Atlanta Thrashers have signed goaltender Chris Mason to a 2-year, $3.7M contract ($1.85M cap hit per year). Mason spent the last two seasons in St. Louis, where he helped the Blues to a playoff berth one year and earned 30 wins the next. He will likely start most games for the Thrashers, splitting duties with still-unsigned restricted free agent Ondrej Pavelec.
In Mason, the Thrashers acquire a veteran goalie with an impressive resume. Although the 34-year-old is on the back end of his career, his reliability will be a welcome change for a team with a long history of uncertainty in net.
Despite being very talented, young Pavelec is enigmatically inconsistent. He may stop 40 pucks in a dominant performance one night, then allow 4 weak goals the next. Ondrej will be dangerous if he finds his game, but the organization cannot afford to wait any longer. Johan “Moose” Hedberg, who just signed with the New Jersey Devils, is a career backup coming off of a career year in his late 30s. Although he played well enough for the Thrashers during his tenure, the talent level was not there, and stronger offensive teams would expose his glaring weaknesses. Also gone is Kari Lehtonen, who the Thrashers traded to Dallas towards the end of last season. Although the former #2 played like a franchise goalie at times, he was more fragile than a Ming vase.
Dudley’s plan might be to ween the team off of Chris Mason in those two years, then lean on Pavelec. Hopefully he will be ready before Mason’s contract ends.