Sports Page Atlanta

The Atlanta Thrashers re-signed goaltender Kari Lehtonen to an undisclosed contract. The former 2nd pick overall of the 2002 NHL draft has played 158 career games with the Thrashers. Last season he was 17-22-5, but had a franchise-record .916 save percentage.

He is the team’s leader is most games goaltended in a career, so it is not fair to say he has the most wins (75) and shutouts (11) in a career, which he does. Those stats generally go to the player with the most games.

A fair way to judge a goaltender is career goals against average and career save percentage. Well he is number one in those, too as you can see.

Thrashers Career Goals Against Average Leaders…

Kari Lehtonen: 2.82

Pasi Nurminen: 2.87

Milan Hnilicka: 3.30

Damian Rhodes: 3.60

Thrashers Career Save Percentage Leaders…

Kari Lehtonen: .913

Pasi Nurminen: .904

Milan Hnilicka: .901

Damian Rhodes: .889

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