Market Price Update: Jamie Heward?

The Thrashers bolstered their blueline last night, acquiring Alexei Zhitnik from the Flyers in exchange for 2003 #8 overall pick Braydon Coburn. Zhitnik - who has two years remaining on his current contract at $3.5 million per year and will be 35 in October - will help the Thrasher power-play in the short-term (and I guess for the next two years), but at the price of the player taken with the pick before Dion Phaneuf?

And while Caps' d-man Jamie Heward is not Alexei Zhitnik, let's take a quick look at the numbers:

• Heward ($675,000 salary in 2006-07, UFA after this season): 51 games played, 4 goals, 11 assists, +3, 27 PIMs, 47 SOG in 16:21 of ice time per game.

• Zhitnik ($2,136,000 salary in 2006-07, $3,500,000 salary in 2007-08 and 2008-09): 61 games played, 5 goals, 19 assists, -3, 78 PIMs, 110 SOG in 23:35 of ice time per game.

Point being, Atlanta overpaid for Zhitnik and will likely wish they hadn't come next year and the year after. Zhitnik isn't terribly good and there were (and are) other, cheaper options out there that come at a lower risk and offer a similar reward.

It continues to be a seller's market - at least if the buyer on the other side is Don Waddell.