Sports Page Atlanta

The Thrashers have been making draft picks since 1999.  Some of them have been really good, some of them not as good.

If you forgot who the Thrashers picked with their first pick each year, here they are…

1999: C - Patrik Stefan (1st overall pick) - 64 career goals, played briefly in Switzerland last season

2000: LW - Dany Heatley (2nd overall pick) - has 221 career goals so far, his last 141 have been with the Ottawa Senators

2001: LW - Ilya Kovalchuk (1st overall pick) - 254 career goals, 50+ in 2 of last 3 seasons

2002: G - Kari Lehtonen (2nd overall pick) - 75 career wins, 11 career shutouts

2003: D - Braydon Coburn (8th overall pick) - now plays for Philadelphia Flyers

2004: D - Boris Valabik (10th overall pick) - big defensiveman was late callup last season

2005: RW - Alex Bourret (16th overall pick) - scored 9 goals in 54 games for Hartford last season in the AHL

2006: C - Bryan Little (12th overall pick) - scored 6 goals in 48 games for the Thrashers last season

2007: RW - Spencer Machacek (3rd round - 67th pick overall) 33 goals for Vancouver in the WHL last season

The Atlanta Thrashers have allowed the most goals this season. They need help on defense, they need to be more physical, they need to get bigger, they did.

The Thrashers called up Boris Valabik from their Chicago-based farm team in the AHL.

The native Slovakian stands in at 6′7″ and weighs 240 pounds. He has racked up a total of 191 penalty minutes this season, good enough for 10th in the league in that category.

Valabik was the Thrashers first round draft pick (10th overall) in the 2004 NHL Draft.