Joey Crabb of Anchorage had spent a week with the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers while on his first promotion from the American Hockey League, and he began to wonder if he would ever make his debut in the world's best hockey league.

The Thrashers had played three games that week, and Crabb was a healthy scratch in all three.

After Friday night, though, the speculation is over.

He's an NHLer.

Crabb, 25, made his debut in Atlanta's 4-3 overtime loss to visiting Nashville to become the 12th Alaskan to play in the NHL.

A right wing, Crabb played 12 shifts and fired three shots on goal while logging 9 minutes, 21 seconds of ice time.

More than nine years after he left Anchorage as a teenager to chase his dream, Crabb's became the sixth Alaskan currently in the NHL.

"I've been thinking about this my whole life,'' Crabb said by cell phone from Atlanta on Friday night. "Playing in the NHL was my goal since I was a little kid. It's pretty good right now.''

Crabb joins five others, all from Anchorage, currently playing in the league. They are New York Rangers centers Scott Gomez, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, and Brandon Dubinsky; Detroit Red Wings goaltender Ty Conklin; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Matt Carle; and New York Islanders center Nate Thompson.

The other Alaskans who have played in the NHL are right wing Ty Jones of Eagle River; center Brian Swanson of Eagle River; right wing Scott Parker of Eagle River; left wing Barrett Heisten of Anchorage; left wing Jason Ryznar of Anchorage; and the late B.J. Young of Anchorage, a forward.

Crabb, a third-year pro who until his call-up had played his entire play-for-pay career with the AHL's Chicago Wolves, with whom he won a Calder Cup last season, wondered before Friday if he was headed back to the Windy City.

"I was getting antsy, and I wondered if I might be sent down,'' Crabb said. "I finally got it, and it feels good. Hopefully, things keep going well, but you never know.

"It's completely day by day. Sometimes (a team official) walks past me, and I think, 'Oh, boy, is this when they send me down?' If they do, it's not the end of the world. But not so far...''

Crabb, who as a youth played for Dimond High and in the Alaska All Stars competition program, left Anchorage when he was 16 and played two seasons in USA Hockey's National Team Development Program, based in Ann Arbor, Mich. He played a season after that for the Green Bay Gamblers of the U.S. Hockey League.

Crabb then played four seasons at Colorado College, where he racked 53 goals and 109 points in 158 career games and earned a degree in economics.

He was off to his best start in Chicago, with five goals and 10 points in 16 games this season. Two of his goals came short-handed.

Friday night, Crabb started the game with center Marty Reasoner and winger Colby Armstrong. About halfway through the game, he began playing with center Jim Slater and winger Eric Boulton.

"I felt all right the first two periods, but I didn't really have my legs,'' Crabb said. "I didn't play bad, but I didn't play great.

"But in the third period, I started feeling pretty good and our line got a couple of chances. I had two pretty decent chances. I wish I could have buried one, but you can't get too greedy.''

In the NHL, Crabb makes $550,000 a season -- the league minimum is $475,000. Players in Crabb's circumstances are paid on a pro-rated basis based on the number of days they are in the league. With no less than 184 days in an NHL season, as provided by the collective bargaining agreement, Crabb makes almost $3,000 per day.

So far, he's received one paycheck.

"It's not bad,'' Crabb said with a chuckle. "I could get used to that.''