Bryan Murray Vs Dany Heatley: Who Blinks First?

spader wrote:If Lupul comes to Ottawa, I'll feel really bad for him. Poor guy gets traded every 5 minutes.

spader wrote:He's well on his way.

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:i think he was refering to my comment about how well travelled sillinger was comapared to the amount that lupul has moved around

PKC wrote:

davetherave wrote:PKC> interesting thought, for sure, but if one takes a look around the NHL, discerning that 'mystery team' is a headscratcher.

While the bloggers have had a field day, none of the speculation has amounted to more than the proverbial hill of beans.

For example, Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune put the "Heatley to Wild" rumours in context in his article today. This excerpt:

"I cannot make this any clearer. Other than what I reported to you near the Draft, all Dany Heatley/Wild trade rumors you read have been invented out of thin air. Unless something changes, the Wild has not had trade talks with Ottawa in six weeks regarding Heatley. Additionally, the Wild has no interest in Mike Comrie, I’ve been told."

http://blogs2.startribune.com/blogs/wildblog/

There have been enough rumours about where Heatley is going to ensure hockey blog traffic remained 'fully erect' all summer...Lyle Richardson of Spector's Hockey pretty much nailed it, though, when he said the best opportunity to trade Heatley was just before the UFA frenzy.

It really looks like BM and CC will have to live with Dany for a while at least.

On the plus side, Heatley looked pretty good in the Red-White scrimmage the other night. So if he does his job in Ottawa, that should help the Sens in the short term.

If you look beyond Heatley's massaged statements, he seems to have decided the Senators aren't the team he can win a Stanley Cup with...so he probably wants to go to one he thinks will be a contender.

Of course this is 'selfish'...but as so many Sens fans on this Forum have said over and over again, Heatley's an elite player. He wants to play on an elite team. Call it selfish, but many elite pro athletes are selfish.

For the moment, Bryan Murray has what many call an 'albatross contract'. Too expensive and too restrictive to move easily...Mr. Murray having underscored this on several occasions.

It further complicates Mr. Murray's task because he has no cap room right now. The 'favourite source' (according to the GMHockey Member base), CapGeek.com, appears to confirm this. That means no flexiblity to make the trades he might have wanted to, for example, to add blueline depth.

One also wonders how Coach Cory and DH will be able to work together. It's all very well to say "we're all professionals", but the minute things get rough--as they inevitably do in pro sports--will the tensions flare, and the team suffer?

With getting back to the playoffs the presumed objective, team chemistry may be as important as the assembled talent.

Standing back and watching all of this unfold, The Heatley Affair is probably one of the more unusual events to take place over the last several years: "Megastar signs multi-year megacontract, wants out after one season".

Not very pleasant for Senscentrists, but as the ever reasonable Dr. Rooney has pointed out, 'Heatley Hate' won't fix it.

And if the journos were really doing their job instead of pouring gasoline on the fire, they'd tell us who leaked the trade request in the first place...which may have been the single most damaging aspect to Heatley's trade value.

Wonderful take on things as always DTR.

But I have to wonder just how bad things will be this season. In my opinion, not at all. We've had it from several teammates in the organization that Dany is a wonderful team player and a great guy in the locker room.

And despite some more than candid interviews by the likes of Chris Neil demanding resolution on the matter, I think for the most part, the silence from the team either indicates that the media hasn't been able to reach them or that they would very much like to see Dany come back because they know the chances of the team succeeding increase exponentially with a guy like Heatley in the lineup.

Personally, I'd like to see this team, with its main components (Alfredsson, Spezza, Heatley, Kovalev, Leclaire, Elliott, Kuba) get under the cap and be let loose. Roll the dice on this season and see what happens.

The regular season in the East is consistently a crap shoot. The fact that we've potentially addressed goaltending and secondary scoring (two legitimate concerns for the past several years) could help propel us back into the Eastern conference limelight.

I, for one, am no longer against the return of Dany Heatley. Rather, I encourage the opportunity to exist and bring something exciting as opposite the past two years of dismal play.

I guess we'll find out in short order if the team will have #15 in its lineup on opening night. I just hope if a deal is made, it's for the right reasons.

davetherave wrote:Cas> as we have seen, teams are still making moves...Vancouver's trade with the Sharks; and Tanguay's decision to go to Tampa, may create some ripple effects among both West and East clubs.

BM has shown he is not a GM who makes rash moves...and he does have a game-changing player in DH who can be useful to a club that wants to 'go for it'.

Bryan hasn't blinked yet.

The 'poker game' remains interesting.

SpezDispenser wrote:http://www.ctvolympics.ca/hockey/news/newsid=14895.html?cid=rsstsn

Pretty good article here. Basically says that being booed in Calgary could be an awakening for Heatley. It also states that Wilson said that clearing space on the payroll could be for 'future transactions'.