Now that the Atlanta Thrashers had filled the veteran portion of their goaltending rotation, it was time to sign the young netminder the organization feels can be a star one day in the National Hockey League.

Ondrej Pavelec and the team agreed on a two-year deal Thursday that reportedly will pay the 22-year-old $2.3 million.

Pavelec has experienced the ups and downs all young goaltenders go through the past two years, from feeling shut out of the NHL rotation while playing at AHL Chicago to being pulled twice in a three-game span last December. But there also were brilliant moments, like a 2-0 shutout win at Detroit early last season in which Pavelec looked like one of the elite in the league.

In 42 games last season, Pavelec finished 14-18-7 – often being hampered by a porous Atlanta defense – with a 3.29 GAA and a .906 save percentage.

Pavelec will split time with Chris Mason, who the Thrashers signed in early July.

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For the sixth consecutive season, the Atlanta Thrashers will skate on Sports Radio 680 The Fan.

Cumulus Media and Dickey Broadcasting Company announced Monday the Thrashers will once again call 680 AM its flagship station, anchoring an 18-station radio network throughout Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.

The Thrashers narrowly missed the NHL playoffs last season.

There also will be a weekly coach’s show on the station, featuring new Thrashers’ head coach Craig Ramsay.

Atlanta also will bring back Dan Kamal, the only radio play-by-play man in the franchise’s 11-year history.

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He’s one of those guys every successful hockey team needs. He’s not flashy – except when he flashes his fists to stick up for his teammates.

Eric Boulton plays the game hard, grinding in the corners and taking out opponents trying to break free up the ice. His physical play has made him a fan favorite of the Atlanta Thrashers, and the organization rewarded the 33-year-old by resigning him last week.

The left winger typically skates on Atlanta’s fourth line. He led the Thrashers with 113 penalty minutes in 62 games last season, and is the franchise leader in penalty minutes.

Boulton finished last season with eight points: two goals and six assists. One of those goals was on the power play, the first PP goal of his career.

Boulton, a 10-year veteran, has spent the past five seasons with the Thrashers.

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The offseason makeover of the Atlanta Thrashers continued Monday, with the hiring of Mike Stothers to finish out the coaching staff.

Stothers comes to Atlanta after a career spent coaching mostly in the minor leagues. He did spent 2000-02 behind the bench with the Philadelphia Flyers, serving as an assistant along with newly named Thrashers’ head coach Craig Ramsay.

Stothers led Grand Rapids of the AHL to a 31-40-0 record in 2007-08, his last head coaching stop. He also directed the Owen Sound of the Ontario Hockey League for five seasons.

The Thrashers have totally remade their coaching staff this offseason, firing head coach John Anderson and his staff after Atlanta just missed making the NHL playoffs.

The Thrashers hired associate head coach John Torchetti last week.

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Fans of the Atlanta Thrashers are accustomed to seeing the team make a bevy of moves in the offseason, only to be disappointed with the results on the ice the following winter.

That comes with the territory when you’ve made the NHL playoffs just once in a decade of existence.

With that said, it’s easy to get excited about what the Thrashers have done this summer.

General manager Rick Dudley has opened the pipeline from his former employer in Chicago, making two deals with the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks. First, Atlanta acquired Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Akim Aliu and Brent Sopel in a late June trade. July started with another deal with Chicago, this one landing Andrew Ladd.

The Thrashers also hired Blackhawks’ assistant John Torchetti as associate coach, signed several free agents (including goaltender Chris Mason) and, of course, inked Craig Ramsay as head coach.

Now comes the waiting until the puck drops in October to see if this summer’s moves will produce results.

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Four days after another season ended with the Atlanta Thrashers looking from the outside at the NHL playoffs, the franchise made wholesale changes in the hope of skating past game No. 82 next spring.

The Thrashers fired head coach John Anderson and the entire coaching staff after two seasons. Much maligned general manager Don Waddell, who held the position since the franchise’s inception in 1999, was moved into the president’s role, and assistant GM Rick Dudley was promoted to replace Waddell.

The Thrashers hope the moves will reset a franchise that has missed the playoffs in nine of their 10 seasons of existence.

Atlanta, which traded superstar Ilya Kovalchuk at the trade deadline following a contract extension impasse with the Russian sharpshooter, actually played one game over .500 after dealing Kovalchuk to New Jersey in February. But a five-game losing streak in late February and early March put the Thrashers in a hole from which they could not recover.

Two or three wins more would’ve put the Thrashers in the playoffs for the first time since 2007 and just the second time in franchise history. But after Atlanta was eliminated from postseason contention with a home loss last Tuesday to New Jersey, many figured changes would be afoot.

Dudley does bring a positive vibe to a franchise desperately in need of something positive. He helped built successful teams in Tampa Bay and Chicago.

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Down two goals on the road against one of the top teams in the NHL, the Atlanta Thrashers dug deep and entered the Olympic break with momentum.

The Thrashers scored three times in the second period, fought hard through overtime and eventually lost in a shootout Saturday night at Chicago, 5-4. Despite the loss, Atlanta wrapped up a difficult Midwestern road trip with four points in three games.

