28-year old sniper Dany Heatley, who has 180 goals in his past four seasons, wants to leave the Senators. Love him or hate him Ottawa fans - this move is going to have a big impact on your team.
"It all has to do with hockey. It all has to do with the hockey environment he's in," Heatley's agent JP Barry told Sportsnet.ca on Tuesday night. "It's just about where his situation is with the team."
With Heatley often being relegated to the second power play unit by new coach Cory Clouston in an effort to spread out the scoring, there was likely some friction there. Honestly, having your best goal scorer on PP2 makes very little sense so if that was a factor then Heatley has a point there. But he and Jason Spezza have such special chemistry on the ice, so it's a gamble to leave that behind.
The rumour mill will be clicking into overdrive throughout the next few weeks (Edmonton! Edmonton! Edmonton!) leading up the NHL draft, a time by which several big deals could be going down around the league. Heatley has five years left on his contract, which eats up $7.5M in cap space each season. That's going to realistically limit the number of teams that can take him, although there are so few legitimate high-end goal scorers in this league that you can bet a number of franchises will be trying to shuffle anything they can to take a run at him.
The sad thing for the Senators is that it seems unlikely in today's cap-conscious world that they'll get even value for him like we saw in the original deal with Atlanta that saw Marian Hossa (and Greg de Vries) shipped to the Thrashers for Heatley. The flip side of that is any cap space freed up will allow more room to sign another star, so that balances out in the end. Goal scorers like him, regardless of what other deficiencies you may think exist in his game, do not grow on trees though and are not available on the open market that often.
There's not really much fantasy impact to talk about with Heatley per say, since we don't yet know what sort of situation he'll be jumping into yet. His value really shouldn't be hindered anywhere though and he'll be looking to gun for 50 goals again wherever he lands. The only stat really at stake with any move, at this point, would be his +/- and that'll depend on how good the team is on which he ends up post-trade.
On the other side of the coin, this should mean that Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson spend most of next season together. We've seen the Pizza Line as the default unit for this team for a long time now, but it was generally Alfredsson moved onto a different unit when any given coach wanted to mix things up with Spezza and Heatley staying together. Not always, but more often than not that was the case. Now? As of this point, Spezza and Alfie will be the big dogs on the team until we see who comes back in any Heatley trade or who is signed with the extra cap room. By mid-July we should have a pretty good idea of how the top six will look for the Sens, so that'll make things a bit easier for projecting '09-10.
On a side note... after YEARS of trying to land the final piece (Alfredsson) of the Pizza Line for Team Nichols in my keeper league near the end of last season (surrendering youngsters Ville Leino and Brian Elliott for a few more glory years of Alfie), now Heatley wants out? If he ends up with the Oilers, all will be forgiven.
MEET THE NEW RON HEXTALL
So as you've no doubt heard by now, the Flyers and Ray Emery are pairing up and this marriage should be just as entertaining as Heidi and Spencer's. Emery is much more likeable though.
The deal is believed to be for one season at a very reasonable $1.5M, which allows the Flyers some breathing room. Martin Biron was a $3.5M cap hit and Antero Niittymaki used up another $1.2M. It's unclear who is going to back up Emery, although the Flyers did sign Swedish goalie Johan Backlund near the end of March and he might fit the bill.
Clearly, Emery goes from having zero fantasy value in the KHL to having pretty decent potential as the number one guy between the pipes for one of the better teams in the East. He had a really good season in Russia, although the stats are fairly irrelevant because the talent level is just nowhere near the NHL. Still, he did pretty much everything he could to earn back some trust in his overall game. Yes, there was the hat incident with the trainer but give me a break... try sticking a hat on my head in the same situation and I probably would have gone after the guy too.
And you know what? Sometimes you have to lose something before you can actually appreciate what you had. That aspect could really work in favour of both Emery and poolies, who may be able to reap the rewards.
Here are some quotes from Razor via the Philadelphia Daily News at the morning news conference.
"I really appreciate the opportunity being given to me," Emery said. "I lost that once before and have that in the back of mind... I'm not saying I'm not going to be a fiery guy. I love playing hockey... I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize that opportunity and the people giving it to me."
"For the most part I had a great time in Ottawa. For the last year, things took a turn for the worse. A lot of the things I wish I could have changed about the last year there. That being said, I can definitely say I've learned from the bad experiences, maybe more than the good times. I realize I had a great thing there and lost a lot of people that I enjoyed hanging out with on a daily basis. I want to get back to having those good relationships and enjoying my workplace and the sport.
"It's a great position to have, a great job to be in. That's the reason I'm going to change because I realize the good things far outweigh the mistakes I made the last year there."
GM Paul Holmgren said the 26-year old goalie would mesh nicely with the Flyers.
"He is still a young guy," Holmgren noted. "He is going to fit on our team from an age standpoint, from a competitive standpoint. He is a good fit for our team. We're really excited about this opportunity, not only for Ray but for the Flyers."
How will this gamble work out for the Philly? We'll see. Regardless, I'd be willing to bet the fans in that area come to love the Ron Hextall that lives within Emery.
I can't wait to start working on the '09-10 goaltending rankings.
SPEAKING OF WHICH...
Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason will be reunited with his favourite coach next season, according to the Columbus Dispatch. David Rook, who has been the goalie coach for the London Knights for a number of years and was also a consultant for the St. Louis Blues last season, will be officially named to the post in Columbus this week.
"We're still working out the details with David," general manager Scott Howson said. "But he's the only person we're talking to now, and hopefully it's only a matter of days before it's done."
Having a full-time mentor, who can help with both mechanics and mental aspects of the game, should help Mason's chances of following up his '08-9 success next season. The soon-to-be Calder winner will have pretty big expectations coming off a rookie campaign where he posted a 2.29 GAA and .916 SV% with a league-leading 10 shutouts to go with his 33-20-7 record.
The other key for the Jackets will be keeping him rested though, which means signing a competent back-up that can be thrown in there for 15-20 games. There are a number of goalies on the market this summer, so it's just a matter of finding the right cap fit with a veteran who's ok taking a backseat.
Ideally it'd be a situation similar to what Atlanta has with Johan Hedberg. Wade Dubielewicz is a UFA, Fredrik Norrena is gone and Pascal Leclaire will be between the pipes for the Sens. Dan LaCosta has spent three seasons in the ECHL and AHL, but only one of those seasons resulted in any significant AHL playing time. He had 45 GP last year with a 2.79 GAA and .913 SV% with a pair of shutouts and a 19-18-2 mark.