jawal wrote:I have been told a few things from people close to the situation, who say Heatley wants to be the man. The Sens will never be "Heatley's" team and of course, there's the fact he doesn't agree with CLouston's philosophy.
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I am not close to the situation but from afar it seems as straightforward as Jamvan says. Excerpt from July 10 article in Citizen by Wayne Scanlan
"When I was in Switzerland to cover the world championship, I had a chance to speak to Heatley about the fan response he receives in Europe, especially in Switzerland, where he played briefly during the lockout. He is THE most admired Canadian player abroad ... at least he was on the recent worlds team. It's different in Ottawa. The "old guard," Heatley said, referring specifically to Alfredsson, Mike Fisher and Chris Phillips, own the town. He and Spezza hadn't been here long enough."
I'd find it a lot easier to buy this theory if the public hadn't been so quick to turn around and basically state that "This is Spezza's team now".
There is no question that the others are the leaders of the present, but every team builds for the future, and good GMs include in their calculations their considerations for who will be the leaders of the team. That's why they put out the big bucks. The contracts demonstrated the trust in Heatley and Spezza for the next 5-7 years or more. Even if Heatley didn't see that, it would have been discussed during negotiations. The "A" on Heatley's jersey would have been another step in that process.
I'll go back to the suggestion that it always comes down to one of three things - sex, drugs or money.
The latter is essentially a non-issue. The second can't be much of an issue - he was a known participant before.
The first, however, would be great justification for him to distance himself from the team so quickly, and vice versa.
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