze but they made a deal with the Thrashers, which I write of in more detail below.

You might have noticed that the Thrashers' acquisition of Andrew Brunette was officially made on June 21, after the trade freeze went into effect. Being that the Predators weren't involved in the expansion draft the trade ban didn't apply to deals between the Predators and Thrashers.

The trade between the Islanders and Kings, "the Palffy trade", was an interesting one. The Islanders were owned by Steve Gluckstern, Howard Milstein and Edward Milstein's New York Sports Ventures at the time, and they were embroiled in a dispute with Nassau County officials to replace Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum which even then, 15 years ago as of the writing of this, was in disrepair. Nassau balked at footing the bill for a new arena and in response NYSV said they'd cut the payroll of the Islanders by half in order to stem their losses (estimated to be over $20 million for the '98-'99 season). They had already traded away Bryan Berard, Scott Lachance, Ted Donato, Tommy Salo, Robert Reichel, Sergei Nemchinov and Trevor Linden. Palffy was the team's remaining highest player by far, set to make about $5 million (out of a total payroll of less than $25 million) in 1999-2000.

Leading up to the expansion draft Islanders GM Mike Milbury had been negotiating with the crosstown rival Rangers for Palffy's services; the Broadway Blueshirts could have certainly accommodated Palffy's salary. But there was an wrinkle to the negotiations with the Rangers: Cablevision, the company that owned the Rangers, owned the Islanders' local TV broadcast rights. Tentatively the Rangers offered Niklas Sundstrom, Todd Harvey, a prospect, their 11th overall '99 Entry Draft pick and $2.5 million in cash to the islanders for Palffy and defenceman Rich Pilon. The sticking point was the money. The Islanders' owners wanted more.

Negotiations between the Rangers and Islanders for Palffy went over and above GMs Milbury and Neil Smith's heads, right into the Cablevision corporate boardroom: Gluckstern and the Milsteins would give Palffy and Pilon to the Rangers for Sundstrom, Harvey, the prospect, pick and cash, and other concessions related to their television broadcast agreement (more games on TV, more money for the broadcast rights, etc.). It was also rumoured that NYSV was demanding that Cablevision financially support the construction of a new arena for the Islanders, or help lobby Nassau County officials to build one. Cablevision wouldn't have it and negotiations between the two groups fell apart.

The Kings stepped in and made the Islanders an offer: Palffy for prospects, the 8th overall pick and $2 million. It was suspected that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman himself became involved in the negotiations and would have cancelled the trade on the grounds that the Islanders' owners were deliberately debilitating the team by selling off their player assets for cash. They had already traded away Berard, Salo, Reichel, Linden, etc.; to trade away Palffy without acquiring tangible player assets in return would have crippled the team.

Eventually all parties came to amenable agreement: Palffy, Smolinski (about $1.75 million in payroll), minor league goalie Cousineau and a fourth round pick for 1996 30th overall entry draft pick Josh Green, 1997 3rd overall pick Olli Jokinen, 1998 21st overall pick Mathieu Biron and the 8th overall pick in 1999. Kings GM Dave Taylor was reportedly very hesitant to include Jokinen however Mike Milbury insisted and it was suspected the deal wouldn't have gone through the NHL's vetting without Jokinen's inclusion.

