Ex-Avs coach Hartley expects to land with Thrashers
ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Thrashers called a news conference for Tuesday amid speculation they will hire Bob Hartley as their coach.
Hartley was fired less than a month ago by the Colorado Avalanche.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday on its website that Hartley had been hired.
Thrashers officials would not confirm the move.
The Thrashers fired Curt Fraser on Dec. 26, and general manager Don Waddell took over on an interim basis. They're 4-5-1 under Waddell, and their 12-25-2-4 record is the worst in the NHL.
Waddell interviewed Flyers scout Terry Murray and an unidentified candidate before settling on Hartley.
"There's a lot of emotion in the locker room. Everybody knows what's going on and they were all excited," Waddell said after a 7-4 win Monday night at Philadelphia. "I came in with a win and I go out with a win, so I give the guys a lot of credit for pulling this out for myself and for all of them."
"I'll be the first coach to fire myself after a win," he said.
Waddell, however, would not confirm whether Hartley had been hired.
"Whoever it is, if it's Bob Hartley, he's won a couple of Cups and we'll be happy to have him," said Dany Heatley, who scored three goals in the win over the Flyers.
Hartley, 41, will join the team in time for Wednesday night's home game against Montreal. He led the Avalanche to the Stanley Cup in 2001 and went 193-109-48 -- including 49-31 in the playoffs -- in 4½ seasons.
The first NHL coach in 35 years to take a team to the conference finals in his first four seasons, Hartley was under contract to Colorado through next season. But a 10-8-9-4 start, including only three victories in 15 home games, cost him his job Dec. 18.
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| Bob Hartley is expected to replace Curt Fraser, who was fired Dec. 26.(Getty Images) |
The Thrashers had higher expectations this year after acquiring Shawn McEachern and Vyacheslav Kozlov to complement young stars Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk.
But the new combination never worked, and the Thrashers started the season 0-8-0-1. The team signed free-agent goalie Byron Dafoe in November, but the defense continued to be shoddy, allowing a league-high 124 goals.
Atlanta also added free-agent defensemen Richard Smehlik and Uwe Krupp, but both have spent a good part of this season on injured reserve. Smehlik was activated from injured reserve Monday.
Hartley spent eight years working at a paper mill and a windshield manufacturing plant in tiny Hawkesbury, Ontario, where he was raised. He finally broke free of manual labor when he was 26, coaching his hometown team in the Central Junior Hockey League.
Jobs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the American Hockey League followed, until he was hired by the Avalanche on June 2, 1998.
He never played professionally.
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