Dafoe exercises option with Thrashers

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Dafoe exercises option with Thrashers
Canadian Press
6/12/2003

ATLANTA (CP) - Atlanta Thrashers goaltender Byron Dafoe exercised the option in his contract Thursday and will remain with the team next season.

After signing with the Thrashers as a free agent in November, Dafoe was limited to 17 games due to injury. He posted a 5-11-1 record and a 4.36 goals-against average.

``Byron is an accomplished goaltender and we are happy that he has decided to remain in the organization,'' said Thrashers general manager Don Waddell. ``He will strengthen our group of goaltenders and help us be more successful.''

Dafoe has amassed a 167-159-55 record and a 2.66 goals-against average in 397 career games over the past 11 seasons with Washington, Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta.

The five-foot-11, 200-pound netminder has played in 40 or more games in seven out of the last eight seasons in the NHL, including 60 or more three times. He played in a career-high 68 games for Boston in 1998-99.

[1Irbegirlforever]

He had kind of a rough year last year so i hope things go well for him this year. I'm sure it was kind of wierd to go from the Bruins to the Thrashers. ( not that the thrashers aren't a great team)

Best wishes to you byron!

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With full season in store, Dafoe hopes to be the '1' again Aug. 21, 2003
By Wes Goldstein
SportsLine.com Staff Writer

Byron Dafoe can attest to the difference a year makes, even if his routine these days is much the same as it was 12 months ago.

The Atlanta Thrashers goaltender still works out five days a week, as often in a gym as on the ice. Except this time around, he is surrounded by NHL teammates instead of college athletes.

Byron Dafoe wants to play well this year so he isn't forgotten during the expected work stoppage. (Getty Images)
More important, he has a clearer, and certainly a more realistic, picture of what his future holds.

At least his foreseeable future, which is good enough for now because it represents a major change from the summer of 2002, when Dafoe was an unrestricted free agent unable to get a serious contract offer from anyone.

"Last year was very tough," Dafoe said by telephone from Atlanta this week after completing one of his workouts. "July 1 came and went and your motivation comes and goes, too."

Finding the right inspiration isn't a problem any more for Dafoe, a 32-year-old native of Sussex, England, who turned pro with the Washington Capitals organization that drafted him in 1989 before moving to the Los Angeles Kings and then to the Boston Bruins in 1997.

For one thing, Dafoe knows he'll be in training camp next month with an emerging Thrashers team that started to make some noise when Bob Hartley took over as coach midway through last season and boasts young superstars Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk. For another, he understands how personally critical the coming season will be as he tries to revive a career that was set back by a number of circumstances last year.

"Last year was kind of a black mark for me, and I know I have to re-establish myself in a lot of ways," Dafoe said. "It's not that it was five years ago that I had a great year or that my skills have diminished over the course of eight months, but I realize I have to get last year behind me and get back to where I was two years ago."

In 2001-02 Dafoe had a career year and led the Bruins to a stunning Eastern Conference regular-season title. But it turned out to be the final season of his quality five-year tenure in Boston. After a disappointing upset loss to the Canadiens in the first round, the organization made him a scapegoat and let him walk away as an unrestricted free agent.

The problem was that Dafoe gained that status at a time when few teams were searching for a new starting goalie, and those that were had a choice of several other unrestricted free agents including Curtis Joseph, Ed Belfour and Mike Richter.

"Obviously the timing wasn't great, but there are some things you just can't control," he said.

Several clubs did make inquiries about Dafoe over the summer, but it became apparent as the season approached that he was being seen primarily as a fallback option. While he was trying to stay sharp by taking shots from players at Merrimack College, Joseph was becoming Dominik Hasek's replacement in Detroit, Belfour was taking Joseph's old job with the Maple Leafs and Richter was taking a pay cut to stay with the Rangers.

The activity forced Dafoe to languish in limbo until Atlanta signed him to a one-year deal with a player option in mid-November. And the late start, coupled with the lack of training camp, did little to help the 10-year veteran reposition himself as one of the NHL's top-tier goalies.

Dafoe ended up playing only 17 games for the Thrashers. He put together a disappointing 5-11-1 record with an inflated 4.36 GAA and an ugly .862 save percentage before a groin injury forced him to start his summer vacation in February. In the meantime, young goaltender Pasi Nurminen began to assert himself, helping the team go over .500 for the balance of the season.

Nurminen went 7-5-2 after Dafoe went down and ended up finishing the year with a 21-19-5 record to go along with a 2.88 GAA and a .906 save percentage. He recently signed a $1.1 million contract for this season and is expected to challenge Dafoe, who will be paid $3.5 million, for the starting job.

But the bigger long-term threat to Dafoe is Kari Lehtonen, the Finnish phenom taken second overall by Atlanta in the 2002 draft. Labeled a can't-miss prospect, Lehtonen signed his first pro contract this summer, and while he will likely start the year in the minors, the Thrashers are definitely counting on him as their main man for the future.

Dafoe understands that, and with a work stoppage looming next year, he is doing everything he can, including dropping 20 pounds, to ensure that he doesn't become a forgotten man.

"He's worked so hard, it's unbelievable," said Thrashers defenseman Andy Sutton, who has joined teammates Patrik Stefan and Jeff Cowan in working out with Dafoe. "It's really been an incredible motivation for the rest of us."

That's what happens when your future suddenly flashes before your eyes, Dafoe says.

"I'd love to spend the next four, five years here in Atlanta, but we don't know what's going to happen in the future," he said. "That's why my main focus is to have a big year for the opportunity to either stay, or if the Thrashers go in a different direction, to get the opportunity to be with another team as the No. 1 guy. It's very important for me to get back to my expectations."