Throughout this year’s off-season, NHL All-Star Dany Heatley has repeatedly been the center of attention when it comes to trade rumors. Even though the Ottawa Senators would have liked to keep the 28-year old left wing forward, his disgruntled attitude towards the franchise eventually forced a trade.
On Monday the Senators’ front office released the details of a trade that sends Heatley to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Jonathan Cheechoo, Milan Michalek and a second round draft pick. According to sources close to Dany Heatley, he refused to continue playing for Ottawa as he felt the coach did not utilize his skill set adequately. To make things even worse for the franchise, Heatley’s contracted included a no-movement clause which prevented the Senators from maximizing his trade value. Thus, he supposedly turned down various trade offers including the one made by the Edmonton Oilers two weeks ago. However, he finally got his wish as GM Brian Murray was able to work out a deal with the San Jose Sharks that allows the Canadian forward to move on to another contender.
Over the course of his seven years in the NHL, Heatley managed to score 260 goals and added 283 assists for a grand total of 543 career points in just 507 games. In fact, he had two straight 100-plus point seasons for the Senators in 2006 and 2007. Likewise, he appeared in five NHL All-Star games and was able to tie Wayne Gretzky’s All-Star goal record with four goals in 2003. There is very little doubt that Jonathan Cheechoo and Milan Michalek are both very capable forwards, but it remains to be seen whether they will be able to compensate the loss of Dany Heatley. Even though they both put up 90-point and 60-point seasons respectively in the past, neither of them has been able to cross the 50-point mark in recent years. However, one can hardly blame the Senators’ management as they were forced to come up with a deal due to Heatley’s refusal to play for Ottawa. Unfortunately for the franchise from Ontario, this trade could very well go down in the books as another deal where an All-Star player could not yield equal value.
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