Thrasher Rumblings from Calder Cup Watchers

This weekend Ben Wright and Craig Custance experienced one of the perks of being paid hockey writers--spending time on the road watching our AHL club in action. The Blueland Blog is overrun with live game blog-post from the first two games of the series. Lost between games 1 and 2 is a nice post about 2006 first round pick, Brian Little. I don't expect the center to make the jump to the Thrashers' roster next season, but it sounds like he is doing all he can to defy the odds.

The first comment out of his mouth when asked about the game wasn't a complaint about his limited ice time or lack of time on the power play. Instead he talked about defensive side of the game.

"Our line had some good shifts and had some bad shifts. I came out a minus one so I'm not to happy about that. I don't like being on the ice when we get scored against."

When was the last time you heard a high draft pick that's supposed to be a future offensive centerpiece talk about defensive responsibility?

Craig Custance is using his time with the Wolves to profile some of the more exciting young players in the organization. He kicked off a week long series by talking with blue liner Mark Popovic. Craig declares Popovic ready for NHL and expects to see him on next year's roster.

Of any Thrashers prospect, the 24-year-old Popovic is the closest to consistently contributing at the NHL level. There just hasn't been room on the Thrashers' crowded blueline.

Expect more from Craig this week on Boris Valabik, Brett Sterling, Nathan Oystrick and Brian Little.