A High Cost for Osteoporosis

In two separate deals Atlanta deals for 1998 Olympians:

The Atlanta Thrashers acquired forward Keith Tkachuk from the St. Louis Blues for winger Glen Metropolit, a first-round draft pick in 2007, a third-round draft pick in 2007, a second-round draft pick in 2008, and a conditional first-round draft pick in 2008.


The Atlanta Thrashers acquired defenseman Alexei Zhitnik from the Philadelphia Flyers for defenseman Braydon Coburn.

In all seriousness, these will probably help Atlanta in the short-term (or at least won't hurt them) but the Thrashers should have recognized their weaknesses up front long ago (Bryan Little would have had fun as a rookie on the top line) before having to give up 3 or 4 draft picks for Tkachuk, who is at this point a decent - but hardly an All-Star - winger.

I'm guessing they'll hope that Zhitnik provides some stability to a team that appears to be panicking. In a few years they'll wonder who Zhitnik was as Coburn is putting together a rock-solid career in Philadelphia.