2002–03 Atlanta Thrashers | |
---|---|
Division | 3rd Southeast |
Conference | 11th Eastern |
2002–03 record | 31–39–7–5 |
Home record | 15–19–4–3 |
Road record | 16–20–3–2 |
Goals for | 226 |
Goals against | 284 |
Team information | |
General manager | Don Waddell |
Coach |
Curt Fraser (Oct-Dec) Don Waddell (Dec-Jan) Bob Hartley (Jan-Apr) |
Captain | Rotating (Oct-Jan) Shawn McEachern (Jan-Apr) |
Alternate captains |
Dany Heatley (Jan-Apr) Tony Hrkac (Jan-Apr) Vyacheslav Kozlov (Jan-Apr) Jeff Odgers (Jan-Apr) |
Arena | Philips Arena |
Average attendance | 13,476 |
Minor league affiliate(s) |
Chicago Wolves Greenville Grrrowl |
Team leaders | |
Goals | Dany Heatley (41) |
Assists | Vyacheslav Kozlov (49) |
Points | Dany Heatley (89) |
Penalty minutes | Jeff Odgers (171) |
Plus/minus | Lubos Bartecko (+3) |
Wins | Pasi Nurminen (21) |
Goals against average | Pasi Nurminen (2.88) |
The 2002–03 Atlanta Thrashers season was the Thrashers' fourth season. The Thrashers placed third in the Southeast, and eleventh in the East to miss the playoffs.
The Thrashers initially rotated the team captaincy among four players — Vyacheslav Kozlov, Uwe Krupp, Shawn McEachern, and Jeff Odgers. [1]
After a poor start to the season saw the Thrashers with the worst record in the league, head coach Curt Fraser was fired on December 26. [2] Recently fired Colorado Avalanche head coach Bob Hartley was named his replacement on January 15. [3] The rotating captaincy was discontinued two days later when McEachern was named permanent captain. [4]
The Thrashers struggled defensively, allowing the most goals (284) and the most short-handed goals (14) of any team in the league. [5]
No. | CR | GP | W | L | T | OTL | GF | GA | Pts | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 3 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 82 | 36 | 25 | 16 | 5 | 219 | 210 | 93 |
2 | 6 | Washington Capitals | 82 | 39 | 29 | 8 | 6 | 224 | 220 | 92 |
3 | 11 | Atlanta Thrashers | 82 | 31 | 39 | 7 | 5 | 226 | 284 | 74 |
4 | 13 | Florida Panthers | 82 | 24 | 36 | 13 | 9 | 176 | 237 | 70 |
5 | 15 | Carolina Hurricanes | 82 | 22 | 43 | 11 | 6 | 171 | 240 | 61 |
Note: CR = Conference rank; GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; OTL = Overtime loss; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Pts = Points
Bolded teams qualified for the playoffs.
R | Div | GP | W | L | T | OTL | GF | GA | Pts | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | P- Ottawa Senators | NE | 82 | 52 | 21 | 8 | 1 | 263 | 182 | 113 |
2 | Y- New Jersey Devils | AT | 82 | 46 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 216 | 166 | 108 |
3 | Y- Tampa Bay Lightning | SE | 82 | 36 | 25 | 16 | 5 | 219 | 210 | 93 |
4 | X- Philadelphia Flyers | AT | 82 | 45 | 20 | 13 | 4 | 211 | 166 | 107 |
5 | X- Toronto Maple Leafs | NE | 82 | 44 | 28 | 7 | 3 | 236 | 208 | 98 |
6 | X- Washington Capitals | SE | 82 | 39 | 29 | 8 | 6 | 224 | 220 | 92 |
7 | X- Boston Bruins | NE | 82 | 36 | 31 | 11 | 4 | 245 | 237 | 87 |
8 | X- New York Islanders | AT | 82 | 35 | 34 | 11 | 2 | 224 | 231 | 83 |
8.5 | ||||||||||
9 | New York Rangers | AT | 82 | 32 | 36 | 10 | 4 | 210 | 231 | 78 |
10 | Montreal Canadiens | NE | 82 | 30 | 35 | 8 | 9 | 206 | 234 | 77 |
11 | Atlanta Thrashers | SE | 82 | 31 | 39 | 7 | 5 | 226 | 284 | 74 |
12 | Buffalo Sabres | NE | 82 | 27 | 37 | 10 | 8 | 190 | 219 | 72 |
13 | Florida Panthers | SE | 82 | 24 | 36 | 13 | 9 | 176 | 237 | 70 |
14 | Pittsburgh Penguins | AT | 82 | 27 | 44 | 6 | 5 | 189 | 255 | 65 |
15 | Carolina Hurricanes | SE | 82 | 22 | 43 | 11 | 6 | 171 | 240 | 61 |
