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If the Thrashers never moved...

AK87

AK87

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Nov 8, 2012
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I was just wondering to myself, I realize everything would be purely speculation but it is the summer after all. Would the Jets be as good today if they were still in Atlanta? Did most of their staff follow the team to Winnipeg from Atlanta, or did they re-hire. (I honestly don't know, I didn't follow the Thrashers at all)
 
I believe most of senior scouting/drafting guys were inherited from ATL

edit:
Dobson (Director, Pro Scouting), Hillier (Director, Amateur Scouting) and Bodganovich (Head European Scout) are the three senior positioned people under the Scouting Staff. All 3 were inherited from ATL
 
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DRW204 said:
I believe most of senior scouting/drafting guys were inherited from ATL
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I believe some responsibilities may have been shifted around a bit. More scouts were added.

The big change was at the top. Chevy came in and implemented a very different philosophy. That may also point to the change in ownership. Don't know if we can blame the previous GM and scouts if they were being pressured to get quick results.
 
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AK87 said:
I was just wondering to myself, I realize everything would be purely speculation but it is the summer after all. Would the Jets be as good today if they were still in Atlanta? Did most of their staff follow the team to Winnipeg from Atlanta, or did they re-hire. (I honestly don't know, I didn't follow the Thrashers at all)
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per Eliteprospects:

Thrashers 2010-11
  • General Manager Rick Dudley
  • Asst. General Manager Larry Simmons
  • Dir. of Amateur Scouting Marcel Comeau
  • Scout Yevgeni Bogdanovich
  • Scout David Burstyn
  • Scout Pat Carmichael
  • Scout Fred Devereaux
  • Scout Bernd Freimüller
  • Scout Mark Hillier
  • Scout Fredrik Jax
  • Scout Tavis MacMillan
  • Scout Bob Owen
  • Scout John Perpich
  • Scout Jamie Pushor
  • Scout Grant Sonier
Jets 2011-12
  • General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff
  • Asst. General Manager Craig Heisinger
  • Dir. of Amateur Scouting Marcel Comeau
  • Scout Jack Birch
  • Scout Yevgeni Bogdanovich
  • Scout Pat Carmichael
  • Scout Dean Fedorchuk
  • Scout Ed Friesen
  • Scout Mark Hillier
  • Scout Fredrik Jax
  • Scout Yanick Lemay
  • Scout Tavis MacMillan
  • Scout John Perpich
  • Scout Peter Ratchuk
  • Scout Scott Scoville
  • Scout Carter Sears
  • Scout Chris Snell
  • Scout Bruce Southern
  • Scout Keith Sullivan
Jets 2017-18
  • General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff
  • Asst. General Manager Craig Heisinger
  • Asst. General Manager Larry Simmons
  • Scout Jack Birch
  • Scout Pat Carmichael
  • Scout Marcel Comeau
  • Scout Kjell Dahlin
  • Scout Max Giese
  • Scout Jari Grönstrand
  • Scout Vladimir Havluj, Jr.
  • Scout Yanick Lemay
  • Scout Bob Owen
  • Scout Peter Ratchuk
  • Scout Brian Renfrew
  • Scout Scott Robson
  • Scout Scott Scoville
  • Scout Chris Snell
  • Scout Bruce Southern
  • Scout Mark White[/code]
Lot of scouts followed the Jets to Winnipeg. Of the Thrashers crowd, Hillier was promoted to DoAS, former DoAS Comeau is listed as a scout now, Bogdanovich was promoted to DoEuropeanS, and two other scouts (Carmichael, Owen) still remain with the team.

(edit: JFC this forum software is awful at displaying lists)
 
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It only works if you have a GM, ownership and a fanbase on the same page. Atlanta fans most likely would never care enough about hockey to buy in to a 5 year rebuild. The ownership most likely needed now solutions to get some fans into the seats. They never would have been able to buy the time and patience to execute it like Chevy and Chipman did.
 
MrBoJangelz71 said:
It only works if you have a GM, ownership and a fanbase on the same page. Atlanta fans most likely would never care enough about hockey to buy in to a 5 year rebuild. The ownership most likely needed now solutions to get some fans into the seats. They never would have been able to buy the time and patience to execute it like Chevy and Chipman did.
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I'm sure that's what they perceived. As it was they were in a 12 year rebuild that failed to put enough fans into seats to pay the bills. Their brief success in '07 didn't have a solid base underneath so it didn't last.
 
MrBoJangelz71 said:
It only works if you have a GM, ownership and a fanbase on the same page. Atlanta fans most likely would never care enough about hockey to buy in to a 5 year rebuild. The ownership most likely needed now solutions to get some fans into the seats. They never would have been able to buy the time and patience to execute it like Chevy and Chipman did.
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This post makes a lot of sense, they were probably more worried about selling tickets than making a successful team. But in order to sell tickets you need a successful team...must've been a nightmare for the owner/GM.
 