Available Players

Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	Boston Bruins	Buffalo Sabres	Calgary Flames
Goaltenders
exempt	Joakim Persson#	Tom DraperII	Tyler MossII
	Paxton SchaferII	Dwayne Roloson	Andrei TrefilovII
	Robbie TallasII		Ken WreggetIII
Defencemen
Byron BriskeII	Dean ChynowethII	Jason HollandII	Steve BancroftVI
Scott Ferguson	Dave Ellett	Mike HurlbutVI	Eric CharronII
Jamie PushorII	Grant LedyardIII	James PatrickIII	David CooperVI
Terran SandwithVI	Andrei Sapozhnikov#	Darryl Shannon	Trevor DoyleVI
Dan Trebil	Yevgeny ShaldybinII		Johan Finnstrom#
Pascal Trepanier	Dennis VaskeIII		Pavel Rajnoha#
Nikolai Tsulygin	Terry VirtueVI		Dimitri Riabykin#
	Sergei Zhukov#		Steve SmithIII
			Lee SorochanII
Forwards
Ted Drury	Ken Baumgartner	Randy Cunneyworth	Bob BassenIII
Stu Grimson	Peter Ferraro	Craig FisherVI	Andrew CasselsV
Peter Leboutillier	Chris TaylorVI	Joe JuneauIII	Tom ChorskeIII
Eric LecompteII		Paul Kruse	Jeff Cowan
Jim McKenzie		Scott Nichol	Steve Dubinsky
Tommi Miettinen#		Domenic Pittis	Nils Ekman#
Jeff Nielsen		Rob Ray	Jan Hlavac#
Igor NikulinVI		Geoff SandersonII	Mathias Johansson#
Craig ReichertVI		Steffon WalbyVI	Andreas Karlsson#
Tomas SandstromIII			Esa Keskinen#
Bob WrenII			Jan Labraaten#
			Jesper Mattsson
			Marty Murray
			Dave RocheII
			Ed Ward
			Sergei Zolotov#
Carolina Hurricanes	Chicago Blackhawks	Colorado Avalanche	Dallas Stars
Goaltenders
Mike FountainVI	Kirk DaubenspeckII	Craig Billington	Mike Bales
Pat JablonskiIII	Mark FitzpatrickII	Petr FranekII	Manny FernandezII
Trevor Kidd	Marc LamotheVI
Defencemen
Paul Coffey	Frank Bialowas	Jeff BuchananVI	Petr Buzek
Joacim Esbjörs#	Radim BicanekII	Michael Gaul	Shawn Chambers
Al IafrateIII	Dave Manson	Alexei GusarovIII	Alan Letang
Dave KarpaII	Doug Zmolek	Sami HeleniusVI	Doug LidsterIII
Curtis Leschyshyn		Sylvain LefebvreIII	Craig LudwigIII
Mike Rucinski		Eric Messier	Matt Martin
		Cam RussellII	Evgeny Petrochinin#
Forwards
Tom BuckleyII	Sylvain Cloutier	Serge AubinII	Guy CarbonneauIII
Kevin DineenIII	Chris HerpergerVI	Chris Dingman	Kelly Fairchild
Dimitri Gorenko#	Mark Janssens	Tomi Hirvonen#	Marty FlichelII
Robert Kron	David Ling	Dale HunterIII	Aaron GaveyII
Scott LevinsII	Craig MillsII	Mikael Johansson#	Benoit HogueIII
Paul Ranheim	Ed OlczykIII	Martin LamarcheII	Tony HrkacIII
Ray SheppardIII	Bob Probert	Tomi Kallio#	Lee JinmanII
Kevin Smyth	Ryan Vandenbussche	Christian MatteII	Sergei Luchinkin#
		Jeff Odgers	Jeff MitchellII
		Warren RycheIIIl	Dave ReidIII
		Rob Shearer	David RobertsII
			Brent SeverynIII
			Brian Skrudland
			Pat VerbeekIII
Detroit Red Wings	Edmonton Oilers	Florida Panthers	Los Angeles Kings
Goaltenders
Norm Maracle	Bob EssensaIII	Aaron MacDonald	exempt
	Mike MinardII	Todd MacDonaldII
	Steve PassmoreVI	Kirk McLeanIII
Defencemen
Todd GillIII	Adam Bennett	Terry Carkner	Dave BabychIII
Sean GillamII	Ladislav Benysek	Gord Murphy	Doug BodgerIII
Yan Golubovsky	Jason BowenII	Daniel Tjarnqvist#	Philippe Boucher
Doug HoudaIII	Brett Hauer	Jeff WareII	Garry Galley
Uwe Krupp	Marty McSorleyIII		Jan NemecekII
Jamie MacounIII	Craig Millar		Martin Strbak#
Ulf SamuelssonIII	Frank Musil		Mark VisheauVI