Divisions: AT – Atlantic, NE – Northeast, SE – Southeast
P – Clinched Presidents Trophy; Y – Clinched Division; X – Clinched Playoff spot
2002–03 regular season [8] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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October: 0–8–1–1 (home: 0–3–0–1; road: 0–5–1–0)
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November: 6–6–0–0 (home: 4–3–0–0; road: 2–3–0–0)
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December: 4–7–0–3 (home: 2–3–0–1; road: 2–4–0–2)
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January: 7–6–2–0 (home: 4–4–2–0; road: 3–2–0–0)
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February: 4–5–2–0 (home: 1–2–1–0; road: 3–3–1–0)
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March: 8–6–2–1 (home: 3–4–1–1; road: 5–2–1–0)
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April: 2–1–0–0 (home: 1–0–0–0; road: 1–1–0–0)
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Legend:
Win (2 points) Loss (0 points) Tie (1 point) Overtime loss (1 point) |
Regular season | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Player | Pos | GP | G | A | Pts | +/- | PIM |
15 | Dany Heatley | LW | 77 | 41 | 48 | 89 | −8 | 58 |
13 | Vyacheslav Kozlov | LW | 79 | 21 | 49 | 70 | −10 | 66 |
17 | Ilya Kovalchuk | LW | 81 | 38 | 29 | 67 | −24 | 57 |
9 | Marc Savard† | C | 57 | 16 | 31 | 47 | −11 | 77 |
27 | Patrik Stefan | C | 71 | 13 | 21 | 34 | −10 | 12 |
38 | Yannick Tremblay | D | 75 | 8 | 22 | 30 | −27 | 32 |
19 | Shawn McEachern | RW | 46 | 10 | 16 | 26 | −27 | 28 |
12 | Tony Hrkac | C | 80 | 9 | 17 | 26 | −16 | 14 |
8 | Frantisek Kaberle | D | 79 | 7 | 19 | 26 | −19 | 32 |
25 | Andy Sutton | D | 53 | 3 | 18 | 21 | −8 | 114 |
23 | Lubos Bartecko | LW | 37 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 3 | 8 |
36 | Daniel Tjarnqvist | D | 75 | 3 | 12 | 15 | −20 | 26 |
37 | Dan Snyder | C | 36 | 10 | 4 | 14 | −4 | 34 |
18 | Brad Tapper | RW | 35 | 10 | 4 | 14 | 2 | 23 |
26 | Pascal Rheaume‡ | C | 56 | 4 | 9 | 13 | −8 | 24 |
42 | Richard Smehlik‡ | D | 43 | 2 | 9 | 11 | −4 | 16 |
4 | Chris Tamer | D | 72 | 1 | 9 | 10 | −10 | 118 |
16 | Jeff Cowan | LW | 66 | 3 | 5 | 8 | −15 | 115 |
39 | Per Svartvadet | C | 62 | 1 | 7 | 8 | −11 | 8 |
3 | Mark Hartigan | C | 23 | 5 | 2 | 7 | −8 | 6 |
20 | Jeff Odgers | RW | 74 | 2 | 4 | 6 | −13 | 171 |
7 | Chris Herperger‡ | C | 27 | 4 | 1 | 5 | −11 | 7 |
22 | Kamil Piros | C | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
43 | Mike Weaver | D | 40 | 0 | 5 | 5 | −5 | 20 |
29 | Kirill Safronov | D | 32 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −10 | 14 |
31 | Pasi Nurminen | G | 52 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | |
10 | Yuri Butsayev | LW | 16 | 2 | 0 | 2 | −5 | 8 |
50 | Joe DiPenta | D | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
2 | Garnet Exelby | D | 15 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 41 |
14 | Tomi Kallio‡ | LW | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | −2 | 4 |
6 | Francis Lessard | RW | 18 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 61 |
45 | Ben Simon | LW | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
49 | Zdenek Blatny | LW | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 0 |
35 | Frederic Cassivi | G | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
34 | Byron Dafoe† | G | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
28 | Jeff Farkas† | RW | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 0 |
47 | Kurtis Foster | D | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −2 | 0 |