If the Atlanta Thrashers still existed, and they were under the same ownership, they would be bottom dwellers. ASG was horrible, and did not care that much about the hockey operations, so unless the Thrashers lucked out and drafted McDavid, they would not even be remotely close to where the Jets are.
 
As an expansion team, Atlanta was in a bad place from the beginning due to the NHL.

Atlanta's expansion draft into the NHL reminded me of Jets 1.0 and Ottawa Senators drafts that made it take many years to establish a strong foundation.

Despite losing to VGK in the playoffs, I am happy that the league changed the expansion rules so that the team would be competitive from the start.
 
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AK87 said:
I was just wondering to myself, I realize everything would be purely speculation but it is the summer after all. Would the Jets be as good today if they were still in Atlanta? Did most of their staff follow the team to Winnipeg from Atlanta, or did they re-hire. (I honestly don't know, I didn't follow the Thrashers at all)
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No, not with the Atlanta philosophy of throwing their young first-round draft picks straight into the NHL instead of letting them develop and slowly work their way into the NHL though I guess things kind of worked out for Bryan Little.
 
Little would likely still be there, they sign the unwanted free agents to this day, they may make a few playoff appearances, later on Buff would've likely signed with the Wild, Ladd might of signed for stupid money, Wheeler would've probably played on Pittsburgh, I don't know but those scenarios would likely happen. Oh, and Evander Kane gets a dumb contract from them and is there to this day. Oddly enough, I think Paul Maurice would get a temporary stint there. Bogosian gets traded in 2012. I think lots would be different. I think it makes Kovalchuk change his mind and sign that stupid contract that was offered to him before getting traded to NJ.

This is what I see them drafting throughout the years (in the first round anyway).

2011: Dougie Hamilton/Sean Couturier
2012: Nail Yakupov/Alex Galchenyuk
2013: Darnell Nurse/Seth Jones
2014: Nikolaj Ehlers/Michael Dal Colle
2015: Noah Hanifin/Timo Meier/Pavel Zacha
2016: Jesse Puljujarvi

But think half of them would leave.
 
if you take a look at their drafting history the last seven or so years before they moved here you will see that they traded way more than half of their first round draft picks and made some very poor picks with the ones they kept.
 
remember when the hockey world was criticizing wpg for letting go of Dudley? lol.
dude's doing what exactly for Les Canadiens?
 
Tom ServoMST3K said:
They still would have selected similar players, but the Jets were a lot more patient, especially with Scheif, then ATL would ever have been.
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Atlanta wouldn't of taken Scheifele. They were high on Couturier/Hamilton from what I last remember; Dudley even laughed at us appearently.

If we didn't exist even, Scheifele probably would've been drafted by either Buffalo (16), Chicago (18), or he might could've even fell to the second round for all we know. But that pick was a steal even at seven and also at the fact we didn't even have a second-round pick.
 
HannuJ said:
remember when the hockey world was criticizing wpg for letting go of Dudley? lol.
dude's doing what exactly for Les Canadiens?
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Can't speak on what he does behind the scenes there. But the Ladd, Wheeler, Buff trades he made where very impressive. The team we even have right now likely would not be as good if Dudley did not make some big moves the year before the move. With that ownership and Waddel not much hope. Even with a good GM, only so much you can do. Absolutly awful drafting, and trades by Waddel put the team behind years
 
If the Thrashers never moved . . . Leafs fans (and a bunch of others) would have one less thing to whine about.
 
DudeWhereIsMakar said:
Atlanta wouldn't of taken Scheifele. They were high on Couturier/Hamilton from what I last remember; Dudley even laughed at us appearently.

If we didn't exist even, Scheifele probably would've been drafted by either Buffalo (16), Chicago (18), or he might could've even fell to the second round for all we know. But that pick was a steal even at seven and also at the fact we didn't even have a second-round pick.
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Meh, same scouts.

It was also widely reported that Carolina (12) was visibly disappointed when the Jets took Scheif.
 
Whoever talked about philosophy nailed it. Atlanta was always trying to stay competitive and didn't feel like they could be patient and take the time to D and D. I think it would have been a lot of trading assets and picks for older players. Might have made the playoffs a bit more but would be an also ran in the post season IMO
 
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When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it might be about pondering an alternative history and where we would be today. Specifically, if the Thrasher stayed in Atlanta, would Winnipeg have gotten an NHL franchise? This is an interesting discussion. There were no other franchises that moved since then. I suppose it's remotely possible that we somehow ended up with Phoenix. Most likely we would have had to enter the league as a new franchise like the LV Knights. Not sure if that would have happened at all. It seems that we were ready to enter the NHL at precisely the right time.
 
AK87 said:
I was just wondering to myself, I realize everything would be purely speculation but it is the summer after all. Would the Jets be as good today if they were still in Atlanta? Did most of their staff follow the team to Winnipeg from Atlanta, or did they re-hire. (I honestly don't know, I didn't follow the Thrashers at all)
Click to expand...
They probably couldn’t be as patient as chevy was. They would likely have had to make some moves to make the team better imo.
 
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