	Sami Nuutinen
	Reijo Ruotsalainen
	Alexander Zhurik
	Lukas Zib#
Forwards
Pavel Agarkov#	Kelly Buchberger	Chad CabanaII	Dan BylsmaII
Doug Brown	Brad ChurchII	Dino Ciccarelli	Brandon ConveryII
Wendel ClarkIII	Jozef Cierny	Brian FarrellII	Russ CourtnallIII
David Engblom#	Jeff DawVI	Craig Ferguson	Andrew DaleII
Brent Gilchrist	Jim DowdII	Johan Garpenlov	Ray FerraroIII
Petr KlimaIII	Pat FalloonII	Alex Hicks	Matt Johnson
Joey Kocur	Chris FerraroVI	Kirk Muller	Nathan Lafayette
Igor Larionov	Joe HulbigVI	Konstantin ShafranovVI	Steve McKennaII
Barry PotomskiVI	Ralph Intranuovo	Herberts VasiljevsII	Igor Melyakov#
Andrei Samokvalov#	Daniel LacroixV		Sandy MogerII
Anatoly Ustugov	Rem MurrayII		Jason MorganII
	Martin Reichel#		Jason PodollanII
	Keijo Sailynoja#		Sean ProngerII
	Alexander Selivanov		Chris SchmidtII
	Jussi Tarvainen#		Jukka Tiilikainen#
	Vladimir VorobievVI		Vladimir TsyplakovII
			Tomas Vlasak#
			Juha Vuorivirta#
			Magnus Wernblom#
Montreal Canadiens	New Jersey Devils	New York Islanders	New York Rangers
Goaltenders
exempt	exempt	Wade FlahertyIII	exempt
		Mark McArthurII
		Steve Valiquette
Defencemen
Steve CheredarykII	Brad BombardirII	Ted CrowleyVI	Jeff Beukeboom
Brett Clark	Kevin Dean	David Harlock	Rich BrennanVI
Miloslav GurenVI	Geordie KinnearVI	Daniel Johansson#	Ilja Gorohov#
Marc HusseyVI	Vlastimil Kroupa	Mike Mader	Chris O'SullivanVI
Scott LachanceII	Ken Sutton	Dean Malkoc	Adam SmithII
Alain Nasreddine	Sergei VyshedkevichII	Evgeny NamestnikovVI	Chris TamerII
Stephane QuintalV		Dick Tarnstrom#	Brent ThompsonII
Forwards
Niklas Anger#	Dave AndreychukIII	Nic BeaudoinII	Derek ArmstrongII
Sylvain BlouinVI	Eric Bertrand	Vladimir Grachev#	Kevin BrownVI
Martin GendronVI	Steve Brule	Pavel Gross#	Christian DubéII
Jonas HoglundII	Sergei Brylin	Peter Hogardh#	Bob Errey
Eric HoudeII	Bob CarpenterIII	Mike HoughIII	Brent FedykIII
J.F. JompheII	Scott DanielsII	Ryan HuskaII	Scott Fraser
Arto Kuki#	Bobby HouseVI	Dane JacksonVI	Ken Gernander
Trent McCleary	Sasha Lakovic	Craig JanneyIII	Daniel GoneauII
Boyd OlsonII	Sergei Nemchinov	Mike KennedyII	Chris Kenady
Oleg Petrov	Vadim Sharifijanov	Tomas Klimt#	Radoslav Kropac#
Patrick Poulin	Jeff WilliamsII	Gino Odjick	Alexander Lazarenko#
Peter Strom#	Dody Wood	Joe SaccoII	Mike ManelukVI
Sergei Zholtok	Nikolai Zavarukhin#	Jason Stewart	Brad Smyth
		Steve Webb	Esa TikkanenIII
			Rudolf Vercik#
Ottawa Senators	Philadelphia Flyers	Phoenix Coyotes	Pittsburgh Penguins
Goaltenders
Frederic CassiviII	Ron Hextall	Scott LangkowII	Brian LeitzaII
Ron Tugnutt	Neil LittleVI	Mikhail Shtalenkov
		Henrik Smangs#
		Jimmy WaiteII
Defencemen
John Gruden	Artem Anisimov#‡	J.J. Daigneault	Jonas Andersson-Junkka#
Chris LuongoII	Steve DuchesneIII	Gerald DiduckIII	Greg AndrusakVI
Patrick Traverse	Chris JosephII	Jamie HuscroftIII	Stefan Bergqvist
	Jeff Lank	Sean McCann	Bobby DollasIII
	Dave MacIsaacVI	Stanislav NeckarII	Maxim Galanov
	Luke Richardson	Michel PetitIII	Tuomas GronmanVI
		Brad Tiley	Viktor IgnatjevVI
			Jeff SerowikVI
			Neil Wilkinson
Forwards
Bill BergIII	Mikael Andersson	Mika Alatalo#	Jan Alinc#
Phil Crowe	Craig BerubeIII	Bob CorkumIII	Brian BoninVI
