Bryan Murray Vs Dany Heatley: Who Blinks First?

Where is Doctor Rooney when we need him?

Still think St. Louis would be my guess until I saw the Florida gossip....Both could put together a reasonable package.

Re: the retirement issue -

Is it possible that the NHL forced Yashin back to Ottawa because he was still under contract?

If you "retire" at the end of a contract (or in the prior CBAs, during option years), you may have become a UFA after 1 calendar year. However, being under contract may force the retention of rights to the team holding the contract.

Alternatively, it may simply come down to whether the player would normally be expected to retire at that juncture in their career, and given their personal situation (health, etc). Yashin would normally have been expected to play, so the contract was upheld. Neidermaier, it could go either way. In this case, that would also result in Heatley's rights being held by Ottawa.

Comments?

Acrobat wrote:Re: the retirement issue -

Is it possible that the NHL forced Yashin back to Ottawa because he was still under contract?

If you "retire" at the end of a contract (or in the prior CBAs, during option years), you may have become a UFA after 1 calendar year. However, being under contract may force the retention of rights to the team holding the contract.

Alternatively, it may simply come down to whether the player would normally be expected to retire at that juncture in their career, and given their personal situation (health, etc). Yashin would normally have been expected to play, so the contract was upheld. Neidermaier, it could go either way. In this case, that would also result in Heatley's rights being held by Ottawa.

Comments?

Yashin didn't retire, he held out. Remember he couldn't play for that Swiss team during the holdout. The NHL said he must honour the last year of his contract whenever he returned.

retirement vs. hold-out in that context is simply a choice of words.

His inability to play for the Swiss team hinged completely on the existence of a valid NHL contract - had he stated he was "retired", I suspect that he still would have been stopped from playing in Switzerland.

With about two weeks left until training camp and pre-season, neither side has blinked.

But Mr. Heatley has been generous to GMHockey...with 66 threads now devoted to him, and counting.

davetherave wrote:With about two weeks left until training camp and pre-season, neither side has blinked.

But Mr. Heatley has been generous to GMHockey...with 66 threads now devoted to him, and counting.

I just see some trade coming out of no where. Literally to a team no one even thought of. I think if you go through the trades that Bryan Murray has made as GM since he took over, it would give you a good indication of what team he likes to make trades with.

PKC wrote:

davetherave wrote:With about two weeks left until training camp and pre-season, neither side has blinked.

But Mr. Heatley has been generous to GMHockey...with 66 threads now devoted to him, and counting.

I just see some trade coming out of no where. Literally to a team no one even thought of. I think if you go through the trades that Bryan Murray has made as GM since he took over, it would give you a good indication of what team he likes to make trades with.

Please god let it be Columbus. They have so many nice pieces.

hemlock wrote:

PKC wrote:

davetherave wrote:With about two weeks left until training camp and pre-season, neither side has blinked.

But Mr. Heatley has been generous to GMHockey...with 66 threads now devoted to him, and counting.

I just see some trade coming out of no where. Literally to a team no one even thought of. I think if you go through the trades that Bryan Murray has made as GM since he took over, it would give you a good indication of what team he likes to make trades with.

Please god let it be Columbus. They have so many nice pieces.

I wouldn't be surprised if Anaheim came out of absolutely no where to land Heatley.

PKC wrote:

hemlock wrote:

PKC wrote:

davetherave wrote:With about two weeks left until training camp and pre-season, neither side has blinked.

But Mr. Heatley has been generous to GMHockey...with 66 threads now devoted to him, and counting.

I just see some trade coming out of no where. Literally to a team no one even thought of. I think if you go through the trades that Bryan Murray has made as GM since he took over, it would give you a good indication of what team he likes to make trades with.

Please god let it be Columbus. They have so many nice pieces.

I wouldn't be surprised if Anaheim came out of absolutely no where to land Heatley.

Could be, as Murray has really done well to remake that team on the fly over there. At this point, I'd take Perry or Ryan straight up. I think we all would just like to move on.

hemlock wrote:

PKC wrote:

hemlock wrote:

PKC wrote:

davetherave wrote:With about two weeks left until training camp and pre-season, neither side has blinked.

But Mr. Heatley has been generous to GMHockey...with 66 threads now devoted to him, and counting.

I just see some trade coming out of no where. Literally to a team no one even thought of. I think if you go through the trades that Bryan Murray has made as GM since he took over, it would give you a good indication of what team he likes to make trades with.

Please god let it be Columbus. They have so many nice pieces.

I wouldn't be surprised if Anaheim came out of absolutely no where to land Heatley.

Could be, as Murray has really done well to remake that team on the fly over there. At this point, I'd take Perry or Ryan straight up. I think we all would just like to move on.

The great thing is, Anaheim has all kinds of cap space with a complete roster at this point. There is a familiarity between Getzlaf and Heatley. You could potentially see Bobby Ryan and Joffrey Lupul come to Ottawa in exchange for Heatley. I would take that trade I think.

I would in a second. I'm not big on Lupul, but Ryan? sign me the Diddle up

Tuk Tuk wrote:I would in a second. I'm not big on Lupul, but Ryan? sign me the Diddle up

I think Lupul more or less for salary purposes.

BObby Ryan can probably put as much points as Heatley this season, with 1/4 the cap space.

marakh wrote:BObby Ryan can probably put as much points as Heatley this season, with 1/4 the cap space.

I wish he'd do it in a Sens jersey.

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.

God yes. Bobby Ryan and Lupul? Sign me up NOW.

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.