The burst to close the pre-Olympic part of the schedule moves the new-look Thrashers to within two points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta traded franchise all-time leading scorer Ilya Kovalchuk and former No. 1 goaltender Kari Lehtonen in separate deals last week.

In Chicago to face the Blackhawks, who are third in the NHL with 85 points, Atlanta fell behind 3-1 in the first. Jim Slater scored at 3:41 of the first before the Blackhawks ripped off three goals in six minutes against Ondrej Pavelec.

But the Thrashers fought back in the second, getting goals from Evander Kane, Max Afinogenov and Tobias Enstrom to take a 4-3 lead entering the final period.

Chicago beat Pavelec early in the third on a Dave Bolland goal to tie the game. In the shootout, Jonathan Toews scored the only goal to give the Blackhawks the win.

Still, it was a strong finish to the pre-Olympic break for Atlanta. The Thrashers resume pursuit of their second playoff berth in franchise history on March 2 at home against Florida.

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In eight years, Ilya Kovalchuk wrote his name all over the Atlanta Thrashers’ record book, becoming the franchise’s cornerstone and the face of hockey in Atlanta.

That era ended Thursday night with the soon-to-be free-agent Kovalchuk packing his bags for New Jersey and the Thrashers looking to move on without their career leader in games, points, goals and assists.

Ending months of tense contract negotiations during which general manager Don Waddell offered as much as $100 million, the Thrashers dealt the perennial All-Star left winger to the Devils as part of a deal involving five players, three draft picks and plenty of teeth-grinding in Atlanta on who to blame for Kovalchuk’s departure.

Atlanta also sends defenseman Anssi Salmela, traded from New Jersey last year for Niclas Havelid, to the Devils. In return, Atlanta gets defenseman Johnny Oduya, rookie forward Niclas Bergfors and prospect Patrice Cormier.

Bergfors is fifth in the NHL in rookie scoring, with 13 goals and 14 assists. Oduya is a strong defenseman who has just four points this year, but scored 27 points a year ago while playing all 82 games. Cormier had 31 goals in 31 games in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before being suspended for the rest of the season for a high elbow.

Without a doubt, though, the centerpiece is Kovalchuk, who scored 31 goals with 27 assists in 49 games for an Atlanta team just one point out of a playoff spot. But Kovalchuk, who will be an unrestricted free agent July 1, and the Thrashers could not come to terms. Rather than keep him and risk getting nothing in return if a contract couldn’t be reached, the Thrashers decided to roll the dice that they could make the playoffs without their top scorer.

For many, the blame rests with Waddell, who wasn’t aggressive enough early on in negotiations. For some, the blame rests with Kovalchuk, who was offered plenty of money but wanted the absolute max salary possible.

Either way, the Thrashers’ playoff chase begins anew Friday night against Eastern Conference leader Washington. For the first time since April 2001, they’ll take the ice without Kovalchuk as part of their organization.

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The Atlanta Thrashers find themselves in a logjam for the final Eastern Conference playoffs spots. Every game leading up to the Olympic break is critical for a team that’s fighting to be in position to make a postseason push come March.

This is not the time the Thrashers want to see Antero Niittymaki in the pipes at the opposite end of the rink. But that’s likely what will be the case Tuesday at Philips Arena, when Atlanta plays host to Tampa Bay.

Niittymaki is 15-0-0 – yes, 15-0-0! – against the Thrashers in his career, with a 1.79 goals against average. Two of those wins have come this season, including a 2-1 shootout victory on Jan. 23 during which Niittymaki stuffed the Thrashers through five rounds of the shootout.

Both teams are coming off tough road losses. Saturday, the Thrashers battled back from an early 2-0 deficit only to lose in Nashville, 4-3. Sunday, the Lightning fought back to tie red-hot Washington before the Caps prevailed 3-2, extending Washington’s win streak to 10 games.

If the playoffs opened today, both teams would just miss a postseason spot. Atlanta wakes up tied for ninth with Montreal with 56 points, one point out of eighth. Tampa Bay sits with 55 points, tied for 11th with Boston.

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When locked in a tight race for the playoffs, missed opportunities are accentuated. Thus was the case with the Atlanta Thrashers on a frosty Saturday night in Nashville.

Giving up a goal on the opening faceoff of the third period Saturday night proved too much for Atlanta to overcome, the Thrashers suffering a bitter 4-3 defeat to the Nashville Predators.

The loss dropped the Thrashers from sixth in the Eastern Conference standings into a two-way tie for seventh with Montreal. Four teams – Boston, Tampa Bay, Florida and the New York Rangers – are one point back.

Facing a team playing for the second time in two nights and riding a five-game losing streak, the Thrashers let the game turn in the opening seconds of the third period. Jason Arnott scored just seven seconds into the final period to break a 3-3 tie.

Nashville started quickly, scoring twice off Johan Hedberg in the opening 10 minutes. Bryan Little scored the first of his two goals at 13:57 of the first.

Down 3-1, the Thrashers pulled within 3-2 on a Chris Thorburn short-handed goal in the second period, just 1:11 after Nashville scored its third goal. Little then tied the game at 3-3 with five minutes left in the second.

Atlanta had it chances in the third to tie the game, most notably on an Ilya Kovalchuk breakaway that was stymied.

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