Nelson EmersonIII	Dennis BonvieVI	Jim Cummins	Rob Brown
David Hruska#	Marc Bureau	Louie Debrusk	Todd HlushkoII
Andreas Johansson	Mark Greig	Joe DziedzicII	Mikhail Kazakevich#
David OliverII	Paul Healey	Stephen LeachIII	Dan KesaII
Mike ProkopecVI	Jody Hull	Jocelyn LemieuxIII	Jiri Kucera#
Andre Roy	Patrik Juhlin	Fredrik Loven#	Patrick LebeauVI
Yves SaraultII	Dan KordicII	Rob Murray	Brent PetersonVI
Andy Schneider	Shawn McCosh	Barry NieckarVI	Ryan SavoiaVI
Shaun Van Allen	Steve McLaren	Brian NoonanIII	Mika Valila#
	Jim Montgomery	Mike Stapleton	Tyler WrightII
	Richard ParkII	Mike SullivanIII	Boris Zelenko#
	Ruslan Shafikov#	Andrei VasilyevVI
	Radovan Sornik#
	Martin Streit#
	Roman Vopat
	Peter White
	Jason Zent
St. Louis Blues	San Jose Sharks	Tampa Bay Lightning	Toronto Maple Leafs
Goaltenders
Jim Carey	Jonas Forsberg#	Daren Puppa	Doug BonnerII
Grant Fuhr	Sean Gauthier	Corey SchwabII	Glenn Healy
Jamie McLennan	Bruce RacineVI	Derek WilkinsonII	Jeff Reese
	Mike Vernon
Defencemen
Marc Bergevin	Peter AllenVI	Jassen Cullimore	Kevin DahlII
Rory FitzpatrickII	Alexandre BoikovII	Kjell SamuelssonIII	Dallas EakinsII
Edwin Frylen#	Bill Houlder	Michal SykoraII	Glen FeatherstoneII
Yuri Gunko#	Angel Nikolov#	David WilkieII	Tommi Rajamaki#
Brian Heimer	Fredrik Oduya		Greg SmythIII
Chris McAlpineII	Jon RohloffII		Yannick Tremblay
Rudy Poeschek	Bob Rouse		Dmitri Yakushin
Jamie RiversII
Brad ShawIII
Geoff SmithII
Jason Widmer
Forwards
Blair AtcheynumII	Eric BennettVI	Jesse BelangerII	Niklas AnderssonII
Kelly Chase	Shawn Burr	Jason BonsignoreII	Lonny BohonosII
Geoff Courtnall	Jan Caloun	Brian BradleyIII	Aaron BrandII
Tyson Nash	Mike CraigII	Colin CloutierII	Nathan Dempsey
Michel PicardII	Murray Craven	Alexandre Daigle	Mark Deyell
Stephane RoyII	Jarrett Deuling	Stephane Richer	Tie Domi
Kevin SawyerVI	Anatoli Filatov#	Paul YsebaertIII	Mikael Hakansson#
Shayne Toporowski	Tony Granato		Derek King
Tony TwistIII	Timo Hakanen		Kris King
Terry Yake	Dave LowryIII		Ladislav KohnII
	Mikko Markkanen#		Marek Melenovsky#
	Joe MurphyIII		David NemirovskyII
	Greg PankewiczVI		Scott PearsonII
	Teemu Riihijarvi#		Garry ValkIII
	Jarrod SkaldeII
	Ron Sutter
	Markus Thuresson#
	Alexei Yegorov
Vancouver Canucks	Washington Capitals
Goaltenders
Corey HirschII	Stephane Beauregard
Garth SnowII	Martin BrochuVI
	Michael RosatiII
	Rick TabaracciII
Defencemen
Roger Akerstrom#	Nolan Baumgartner
Murray Baron	Patrick BoileauII
Karri Kivi#	Enrico CicconeII
Dana MurzynIII	Stewart MalgunasII
Bert RobertssonVI	Dmitri Mironov
Mark WottonVI	Steve Poapst
	Mark TinordiIII
Forwards		Notes
Hakan Ahlund#	Patrick AugustaVI	II—pending Group II restricted free agent
Jevgeni Babariko#	Brian BellowsIII	III—pending Group III unrestricted free agent
Larry CourvilleII	Mike Eagles	V—pending Group V free agent
Dave Gagner	Miika Elomo	VI—pending Group VI free agent
Robb GordonII	Trevor Halverson	#—unsigned European draft choice
Roger Hansson#	Mark MajorVI	‡—Artem Vyacheslavovich Anisimov, born 1976 in Kazan, USSR
Trent Klatt	Kelly MillerIII
Stefan Nilsson#	Barrie Moore
Darren SinclairII	Jeff Nelson
Steve StaiosII	Michal Pivonka
Steve WashburnII	Jeff TomsII
Peter ZezelIII	Stefan Ustorf

