# 2008–09 Atlanta Thrashers season

The 2008–09 Atlanta Thrashers season was the tenth season of the franchise in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Thrashers attempted to make the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2006–07 season, but failed.

## Regular season
### Divisional standings

Southeast Division :
| | | GP | W | L | OTL | GF | GA | Pts |
| 1 | y – Washington Capitals | 82 | 50 | 24 | 8 | 272 | 245 | 108 |
| 2 | Carolina Hurricanes | 82 | 45 | 30 | 7 | 239 | 226 | 97 |
| 3 | Florida Panthers | 82 | 41 | 30 | 11 | 234 | 231 | 93 |
| 4 | Atlanta Thrashers | 82 | 35 | 41 | 6 | 257 | 280 | 76 |
| 5 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 82 | 24 | 40 | 18 | 210 | 279 | 66 |

### Conference standings

Eastern Conference :
| R | | Div | GP | W | L | OTL | GF | GA | Pts |
| 1 | z – Boston Bruins | NE | 82 | 53 | 19 | 10 | 274 | 196 | 116 |
| 2 | y – Washington Capitals | SE | 82 | 50 | 24 | 8 | 272 | 245 | 108 |
| 3 | y – New Jersey Devils | AT | 82 | 51 | 27 | 4 | 244 | 209 | 106 |
| 4 | Pittsburgh Penguins | AT | 82 | 45 | 28 | 9 | 264 | 239 | 99 |
| 5 | Philadelphia Flyers | AT | 82 | 44 | 27 | 11 | 264 | 238 | 99 |
| 6 | Carolina Hurricanes | SE | 82 | 45 | 30 | 7 | 239 | 226 | 97 |
| 7 | New York Rangers | AT | 82 | 43 | 30 | 9 | 210 | 218 | 95 |
| 8 | Montreal Canadiens | NE | 82 | 41 | 30 | 11 | 249 | 247 | 93 |
| 8.5 ||||||||||
| 9 | Florida Panthers | SE | 82 | 41 | 30 | 11 | 234 | 231 | 93 |
| 10 | Buffalo Sabres | NE | 82 | 41 | 32 | 9 | 250 | 234 | 91 |
| 11 | Ottawa Senators | NE | 82 | 36 | 35 | 11 | 217 | 237 | 83 |
| 12 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NE | 82 | 34 | 35 | 13 | 250 | 293 | 81 |
| 13 | Atlanta Thrashers | SE | 82 | 35 | 41 | 6 | 257 | 280 | 76 |
| 14 | Tampa Bay Lightning | SE | 82 | 24 | 40 | 18 | 210 | 279 | 66 |
| 15 | New York Islanders | AT | 82 | 26 | 47 | 9 | 201 | 279 | 61 |
bold – qualified for playoffs, y – division winner, z – placed first in conference (and division)
AT – Atlantic Division, NE – Northeast Division, SE – Southeast Division

## Schedule and results

* Green background indicates win (2 points).
* Red background indicates regulation loss (0 points).
* White background indicates overtime/shootout loss (1 point).
2008–09 Game Log :

### Record vs. Opponents

| Team | Points | Record |
| New Jersey* | 106 | 1–3–0 |
| NY Islanders | 61 | 3–1–0 |
| NY Rangers | 95 | 2–1–1 |
| Philadelphia | 99 | 0–4–0 |
| Pittsburgh | 99 | 0–4–0 |
| Boston* | 116 | 0–4–0 |
| Buffalo | 91 | 4–0–0 |
| Montreal | 93 | 2–2–0 |
| Ottawa | 83 | 2–2–0 |
| Toronto | 81 | 2–1–1 |
| Carolina | 97 | 3–3–0 |
| Florida | 93 | 2–3–1 |
| Tampa Bay | 66 | 4–1–1 |
| Washington* | 108 | 2–4–0 |
| Chicago | 104 | 0–1–0 |
| Columbus | 92 | 0–1–0 |
| Detroit* | 112 | 0–2–0 |
| Nashville | 88 | 1–0–1 |
| St. Louis | 92 | 0–1–0 |
| Calgary | 98 | 1–0–0 |
| Colorado | 69 | 2–0–0 |
| Edmonton | 85 | 1–0–0 |
| Minnesota | 89 | 0–1–0 |
| Vancouver* | 100 | 1–0–0 |
| Anaheim | 91 | 1–0–0 |
| Dallas | 83 | 0–1–0 |
| Los Angeles | 79 | 1–0–0 |
| Phoenix | 79 | 0–0–1 |
| San Jose* | 117 | 0–1–0 |
Notes: * denotes division winner; teams in bold are in the Southeast Division; teams in italics qualified for the playoffs; points refer to the points achieved by the team whom the Thrashers played against
= Member of the Atlantic Division = Member of the Northeast Division = Member of the Southeast Division = Member of the Central Division = Member of the Northeast Division = Member of the Pacific Division

## Playoffs

The Atlanta Thrashers failed to qualify for the 2009 NHL Playoffs.

