The Atlanta Thrashers is a professional hockey team and play in the Southeast division of the National Hockey League's Eastern Conference.

In 1997, the NHL awarded Atlanta the franchise expansion team. Their first game scheduled for the 1999-2000 season.

Ted Turner, the owner of the team, named the team after the Georgia state bird, the brown thrasher. In 1998, Don Waddell was named the organization’s first general manager. Then in 1999, Curt Fraser was named as their first head coach.http://thrashers.nhl.com/club/page.htm?bcid=e3d0ef7c1b024d88a3caa4b96fd42ae6

In the 10 years since their inception, the Thrashers have made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs once and were swept and eliminated in the first round by the New York Rangers. That was in the 2006-07 season during which they won the most games in franchise history of 43. Their regular season record that year was 43-28 and 11 overtime game losses.http://thrashers.nhl.com/club/page.htm?bcid=4006548cd96a45de9cec3f9026f67a6b

Atlanta's Minor league affiliates are the Chicago Wolves (AHL) and the Gwinnett Gladiators (ECHL).

Their first two seasons, the Thrashers performances were completely forgettable. They finished last in the conference in 1999-2000, and in the 2000-01 season finished in second to the last place, having one point more than the last place team, the Tampa Bay Lightening.

However, in the 2001-02 season, Thrasher fans hopes rose with the addition of Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk. Both rookies finished the year with nominations for the Calder Memorial Trophy. Heatley walked away with the honors with a season record of 67 points and 41 assists, and ranking second with 26 goals behind his teammate Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk was injured but still finished his rookie year with 51 points in 65 games, and finished second in voting for the Calder. The Thrashers still finished in last place of their division with a record of 19 wins, 47 losses, 11 ties, and 5 overtime losses for a total of 54 points.

The 2002-03 season brought the firing of Curt Fraser and the hiring of his replacement, Bob Hartley. In the interim, general manager Waddell coached the team. The Thrashers placed third in their division beating out the Florida Panthers who recorded their worst year in franchise history and the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Thrashers seemed unable to capitalize on their draft picks, nor on the excellent play of Heatley and Kavulchuk. Then the unthinkable happened prior to the 2003-04 season. Dany Heatley and teammate, Dan Snyder were involved in a horrible car accident from which Snyder died. Heatley suffered numerous injuries and was charged with a number of felonies. The Thrashers actually captured 2nd place in the Southeast Division, but were 28 points behind the division champion, Tampa Bay and did not make the playoffs again.

Following the cancelled 2004-05 season, the Thrashers traded Heatley to the Ottawa Senators for Marian Hossa and Greg de Vries. Kavulchuk had gone back to Russia to play during the lockout but returned to Atlanta and became the first Thrasher to score more than 50 goals, finishing the year with 52. But once more the Thrashers did not make it to the playoffs.

The 2006-07 season, the best in franchise history, began with Goalie Khari Lehton fully recovered from his injuries incurred in the previous season, and the combination of Hossa and Kovalchuk. They won the division championship and a berth in the playoffs for the Thrashers' first shot at the Stanley Cup. They barely got their toes wet in the Stanley Cup playoff waters when they were swept by the New York Rangers, 4 games to 0.

The Thrashers must have gotten dizzy way up there at the top of their division and returned to their mediocre play in 2007-08. They finished the season out of contention and 2nd from the bottom in the division. The only divisional team that they out-played that season was the Tampa Bay Lightening.

2008-09 was no better. They finished 2nd from the last again in the division, again topping Tampa Bay. Of the 257 goals scored by the Thrashers, 43 were scored by Kavulchuk ranking him fourth in the NHL.http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/nhl19272010.html

The 2009-10 season ended like almost all of the others. The Thrashers would be watching the playoffs again. They ended the season with 83 points having 35 wins, 34 losses, and 13 overtime losses. They finished 5 points behind the 8th seeded Montreal Canadiens and 5 points behind the Conference Champions, the Philadelphia Flyers.

Rick Dudley took over as general manager, and Don Waddell, the only constant in the history of the team was promoted to "President". The Thrashers fired Head Coach, John Anderson as well as Assistant Coaches, Randy Cunneyworth, Todd Nelson, and Steve Weeks. Waddell will now be attending to the business aspects of the team as opposed to the play itself.

The off-season time will be another reconstruction period. In February, the Thrashers traded Team Captain Ilya Kovalchuk and Anssi Salmela to the New Jersey Devils for Niclas Bergfors, Johnny Oduya, Patrice Cormier and a first-round pick. In March, they acquired Evgeny Artyukhin from Anaheim for Nathan Oystrick and a conditional 2011 draft choice In May, they signed Edward Pasquale and Chris Carrozzi. And in June, prior to the draft, they signed Jeremy Morin and Eric O'Dell.

The Thrashers next few months will be hectic. They have no coach, no coaching assistants, and no Team Captain. Attendance is terrible. There's a possibility that the team may be purchased by a Hollywood producer, Stephen Rollins. It should be interesting.

wner Bruce Levenson http://thrashers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=525413

• 1999-2000: 14 wins, 61 losses, 7 ties, 39 points

• 2000-01: 23 wins, 47 losses, 12 ties, 60 points

• 2001-02: 19 wins, 52 losses, 11 ties, 54 points

• 2002-03: 31 wins, 44 losses, 5 ties, 74 points

• 2003-04: 33 wins 41 losses 8 ties, 78 points

• 2004-05: Cancelled due to lockout

• 2005-06: 41 wins, 41 losses, 90 points

• 2006-07: 43 wins 39 losses, 90 points (lost in first round of the playoffs)

• 2007-08: 34 wins, 48 losses, 76 points

• 2008-09: 35 wins, 47 losses, 76 points

• 2009-10: 35 wins, 47 losses, 83 points

• 1999: Franchise begins play

• 2003: Dan Snyder dies in car accident

• 2007: First ever: post-season debut