The Draft

Player	Position	From
Jamie Pushor	Defenceman	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
Peter Ferraro	Right Wing	Boston Bruins
Darryl Shannon	Defenceman	Buffalo Sabres
Ed Ward	Right Wing	Calgary Flames
Trevor Kidd	Goaltender	Carolina Hurricanes
Sylvain Cloutier	Centre	Chicago Blackhawks
Tomi Kallio	Right Wing	Colorado Avalanche
Petr Buzek	Defenceman	Dallas Stars
Norm Maracle	Goaltender	Detroit Red Wings
Kelly Buchberger	Right Wing	Edmonton Oilers
Johan Garpenlov	Left Wing	Florida Panthers
Matt Johnson	Left Wing	Los Angeles Kings
Brett Clark	Defenceman	Montreal Canadiens
Kevin Dean	Defenceman	New Jersey Devils
David Harlock	Defenceman	New York Islanders
Chris Tamer	Defenceman	New York Rangers
Phil Crowe	Right Wing	Ottawa Senators
Jody Hull	Right Wing	Philadelphia Flyers
Mike Stapleton	Centre	Phoenix Coyotes
Maxim Galanov	Defenceman	Pittsburgh Penguins
Terry Yake	Centre	St. Louis Blues
Alexei Yegorov	Right Wing	San Jose Sharks
Corey Schwab	Goaltender	Tampa Bay Lightning
Yannick Tremblay	Defenceman	Toronto Maple Leafs
Steve Staios	Right Wing	Vancouver Canucks
Mark Tinordi	Defenceman	Washington Capitals

Like the Predators the year before, the Thrashers were limited to choosing a maximum of six free agents, whether they were restricted or unrestricted. Whereas David Poile picked three Group III unrestricted free agents he thought would sign elsewhere for big money and get him compensatory draft picks in return Don Waddell chose only one: Mark Tinordi of the Washington Capitals. Unfortunately Tinordi neither signed with the Thrashers nor anyone else. In a game in February 1999 Tinordi broke his ankle; it was believed to be relatively minor at the time but would still require a few months of healing and recuperating.

It turned out to be a little more complex and acute than they'd thought. Tinordi broke his talus, one of the tarsal bones of the ankle that has very little blood supply to it and is notorious for taking a long time to heal. The blood flow to his talus actually stopped due to the damage from the incident, and the bone itself became necrotic over the summer of '99. His career was over. He had a bone graft in October 1999, began rehabilitation in February 2000, and never played pro hockey again.

The Predators used five of their expansion draft picks in 1998 on goalies, picking two of the franchise's future starting goalies (Mike Dunham and Tomas Vokoun), a high-priced free agent (Mike Richter) who would net the Predators a high compensatory draft pick, and a couple more whom the Predators could trade for other assets (Frederic Chabot and Mikhail Shtalenkov). By contrast Waddell picked only three goalies; the minimum. He believed he had already found his starting goalie in Damian Rhodes—Rhodes signed a big contract soon after being traded to the Thrashers—so Waddell used his extra picks on defencemen instead. Norm Maracle and Corey Schwab were chosen to battle for the back-up position to Rhodes, and Trevor Kidd was chosen because of a pre-arranged deal.

Remember what I said above about the Florida Panthers needing a new goalie? The Thrashers agreed to chose Trevor Kidd from the Carolina Hurricanes and trade him to the Panthers immediately following the draft for a package of players and a draft pick. It was one of eight trades the Thrashers made on the 25th, following the draft:

