About the Atlanta Thrashers

The Atlanta Thrashers team is represented by a number of outstanding nhl hockey players with the main office in Atlanta, Georgia. Since 1997 the team has been playing in the National Hockey League. At that time the crew replaced the Atlanta Flames, who left for Calgary in year 1980 and formed the Calgary Flames .

The name of the team Thrashers comes from the name of the state bird of Georgia, which is a brown thrasher, and was proposed by the fans of the team. Phillips Arena is the current home for Thrashers and was constructed on the place of the previous Omni, which used to be the residence of the Atlanta Flames. The present team colors are blue, red, and golden while the mascot of the team is the previously mentioned brown Thrasher.

Throughout the whole history, since 1997, the Thrashers have never made playoffs. The best completed season of the team happened in 2005-2006 when they missed the NHL playoffs by only 2 points.

The present captain of the team Scott Mellanby has been in the position since 2005 while the best player, Ilya Kovalchuk, a native Russian achieved 167 scored goals and 318 points. Only in the last season Ilya received 42 points (19 goals, 23 assists) in 53 matches with AK Bars Kazan of Russian Elite League, he was second in goals, and assists. Besides, the player turned out to be the 5th on squad having 72 penalty minutes.

In 2003-2004 season recap the team noticeably improved their performance on the hockey arena. That success came by throughout the whole season, the shocking losses against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Boston Bruins, and the Ottawa Senators alternated with the brilliant wins from matches with the LA Kings and the NY Islanders .

Before the beginning of the 2005-06 season, the Thrashers employed a great many of veteran players hoping to make a playoff for the 1st time in the history of the crew. They took on Mike Dunham, Peter Bondra, Bobby Holik, Jaroslav Modry, and Scott Mellanby. They gave away Dany Heatley in 2005 to the Ottawa Senators in a successful deal for a forward Marian Hossa and a defenseman Greg de Vries.