| 02 July 2009
Alright, so this piece is in rebuttal to a piece that Andy Strickland posted over at Hockeybuzz. In it, Strickland blames the Sens brass for trying to work out a deal with the Oilers, a team that's not on Heatley's preferred list of destinations. As always, our thoughts will be in bold.
Look, I know I’ve been critical of Dany Heatley since he requested a trade a few weeks ago, but he should not be taking the heat (no pun intended) with this Edmonton situation.
Opening with a 'heat' pun is like opening with a holocaust joke at a bar mitzvah. It's not creative, it's not funny and no one is impressed.
Several days ago Heatley presented Ottawa with a list of teams he would accept a trade to and solid sources tell me Edmonton was NOT one of them.
Are these the same sources that told you that Pronger was a King?
Why should Heatley accept a trade to a city he never said he would go to?
When the alternative is to stay in Ottawa, why wouldn't he go? He's insulted the fans, thrown Cory Clouston under the bus and has put his teammates in a tough spot.
So now Ottawa wants to basically trash Heatley publicly for not agreeing to this deal?
No, we (Ottawa) have been trashing Heatley for weeks. This isn't some overnight phenomenon. If anything, most fans were too busy trashing the return from Edmonton than they were Heatley.
This is Bryan Murray’s fault for constructing a deal to a team Heatley never suggested he would play for.
"They've indicated some teams that they prefer. I don't know that I'm going to be, at the end of the day, stuck to that list.If he doesn't want to be in Ottawa and there's another team that offers me a deal that I think is a better deal, then obviously I've got to put some pressure on them to accept that, or he may end up playing back here." ~ Bryan Murray, courtesy The National Post
Murray asked Heatley’s agent to provide Murray with a trade request in writing which specifically states Heatley will accept a deal to a “mutually” agreed hockey club.
They never mutually agreed to go to Edmonton.
You can’t force a trade on a player who has a no-move in his contract.
Agreed. You can't force a player to go somewhere when he has a NMC. However, Bryan Murray doesn't have to send Dany Heatley to a preferred destination when that said destination is offering up bags of excrement for the third most productive player in the past three seasons.
Murray had to have the trade request in writing to prevent a Joe Corvo situation from happening. If you remember Corvo said he didn’t ask for a trade after he was eventually moved. The club said Corvo did request to be traded.
Right. It's called due diligence and it protects the hockey club from some bad public relations. Besides, a little known fact is Corvo has a tattoo that says "TRADE ME OTTAWA" encrypted and hidden in tribal patterns.
So now it’s being painted like the club is waiting on Dany, but if the club would make a deal with a team he has identified as an organization he’ll play for we wouldn’t have this circus forced upon us. This is not about Heatley wanting to accept a trade on his terms. This is about accepting a trade to a team he said he would play for.
The club was waiting on Dany to make a decision on whether or not he wanted to go to Edmonton. That point is irrefutable. If yesterday proves anything, it's that Dany probably has preferences, but he also is probably open to exploring options. He obviously was open enough to drag on trade talk for over 24 hours with a team that wasn't on his list, so why should this stop Murray from looking for the best deal? Clearly its not a problem for either and the list is a big grey area. It's all about leverage in this situation and Murray doesn't have to be handcuffed into a deal with any of the teams on Heatley's list just because they're on his list. He's going to do what he feels is in the best interests of the organization, not what's in the best interests of Dany Heatley.
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