• Panthers traded Gord Murphy, Daniel Tjarnqvist, Herberts Vasiljevs and the Senators' 6th round pick in the 1999 Entry Draft (previously acquired; later traded to the Stars, who selected Justin Cox) to the Thrashers for Trevor Kidd
• Bruins traded Randy Robitaille to the Thrashers for Peter Ferraro
• Sabres traded Dean Sylvester to the Thrashers for future considerations
• Flames traded Andreas Karlsson to the Thrashers for future considerations
• Red Wings traded Ulf Samuelsson to the Thrashers for future considerations
• Devils traded Sergei Vyshedkevich to the Thrashers for future considerations
• Coyotes traded Scott Langkow to the Thrashers for future considerations
• Canucks traded a 4th round pick (Rob Zepp) and 9th round pick (Ray DiLauro) in the 1999 Entry Draft to the Thrashers for future considerations

Most of the deals were compensation to the Thrashers for staying away from certain players in the expansion draft. The Red Wings for example dealt pending free agent Ulf Samuelsson to the Thrashers as compensation for not selecting Igor Larionov. Samuelsson ended up signing a two-year deal with the Flyers after the 1999-2000 started however the Thrashers didn't receive any compensation due to free agent signings of their own. The Devils parted with Sergei Vyshedkevich as compensation for the Thrashers not taking Sergei Brylin, Sergei Nemchinov, Vadim Sharifijanov or Brad Bombardir.

The Bruins were very optimistic that Peter Ferraro would become a great player. Why they elected to protect Randy Robitaille instead of Ferraro and then trade Robitaille to the Thrashers to get Ferraro back, I don't know. You'd have to ask Harry Sinden. Both were pretty evenly matched in their point production at the AHL level. Ferraro had an unspectacular year for the NHL Bruins but was the AHL Providence Bruins' leading scorer in the playoffs—21 points to Robitaille's 20. Robitaille played almost the entire year in Providence and led the team in regular season scoring with 102 points in 74 games (1.38 points per game), however Ferraro played only 16 games in the AHL regular season but amassed 25 points (1.56 points per game) doing so.

Robitaille was a restricted free agent and refused to sign with the Thrashers, so he was traded to the Predators for Denny Lambert in August 1999 anyway. Over the course of the summer of '99 Don Waddell made several trades to shore up his fledgling roster:

• Canucks traded the Lightning's first round pick in 1999 (1st overall and previously acquired—the Thrashers selected Patrik Stefan) to the Thrashers for the Thrashers' first round pick in '99 (2nd overall—the Canucks selected Daniel Sedin) and a conditional 3rd round pick in 2000 (traded to the Devils, who selected Max Birbraer) on June 26
• Predators traded future considerations to the Thrashers for Phil Crowe on June 26
• Stars traded Per Svartvadet to the Thrashers for the Panthers' 6th round pick in 1999 (previously acquired—the Stars selected Justin Cox) on June 26
• Maple Leafs traded Martin Prochazka to the Thrashers for a 6th round pick in 2001 (Maxim Kondratiev) on July 15
• Stars traded Jason Botterill and cash to the Thrashers for Jamie Pushor on July 15
• Predators traded Denny Lambert to the Thrashers for the rights to Randy Robitaille on August 16
• Mighty Ducks traded an 8th round pick in 2000 (Evan Nielsen) to the Thrashers for Ladislav Kohn on September 27 (the Thrashers acquired Kohn with the first pick in the waiver draft that day)

The Thrashers also signed Nelson Emerson and Ray Ferraro as free agents (the gain of two free agents versus the loss of one—Ulf Samuelsson—in the summer of '99 meant that the Thrashers received no compensatory draft picks for losing Samuelsson), and lost Terry Yake in the 1999 Waiver Draft.

Of the 26 players chosen by the Thrashers in the '99 Expansion Draft four were traded before the team's first training camp, another eight were gone by the end of the first season, and four more were gone over the following season. By the end of the 2001-2002 season, the Thrashers' third, only four players remained from the 26 chosen in the expansion draft. Tomi Kallio was traded to the Avalanche on December 2, 2002, Norm Maracle left after the 2002-2003 season, Yannick Tremblay left after the 2003-2004 season, and Chris Tamer was the only one who finished out his career with the organization, retiring as a player in 2005.

Roster turnover like that isn't uncommon for an NHL expansion team (the Predators lost a similar number over a similar time) but unfortunately for the Thrashers their group of expansion draftees was by far the worst of the four 1998-2000 expansion clubs. The Thrashers finished their first season with a dismal 14-57-7-4 record, good for only 39 points. It was the worst expansion team since the 1992-93 Senators' 24-point squad, and the worst team since the 1993-94 Senators' 37 points. No team has been as dismal since.