41 | Simon Gamache | C | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 2 |
33 | Milan Hnilicka | G | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
44 | Uwe Krupp | D | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −2 | 10 |
11 | J. P. Vigier | RW | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −13 | 4 |
Regular season | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Player | GP | W | L | T | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | SO | TOI |
31 | Pasi Nurminen | 52 | 21 | 19 | 5 | 1452 | 137 | 2.88 | .906 | 2 | 2856 |
34 | Byron Dafoe† | 17 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 472 | 65 | 4.36 | .862 | 0 | 895 |
33 | Milan Hnilicka | 21 | 4 | 13 | 1 | 605 | 65 | 3.56 | .893 | 0 | 1097 |
35 | Frederic Cassivi | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 58 | 11 | 5.37 | .810 | 0 | 123 |
Type | Award/honor | Recipient | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
League (in-season) |
NHL All-Star Game selection | Dany Heatley [a] | [10] |
NHL Player of the Week | Dany Heatley (March 31) | [11] | |
Team | Community Service Award | Chris Tamer | [12] |
Players' Player Award | Jeff Odgers | [13] | |
Team MVP | Dany Heatley | [13] | |
Three Stars of the Game Award | Dany Heatley | [13] |
The Thrashers were involved in the following transactions from June 14, 2002, the day after the deciding game of the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals, through June 9, 2003, the day of the deciding game of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals. [14]
Date | Details | Ref | |
---|---|---|---|
June 22, 2002 | To Atlanta Thrashers Vancouver’s 3rd-round pick in 2002 NY Rangers’ 4th-round pick in 2003 |
To
Florida Panthers Future considerations [b] |
[15] |
June 22, 2002 | To Atlanta Thrashers Vyacheslav Kozlov 2nd-round pick in 2002 |
To
Buffalo Sabres 2nd-round pick in 2002 Vancouver’s 3rd-round pick in 2002 |
[15] |
June 22, 2002 | To Atlanta Thrashers Detroit’s 1st-round pick in 2002 |
To
Columbus Blue Jackets Buffalo’s 2nd-round pick in 2002 Detroit’s 3rd-round pick in 2002 |
[15] |
June 23, 2002 | To Atlanta Thrashers 8th-round pick in 2002 7th-round pick in 2003 |
To
San Jose Sharks New Jersey’s 7th-round pick in 2002 |
[15] |
June 29, 2002 | To Atlanta Thrashers Shawn McEachern 6th-round pick in 2004 |
To
Ottawa Senators Brian Pothier |
[16] |
October 4, 2002 | To Atlanta Thrashers Future considerations [c] |
To
Dallas Stars Stephane Robidas |
[17] |
November 15, 2002 | To Atlanta Thrashers Marc Savard |
To
Calgary Flames Rights to Ruslan Zainullin |
[18] |
December 2, 2002 | To Atlanta Thrashers Chris Nielsen Petteri Nummelin |
To
Columbus Blue Jackets Tomi Kallio Pauli Levokari |
[19] |
January 20, 2003 | To Atlanta Thrashers Jeff Farkas |
To
Vancouver Canucks Chris Herperger Chris Nielsen |
[20] |
February 24, 2003 | To Atlanta Thrashers Conditional draft pick in 2004 |
To
New Jersey Devils Pascal Rheaume |
[21] |
March 10, 2003 | To Atlanta Thrashers 4th-round pick in 2003 |
To New Jersey Devils Richard Smehlik Conditional draft pick in 2004 |
[22] |
March 11, 2003 | To Atlanta Thrashers Rights to Anthony Aquino |
To Dallas Stars Dallas’ 6th-round pick in 2003 Future considerations |
[23] |
Date | Player | Former team | Term | Via | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
July 10, 2002 | Richard Smehlik | Buffalo Sabres | Free agency | [24] | |
July 19, 2002 | Uwe Krupp | Detroit Red Wings | Free agency | [25] | |
July 23, 2002 | Dallas Eakins | Calgary Flames | Free agency | [26] | |
August 1, 2002 | Chris Herperger | Ottawa Senators | Free agency | [27] | |
