Anyone who heard Dany Heatley speak Friday for the first time since his trade request got a glimpse in to the mind of the modern day athlete.
Here’s what we learned from the lips of disgruntled Ottawa Senator Dan Heatley in the 20 minute teleconference he somewhat graciously hosted in Kelowna, BC:
He's unhappy in Ottawa.
He feels his role has been diminished there.
He’s extremely unhappy that his request for a trade has been made public.
His rejection of a deal to send him to Edmonton had nothing to do with Edmonton as a city or a hockey town it just wasn’t the option he was anticipating.
He thinks the city of Ottawa is a good place to play hockey and that the fans of the Senators are a passionate bunch.
He thinks that anyone one who has played with him or has coached him would say he is a team player.
He insists that he hasn’t spoken before now because a hockey trade “is a process” and that he didn’t think it was necessary to add to the “circus” that has already taken place.
He thinks that the trade request to leave Atlanta was different than the trade request to leave Ottawa and that Atlanta was a “personal” decision and Ottawa is a “hockey” decision.
He knows that he has a contract with the Senators and that if he is not traded beforehand he will return to Ottawa and honour that contract.
He knows, not believes, knows that there are teams other than the Edmonton Oilers who are interested in his services and still expects something to get done.
He said that he and his agents had some good talks with the Oilers hockey people and that his decision to reject them had nothing to do with them or the city it was just that he expected more than one option and that he still expects more options because without more options he can’t make the “right” decision.
Had enough? Learn anything you didn’t already know?
Of course you didn’t.
You didn’t learn anything you didn’t already know because Dany Heatley didn’t want you to. But in one of the shortest, largely rehearsed and near totally useless media conferences on record you could reasonably assume one thing:
Dany Heatley is all about Dany Heatley.
It’s not that he meant it to come off that way and you could make an argument that he might not even know that he truly is one of those self-absorbed, all-about-me, athletes that so many hockey fans have come to detest in other sports, but that’s the way it will be portrayed.
The reason for that is the line about options.
What Heatley is saying, whether he realizes it or not, is that protected by a no-cut, no-trade guaranteed $45 million dollar contract that he secured from a Senators franchise that felt it was getting a good-faith deal with a legitimate star player he wants to cut and run because he can.
He didn’t say he wanted to stay in Ottawa, work out his differences with a rookie coach and help get a battered and backsliding team back into playoff contention.
He didn’t say he was pleased with an opportunity to go to Edmonton and help that team, a team that made it perfectly clear it really wanted him and was happy to embrace him, warts and all.
He said he wanted more options.
He didn’t identify those options but a couple of things can be assumed.
We can assume with near absolute certainty that he wants to go to a team that is not in a small-market Canadian city, that is not working on just being a playoff contender and that has a robust fan base that eats, breathes, and lives vicariously through its hockey players .
We can also assume with just a little less certainty that he wants the option to choose from a selection of teams that are likely to be in better competitive stead or at least on a market where he’ll have the option to enjoy amenities that suit his personality, lifestyle and particular idiosyncrasies.
I know that sounds like guess work, but only to you and me because you see Heatley knows the teams that want him and we know that because he told us. Now he didn’t tell us how he knew, but we can assume that certain teams that can provide certain options that appeal to him have contacted his agents and want to give him the hockey opportunities and lifestyle that appeal to him.
He only needs the Ottawa Senators to accept that and provide him with the option of picking the deal that best suits his needs.
Now those teams might be offering a bag of pucks, an autographed copy of Jim Balsillie’s edition of “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and the right to sell Alexei Yashin sweaters, but that’s not Heatley’s problem because even though he signed a seven-year, life-changing money contract with the Senators, he needs a few more options.
This isn’t an argument to go back to the old days when owners sold players like cattle or dropped them the moment their performance level slipped even a tiny bit, but come on: options; the word resonated like Allen Iverson’s now legendary rant on practice.
Ottawa may have been somewhat unethical in revealing that Heatley wanted out of Ottawa, but it’s hard not to argue that Senators management didn’t do if not the right thing, then at least a sensible thing to protect themselves here.
What Senators management made clear was that they’ve done nothing wrong and it’s not them looking to get rid of Heatley, it’s Heatley looking to get out of a commitment he freely signed and doing it in a way that virtually guarantees that the Senators will have to take less than market value to do it.
Is that what a team player does today?
Heatley got a no-trade clause because he demanded it and the Sens, wanting to keep him happy and assuming that he would honor at least the bulk of his seven-year deal. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but at the very worst the Sens had to think it would last longer than two years.
And even if Heatley truly is unhappy with his role on the team, isn’t it fair to ask that he at least try and work it out with the hockey department before dropping the “trade me right now” bomb.
In calling for a trade, a polite way of trying to force, the Senators to provide him with more options, Heatley is playing a game that is all about him and the Senators, the Oilers and anyone or anything else that doesn’t meet his criteria can be dammed.
He may think of himself as a team player and I suspect he really wants to believe that.
In fairness to him, he tried to convince us that he really is that kind of player, but if you judge a man both by what he says and what he does then Dany Heatley has shown himself to be something considerably less.
I’d like to say he didn’t come off as selfish and self serving, but if the media teleconference provided anything it’s that Heatley gave us very few options.
