The name of the new franchise was chosen after a fan poll was conducted. The brown thrasher is the state bird of Georgia and so the team was aptly named the Thrashers. They play their home games at the Philips Arena.

Their first game was on October 2, 1999, where they lost to the New Jersey Devils. The current owners of the team are the group of Atlanta Spirit, who took over the team in September 2003. Tragedy struck the Thrashers later that month, when star forward Dany Heatley had an accident in his Ferrari, in which he was severely injured. But worse hit was Dan Snyder who was with him in the car. Snyder passed away after five days. That year, the team wore black patches with number 37, which was Snyder’s number, on their jerseys.

In the 2003-2004 season, the Thrashers made it to the top of the Southeast Division but could not keep up the winning streak. They ended up with a long losing streak after that for about two months. They broke the losing streak when they defeated the Vancouver Canucks in February, 2004. Ilya Kovalchuk became the second Thrashers player, after Dany Heatley, to score in the NHL All-Star Game.

Once the 2003-2004 season was over, Heatley requested a trade and the team traded him for Marian Hossa of the Ottawa Senators. After the 2006 season, Hossa became the first Thrasher to have scored hundred points in a single season. The Atlanta Thrashers won their first ever Division Championship in the 2006-2007 season. They made the playoffs for the Stanley Cup, which was the first time ever for the team. They lost in the first round of the playoffs, when they were beaten by the New York Rangers, 4-0.

The Current Team and Staff

The Thrashers are owned by the Atlanta Spirit, LLC with Bruce Levenson as the Managing Partner. The General Manager of the team is Don Waddell and the head coach is Bob Hartley. There is no captain at the moment, because the team captain Scott Mellanby retired in April 2007. The Thrashers are yet to win a Conference Championship or the Stanley Cup. They won a Division Championship in 2007. The colors of the team are navy blue, ice blue, red and gold. No Thrashers have been inducted into the Hall of Fame as yet and no jersey numbers have been retired. The number 37 for Dan Snyder has not been used since his death, but it has not been retired.