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.
