Kick It Up a Notch
August 5th, 2009, 7:47 am
Looks like the Heatley rumors have gained in frequency and intensity. I just happened to have seen this a second ago:
A league source said Tuesday in Toronto that Dany Heatley will be traded to the San Jose Sharks “in the next two days”.
Stay tuned.
Wow. Anyway, that’s basically the main focus for this week’s podcast, so check it out. However, I also just read this quote in David Pollak’s latest:
I do have it on good authority that there won’t be any big-time distractions between now and 11 a.m. Thursday, so don’t hold your breath on those Dany-Heatley-to-San-Jose rumors leading anywhere just yet.
Who the hell knows? It seems that the Sharks are the last man standing when it comes to Heatley, and if Brian Murray is really trying to get a deal done, there seems to be a good chance that Doug Wilson will take his time, and maybe try to pull off a “Joe Thornton 2 – This Time It’s Personal” kind of a trade. That’s the message when you’re dangling Cheechoo and Ehrhoff for Heatley. Let’s be honest- a GM would only take that deal if they are over a barrel. Which Brian Murray is.
Some GMs seem to be thrill seekers. How else would explain Glen Sather signing both Chris Drury and Scott Gomez for over $7M a year? That’s a high risk-high reward stuff. Doing coke off a stripper’s stomach while driving kind of stuff. And now Sather has done it again this off-season, by signing Marian Gaborik for another $7M+ per year.
Doug Wilson doesn’t seem to be one of those guys that likes to take chances like that. On the plus side, you don’t get stuck with these gigantic contracts for many years. On the minus side, it could be death by a million papercuts. Maybe Michalek’s deal isn’t the best deal ever. But you couple that with Vlasic, Cheechoo and Ehrhoff making over $3M per, and Murray making $2.5M per, and you’re at the gates of Cap Hell. The good thing is these contracts are easier to move, so I would take the smaller movable deals rather than the big job-buster, but Heatley is definitely in the latter camp.
Doug estimated how likely it was that Heatley was coming to the Sharks, and that number surprised me (I’ll make you listen to it to find out what it is). What’s your estimate, and if this major deal does happen, is it a sign that Doug Wilson is starting to play fast and loose?
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If he doesn’t make a significant trade he looks like he’s all talk and no action. He promised a change, time to deliver. Say what you want about Heatley, he’s a 50 goal scorer.
Here’s the relevant quote from DP:
He questioned the team’s leadership. He promised that changes would be made — but he also said that changes come in many forms. Even then it sounded as if he were hedging his bets, that maybe there would be blockbuster trades or maybe there wouldn’t, that it might mean simply that different players would have the C or the A on the jersey.
Let’s not confuse what we want for what DW said he was going to do. Ditching Goc, Grier, Plihal, JR, signing Nichol, and stripping the C from Patty would on most teams be considerable change. It’s also a pretty fair assumption that Cheech will be gone. All those things together may not be as splashy as trading for an All-Star, but it’s still quite the overhaul for a team that had 117 points last year.
I know I was summarily dismissed in the idea that Edmonton would be the third team to make a Heatley trade viable, but I stand by that as far more realistic than MTL or BOS helping out their divisional rival unload a problem. If Murray is in a corner, why would Gainey or Chirelli entertain any notion of helping facilitate a trade?
Sure, if you send players to Edmonton, you have to play against them. But does that outweigh the return? SJ gets Heatley, and Edmonton’s 2nd 2010 pick; EDM gets Michalek and Ehrhoff; OTT gets Penner, Cogliano, and Lukowich. Sharks net scoring and cap space; Oilers absorb biggest cap hit, but also upgrade talent; Senators are out of the mess they’re in, taking on potential and depth.
Edmonton may be out of pursuing Dany, but I think Doug’s previous point that the players mentioned in the trade ultimately having to go is a good one.
All that said, there’s less than a 10% chance Heatley becomes a Shark before the start of the season.
I think it’s more than 75% chance that Dany will dress as a Shark on October 1 in Denver. All these rumors are coming from different sources, and even NHL.com posted an article about it, and they never ever write about rumors or possible trades. I’m glad the deal will likely not include Marleau, and I’m fine if it means we have to load 3rd and 4th lines with bunch of Worcester kids. We’ve done it for half of last season and somehow still came out as no. 1 team in the NHL.
Dany will have a lot of prove in this next season, and playing alongside Thornton, he’ll easily challenge Ovy for RR trophy.
I hope the trade happens, even if he demands another trade 3-4 years down the line. I want to see a real scorer on our team, a one-man-show that Heatley is.
Dougie – pull the trigger. Let’s let JR enjoy his last few minutes of being an NHL player, and let’s announce a trade shortly after.
I would like to point out that Toronto is the rumour mill for all sports, inc golf and tennis. Since living in the GTA, I have heard more rumours and “talk” than the previous 15 years in San Jose and all the sporting news I read down there. I could make up a rumour and say I heard it on the FAN590, tell my husband, who would then tell his brother who would tell people, it would spread all over the GTA.
I have heard a ton of crazy things including some true ones that I ended up only believeing once it was in a press release from a reliable source, ie team page or league.
At my son’s baseball game last Tuesday, another dad told us that he heard on the FAN590 that Roy Halladay was traded to Boston for Bucholtz and some other players. I found this odd since my A’s were playing the Sox at that moment and Bucholtz was pitching for Boston. But this rumour buzzed for hours yet it wasn’t true.
All this to say, if it comes out of Toronto, it probably isn’t gonna happen or isn’t true. I swear that is what Toronto does. I don’t listen to sports radio here.
Also, to be added:
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Redfield T. Baum ruled Wednesday that all bids for the financially ailing Coyotes, those to keep the team in Arizona or to move it elsewhere, would be accepted for the Sept. 10 auction.
He specifically said the US$212.5-million offer from Balsillie, the Canadian billionaire who twice before tried to move an American team to Canada, would be considered.
I’ll put the odds at 75% as well. I think Heatley to SJ would be an outstanding move so long as Marleau is not moved as a consequence. The Red Wings have Franzen-Zetterburg-Datsyuk, the Blackhawks have Kane-Toews-Hossa (after he comes back from injury), the Penguins have Crosby-Malkin. The Sharks with Marleau-Thornton-Heatley would be dynamite, better than any of those groups except maybe DET.