Written by Graeme Nichols | 17 June 2009

It's interesting to note how many potential trade partners don't need Dany Heatley, well, at least in the eyes of those respective journalists who cover their teams. First there was Andy Stricklands' take and then there was Andy "Fuck my life, I spend every day at the West Edmonton Mall" Tshysfkakskfaadfasdf. When TSN broke the story that Heatley had requested a trade, his representatives must have expected that he'd take some heat (pardon the pun) from the local media and fanbase.

However, gauging by Heatley's absence and unwillingness to answer his critics, I don't his camp expected this much of a shit storm to build up. His reputation has taken a beating and words like cancer, douchebag, selfish, not-a-winner and Yashin have become synonymous with his name. At this point, you really have to question whether or not he regrets making his request public knowledge.

Of course all this came before, Damien Cox, of the Toronto Star, proceeded to take the character assassination to the next level. If you're not familiar with Cox, no worries, I'll fill you in on the details.

You can regularly see Cox on television as he regularly appears on the Canadian version of the ESPN show The Reporters, where four Canadian sports journalists get together and talk about current sports stories or issues. The only difference being that the Canadian guys are exponentially more smug and arrogant without possessing half of the professionalism of their American counterparts. If anything, Cox comes off as a Canadian version of Jay Mariotti -- annoying and loud but he isn't concerned with the fact that he's balding or that he's half as knowledgeable about sports.

Anyways, here's what Cox had to say (as usual, my comments will be bolded):

Mr. Me First

Talk to Dany Heatley once and you understand you're not talking to a MENSA candidate.

Amazingly, this isn't the first time I've heard this. One of my best friend's dads is well connected to some hockey insiders. Anyways, when the team started to go south during the 2007-2008 season, he asked the insider what the problem was. The response? Any team lead by Heatley and Spezza is doomed for failure. Heatley's so dumb that you could stick him in a corner and water him as a plant. It is weird that a professional journalist would come right out and say this though. Even though Don Brennan seems to be taking Heatley's trade request more personally than others, he hasn't even stooped to this level yet.

That's okay. As probably more a few coaches have told Heatley along the way: don't think, it just hurts the team.

But where Heatley really kept his synapses in reserve this time was his timing concerning a request to have his hockey contract traded to another NHL club.

The timing of the trade request isn't the problem. Okay, so it could have waited a week as to not overshadow the Stanley Cup Finals but big deal. It gives Bryan Murray more time to shop his services and other teams, like Philadelphia, were making moves of their own as well. The only problem with the Heatley request is the fact that it was made public knowledge. Had he made his request in a private fashion, a la Peter Schaefer, any subsequent Heatley deal would have came as a surprise. If anything, blame Heatley's camp for their stupidity in leaking this trade information and causing irreparable harm to Heatley's reputation.

I get the part where he doesn't want to live in Ottawa. Neither would I. I get the part where after being allowed to freelance continuously during his years as a heroic Senator he might chafe at the notion of being asked to play a larger team game.

The only reason Cox doesn't want to live here is because slapping Steve Simmons on the ass would require a 5-hour commute. Besides, the CFL doesn't live here.

Geez, if he'd known he'd have to play in three zones he'd have asked for more money.

Heatley plays in two of the three zones, who cares if you have to wait for the second period to start before he starts spending time in the other end?

No, the part where I don't get Heatley's timing is when it comes to the fact that just about every Canadian hockey player is trying to be on their best behaviour these days in hopes that Steve Yzerman might find them worthy of being part of the Olympic effort next winter.

Weird. I thought the biggest contributing factor was production? Dany Heatley is the third most productive goal scorer in the past three seasons, trailing only two Russians -- Ovechkin and Kovalchuk. I can understand bubble candidates having to jump through hoops and play their asses off to crack the Canadian squad but come on, Heatley's the modern version of Brett Hull.

Instead, Heatley is painting himself as a me-first individual to Yzerman, a guy who played through all the hard years in Detroit and never played for any other club even when it meant taking less money at the end of his career.

Yzerman also played during a time when players didn't hit unrestricted free agency until the age of 31. It was more common for players to stay with one team for the duration of their career. But whatever, comparing Heatley to Yzerman at this stage of their careers is absurd. Heatley wants out of Ottawa citing philosophical differences with management and the coaching staff, he wants off a team that has been mediocre to average for the past two seasons. Regardless of how selfish that might be, he's within his right to ask for a trade and it's not an uncommon practice in professional sports. He was regarded as a good guy and teammate by Mike Fisher in a recent Don Brennan article, and that's good enough for me.

To me, Heatley was one of those 2006 Team Canada members who needed to be replaced anyway for the sake of moving forward with a new team attitude and dynamic for a tournament that promises to be a killer. For the same reasons I'd be moving on from guys like Joe Thornton and Marty St. Louis and maybe even Chris Pronger as well.

Okay, I get it. Every Olympic year, there is an onus to foster some youth movement but like in past years, it will be slow. Players like Shea Weber and Sidney Crosby will be expected to shoulder big responsibilities but why on earth would management pass on a prolific goal scorer who leads the National team in career goals and who at the age of 28, is in the prime years of his career? It doesn't make sense. I could understand,had names like Doan, Morrow or Ryan Smyth been mentioned but lumping Heatley in with these forwards is absurd.

But most people would have all four of those players pencilled in to their 2010 Canadian lineup

Now, who knows? Heatley has played for two NHL teams and asked to be traded twice. He must have missed those basic lessons on personal responsibility and commitment during grade school, opting instead for a lucrative life of off-ice recklessness and playing mostly for himself. In terms of hockey, he scores goals, and that's about it.

Funny, I don't recall Mr. Cox ever penning an article in 2006 criticizing Dany's issues stemming from Atlanta. To retroactively shit on Dany for an unfortunate incident that transpired in October of 2003 is callous and out of line. In terms of hockey, I seem to recall a line of Getzlaf, Nash and Heatley dominating the play. If all Heatley does is score goals, Canada can count on the other 11 forwards to play a two-way game.

In '06, Todd Bertuzzi was the lightning rod for criticism of Wayne Gretzky's last Olympic squad, both because he didn't belong because he wasn't good enough and because his previous acts as a professional athlete made him an unworthy Olympian.

This time, we might be saying the same about Heatley.

Bertuzzi was only a lightning rod for criticism because of what he did on the ice, not off of it. Listen, I get the fact that part of your schtick is to rile people up and stir the pot but you cannot equate Dany Heatley's trade request with the crippling of Steve Moore. Dany Heatley might be an unequivocal self-absorbed, numbers-obsessed asshole, but he ain't no fucking Todd Bertuzzi.It's innane, even for you Mr. Cox.

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