Ever since the Atlanta Thrashers entered the league in 1999, they have had little stability within the organization, and as a result, it has shown up in attendance numbers and the team's inability to make the playoffs. Nowhere is this more evident than the history of the team's captaincy.
For the most part, the Thrashers' captains have often been players with experience, which read correctly, means players on their last legs. In fact, they have had four captains in their first five years of existence, with Kelly Buchberger, Steve Staios, Ray Ferraro, and Shawn McEachern having the C on their sweater during that time, with only McEachern having it more than one season (2002-2004). After the lockout, the first two years of the captaincy belonged to Scott Mellanby, which was followed for a year by Bobby Holik. Like the many players with name recognition that the Thrashers signed over the years, Holik was pretty much there to collect a paycheck, as his skills had eroded by the time he got to Atlanta. The 2008-2009 season saw the team go without a captain, and the following year, Ilya Kovalchuk was named captain and held it until his trade on February 4, 2010. Currently, the Thrashers are without a captain, a rather fitting thing for a team that has always sought some stable leadership.
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