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Heatley Deal May Define Murray’s Career In Ottawa
by Paul on 09/13/09 at 07:39 AM ET
Comments (2)
from Chris Stevenson of the Ottawa Sun,
Cheechoo has to get back to the 30-goal range and Michalek has to increase his offensive output to justify his cap hit for this deal to come close to being a winner for the Senators.
The winner of this deal right now is the Sharks: They got a 50-goal scorer of questionable character, who, if he’s happy and motivated, is one of the best scorers in the league. All they gave up was a guy they were trying to dump and a young player who may or may not live up to his paycheque.
AN NHL SCOUT’S TAKE: “A tough deal for Bryan Murray to make. Michalek is a good player. Cheechoo just hasn’t been very good the last two years. Michalek is going to score 20 goals. The issue is always going to be that they gave up the best player and that’s Dany Heatley. He’ll go in there and burn it up. This could be the deal that defines Bryan Murray’s career in Ottawa.”
Filed in: NHL Teams, Ottawa Senators | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
Murray was forced into the position of dealing a prima donna. I don’t think anybody saw this coming when Murray acquired Heatley, and it’s silly to say resolving this unexpected problem will define Murray’s time with Ottawa. I think Ottawa will be a better team, though. Yes, they gave up the best player. But they’ve replaced Heatley with Kovalev and should finally have the scoring depth they’ve been looking for. Alfredsson, Spezza, Kovalev, Michalek, Cheechoo, Fisher.
Posted by Djoos on 09/13/09 at 10:44 AM ET
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A few things:
First, Dany Heatley isn’t a 50 goal player in the Western Conference. How do I know? Well, because the Western Conference has had exactly two 50+ goal guys since the lockout. Iginla a couple years ago and Cheechoo in 2006. Add in that Heatley has been doing all his scoring (such as it is) in the JV Conference in the NHL… no. He isn’t scoring 50.
Secondly, I’m not at all sure this deal makes the Sharks better. SJ now has over 21 million dollars tied up in players who I’m not sure are even alive in the playoffs. Heatley was positively atrocious in 2008, and while he has a decent points per game average in the playoffs, his numbers are very assist heavy for a guy who is supposed to be an elite goal-scorer. 7 goals in 20 games in 2007. 3 goals in 10 games in 2006. 10 goals in 34 playoff games with a career playoff +/- of zero, all coming from a weaker Conference? Enh. SJ already has plenty of guys without the sack to shoot or score in the postseason.
Thirdly, the arrival of this Heatley guy (directly or not) has nuked the plast two franchises he has joined. Atlanta was actually on the upswing before Heatley’s actions in the death of Dan Snyder completely derailed that franchise and forced the team to trade him, and Ottawa was a team on the upswing until Heatley arrived… and then two short years later that team is in complete disarray as well. The Sharks are about one more playoff collapse from having to entirely blow up their team, and bringing Heatley in certainly isn’t something which has been demonstrated to be a move that creates stability.
This trade has all the potential to be that rarest of things, the simultaneous KO. I think this move stands a very strong chance to be the one that gets the GMs for Ottawa and SJ both canned after the season.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 09/13/09 at 09:50 AM ET