October 4, 2002 | Stephane Robidas | Montreal Canadiens | Waiver draft | [28] | |
November 22, 2002 | Byron Dafoe | Boston Bruins | Free agency | [29] | |
March 28, 2003 | Brian Maloney | Michigan State University ( CCHA) | Free agency | [30] |
Date | Player | New team | Via [d] | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
July 1, 2002 | Damian Rhodes | Buyout [e] | [35] | |
July 17, 2002 | Todd Reirden | Anaheim Mighty Ducks | Free agency (UFA) | [36] |
August 5, 2002 | Bryan Adams | Detroit Red Wings | Free agency (VI) | [37] |
August 21, 2002 | Scott Fankhouser | Reading Royals ( ECHL) | Free agency (VI) | [38] |
August 30, 2002 | Adam Burt | Retirement (III) | [39] | |
N/A | Jeff Dessner | Iserlohn Roosters ( DEL) | Free agency (UFA) | [40] |
April 27, 2003 | Uwe Krupp | Retirement | [41] | |
June 8, 2003 | Norm Maracle | Metallurg Magnitogorsk ( RSL) | Free agency | [42] |
Date | Player | Term | Contract type | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
June 27, 2002 | Jeff Cowan | Re-signing | [43] | |
Andy Sutton | Re-signing | [43] | ||
July 11, 2002 | Pauli Levokari | Entry-level | [44] | |
July 18, 2002 | Pascal Rheaume | Re-signing | [45] | |
Brad Tapper | Re-signing | [45] | ||
Mike Weaver | Re-signing | [45] | ||
July 23, 2002 | Paul Flache | Entry-level | [26] | |
Michael Garnett | Entry-level | [26] | ||
July 25, 2002 | Patrik Stefan | 2-year | Re-signing | [46] |
August 1, 2002 | Tomi Kallio | Re-signing | [27] | |
Vyacheslav Kozlov | 1-year | Re-signing | [27] | |
Ben Simon | Re-signing | [27] | ||
August 8, 2002 | Yannick Tremblay | Re-signing | [47] | |
August 9, 2002 | Mark Hartigan | Re-signing | [48] | |
August 19, 2002 | Francis Lessard | Re-signing | [49] | |
August 27, 2002 | Dan Snyder | Re-signing | [50] | |
Daniel Tjarnqvist | Re-signing | [50] | ||
September 10, 2002 | Yuri Butsayev | Re-signing | [51] | |
September 11, 2002 | Milan Hnilicka | Re-signing | [52] | |
March 11, 2003 | Shawn McEachern | multi-year | Extension | [53] |
June 4, 2003 | Kari Lehtonen | Entry-level | [54] |
Atlanta's draft picks at the 2002 NHL Entry Draft held at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. [55]
Round | # | Player | Nationality | College/Junior/Club team (League) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Kari Lehtonen | Finland | Jokerit (Finland) |
1 | 30 | Jim Slater | United States | Michigan State University (CCHA) |
4 | 116 | Patrick Dwyer | United States | Western Michigan University (CCHA) |
4 | 124 | Lane Manson | Canada | Moose Jaw Warriors (WHL) |
5 | 144 | Paul Flache | Canada | Brampton Battalion (OHL) |
6 | 167 | Brad Schell | Canada | Spokane Chiefs (WHL) |
7 | 198 | Nathan Oystrick | Canada | Northern Michigan University (CCHA) |
8 | 230 | Colton Fretter | Canada | Chatham Maroons (WOHL) |
8 | 236 | Tyler Boldt | Canada | Kamloops Blazers (WHL) |
8 | 257 | Pauli Levokari | Finland | HIFK (Finland) |
Dallas Stars - Acquired defenseman Stephane Robidas from the Atlanta Thrashers for future considerations.
October 3, 2002 The failure of Rhodes to pass a physical with another NHL club has left Atlanta liable for his full $2.7 million salary this season. As a result, he's back on the Atlanta roster, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim -- Agreed to terms on two-year contracts with defenseman Todd Reirden and center Jason Krog.
DETROIT RED WINGS—Signed LW Bryan Adams
Atlanta Thrashers -- Agreed to terms with defenseman Pauli Levokari.
Atlanta Thrashers -- Agreed to terms with restricted free agent center Mark Hartigan.
Atlanta Thrashers - Re-signed defenseman Francis Lessard.