Thrashers sign Holik
Thrashers sign Holik
Two-time Stanley Cup champ inks three year deal
By JOHN MANASSO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/02/05
Making the biggest free-agent signing in their history, the Thrashers signed free-agent center Bobby Holik, a two-time Stanley Cup champion who fits the bill of the big, physical two-way center they have always needed but never had.
Holik's agent Mike Gillis confirmed that the deal is for three years. The Thrashers were temporarily withholding comment. The Canadian Web site Sportsnet.ca reported that the first year of the contract would pay Holik $4.25 million.
At 8 a.m., Gillis said he had 10 phone calls from teams but that the Thrashers had yet to call. Less than five hours later he confirmed the deal.
"They were committed," he said.
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Holik, who will be 34 on Jan. 1, is a 13-year veteran who has scored 20 or more goals eight times. He also should help on faceoffs, penalty killing and defensively, helping transform a team that has never made the playoffs into a serious contender.
In the summer of 2002, Holik left New Jersey for the New York Rangers, who gave him a five-year dealing totaling $45 million, a sum some considered far too high for a player who had never scored more than 29 goals in a season in his career.
Last Friday, the Rangers were allowed to buy out his contract at two-thirds of its value after a 24-percent rollback without having his salary count against the league's new $39-million per team salary cap.
The Rangers exercised the buyout at more than $9 million, allowing Holik to become an unrestricted free agent.
Holik is known as an outspoken player, one to whom winning is important. Gillis had said that coaching was important to Holik.
"As you know, Bobby is used to disciplined coaches who have pretty high expectations of team play," he said.
That description appeared to identify the Thrashers' Bob Hartley.
"That's what we think, too," Gillis said.
Gillis also seemed to hint that the organization reminded Holik of the Devils, a team that has won with coaching, scouting and players filling roles.
"He looked at the coach, he focused on the coach and the organization," Gillis said. "He felt that there was a great opportunity to win. He felt there was something similar between an organization he was very familiar with and he saw a number of similarities in approach and style and felt comfortable with this."
Gillis would not say he was talking about New Jersey, but that description does not fit the Rangers, nor would it seem to characterize the Hartford Whalers, the team that drafted Holik 10th overall in 1989 and with whom he played two seasons.
Born in the former Czechoslovakia, Holik has become an American citizen but is unable to play in World Championships, the World Cup or Olympics for the United States since he once played at that level for his former country.
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