## Player statistics
### Skaters

Regular season :
| Player | GP | G | A | Pts | +/− | PIM |
| Ilya Kovalchuk | 79 | 43 | 48 | 91 | -12 | 50 |
| Vyacheslav Kozlov | 82 | 26 | 50 | 76 | -14 | 44 |
| Todd White | 82 | 22 | 51 | 73 | -9 | 24 |
| Bryan Little | 79 | 31 | 20 | 51 | -5 | 24 |
| Colby Armstrong | 82 | 22 | 18 | 40 | +5 | 75 |
| Ron Hainsey | 81 | 6 | 33 | 39 | -16 | 32 |
| Rich Peverley$^†$ | 39 | 13 | 22 | 35 | +16 | 18 |
| Tobias Enstrom | 82 | 5 | 27 | 32 | +14 | 52 |
| Marty Reasoner | 79 | 14 | 16 | 30 | +11 | 36 |
| Eric Perrin | 78 | 7 | 16 | 23 | -2 | 36 |
| Erik Christensen$^‡$ | 47 | 5 | 14 | 19 | -7 | 14 |
| Zach Bogosian | 47 | 9 | 10 | 19 | +11 | 47 |
| Jason Williams$^‡$ | 41 | 7 | 11 | 18 | -9 | 8 |
| Jim Slater | 60 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 0 | 52 |
| Niclas Havelid$^‡$ | 63 | 2 | 13 | 15 | +4 | 42 |
| Mathieu Schneider$^‡$ | 44 | 4 | 11 | 15 | -10 | 50 |
| Chris Thorburn | 82 | 7 | 8 | 15 | -10 | 104 |
| Eric Boulton | 76 | 3 | 10 | 13 | -3 | 176 |
| Nathan Oystrick | 53 | 4 | 8 | 12 | -2 | 50 |
| Joey Crabb | 29 | 4 | 5 | 9 | -2 | 28 |
| Colin Stuart | 33 | 5 | 3 | 8 | +3 | 18 |
| Garnet Exelby | 59 | 0 | 7 | 7 | -2 | 120 |
| Boris Valabik | 50 | 0 | 5 | 5 | -14 | 132 |
| Anssi Salmela$^†$ | 9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Joe Motzko | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 |
| Brett Sterling | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -3 | 2 |
| Scott Lehman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Clay Wilson$^†$ | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| Jordan LaVallee | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| Grant Lewis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Spencer Machacek | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

### Goaltenders

Regular season :
| Player | GP | Min | W | L | OT | GA | GAA | SA | SV | Sv% | SO |
| Kari Lehtonen | 46 | 2624 | 19 | 22 | 3 | 134 | 3.06 | 1498 | 1364 | .911 | 3 |
| Johan Hedberg | 33 | 1716 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 100 | 3.49 | 875 | 775 | .886 | 0 |
| Ondrej Pavelec | 12 | 599 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 36 | 3.60 | 301 | 265 | .880 | 0 |
$^†$Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Thrashers. Stats reflect season totals. $^‡$Traded mid-season underline/italics denotes franchise record
    Pos = Position; GPI = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals
    Min, TOI = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

## Awards and records
### Milestones

Regular Season :
| Player | Milestone | Reached |
| Zach Bogosian | 1st NHL Game | October 10, 2008 |
| Colby Armstrong | 200th NHL Game | October 10, 2008 |
| Garnet Exelby | 300th NHL Game | October 11, 2008 |
| Nathan Oystrick | 1st NHL Game | October 14, 2008 |
| Mathieu Schneider | 1,200th NHL Game | October 14, 2008 |
| Jason Williams | 300th NHL Game | October 16, 2008 |
| Todd White | 500th NHL Game | November 2, 2008 |
| Bryan Little | 1st NHL Hat Trick | December 26, 2008 |
| Kari Lehtonen | 200th NHL Game | March 16, 2009 |
| Eric Perrin | 100 NHL Point | March 24, 2009 |

## Transactions
### Trades

| Date | Details | Details |
| September 26, 2008 | To Anaheim Ducks Ken Klee Brad Larsen Chad Painchaud | To Atlanta Thrashers Mathieu Schneider |
| January 13, 2009 | To New York Islanders Junior Lessard | To Atlanta Thrashers Brett Skinner |
| January 14, 2009 | To Columbus Blue Jackets Jason Williams | To Atlanta Thrashers Clay Wilson 6th-round pick in 2009 – David Pacan |
| February 16, 2009 | To Montreal Canadiens Mathieu Schneider Conditional pick in 2009 (condition satisfied) – Joonas Nattinen | To Atlanta Thrashers 2nd-round pick in 2009 – Jeremy Morin 3rd-round pick in 2010 – Julian Melchiori |
| March 2, 2009 | To New Jersey Devils Niclas Havelid Myles Stoesz | To Atlanta Thrashers Anssi Salmela |

### Free agents

| Player | Former team | Contract Terms |
| Player | New team |
| Bobby Holik | New Jersey Devils |
| Mark Recchi | Tampa Bay Lightning |
| Jason Krog | Vancouver Canucks |

### Claimed from waivers

| Player | Former team | Date claimed off waivers |
| Rich Peverley | Nashville Predators | January 10, 2009 |

## Draft picks

Atlanta's picks at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft in Ottawa, Ontario.
| Round | # | Player | Position | Nationality | College/Junior/Club team (League) |
| 1 | 3 | Zach Bogosian | (D) | United States | Peterborough Petes (OHL) |
| 1 | 29 (from Pittsburgh) | Daultan Leveille | (C) | Canada | St. Catharines Falcons (GOJHL) |
| 3 | 64 | Danick Paquette | (RW) | Canada | Lewiston Maineiacs (QMJHL) |
| 4 | 94 | Vinny Saponari | (RW) | United States | U.S. National Team Development Program (NAHL) |
| 5 | 124 | Nicklas Lasu | (LW) | Sweden | Frölunda HC (Sweden Jr.) |
| 6 | 154 | Chris Carrozzi | (G) | Canada | Mississauga St. Michael's Majors (OHL) |
| 7 | 184 | Zach Redmond | (D) | United States | Ferris State University (CCHA) |