This Ain't No Ice Ballet

The playoffs are over and we’re well into the free-agent frenzy. Yet it’s not the moves dominating the hockey headlines. It’s the non-movement of current Ottawa Senator Dany Heatley. In case you’ve been living under a rock, he requested a trade from the Senators.

A deal was nearly done with Edmonton until the Heatley camp decided to wait while he slept on the decision. He did not decide to wave his no-trade clause and as of July 1st, he was due a $4 million bonus. As of today, he’s still sleeping on the decision.

This is Heatley’s second trade request in his career.

We can only speculate as to the train of thought coming from Heatley and his people to not accept the deal from Edmonton. If he’s waiting to be on a Stanly Cup contending team for next year, Marian Hossa would probably be the first in line to say the grass isn’t always greener.

He doesn’t want to play for Ottawa, but apparently he wants to play for Edmonton even less. Word from the NHL states he’s waiting for another offer – a better offer maybe. The NHL is a business and teams don’t usually bend to the requests of players who want to go to certain teams. This didn’t work for Lindros and I doubt it will work for him. He was lucky to be granted a trade request once already in his career.

Besides, his actions may not reflect well if the Edmonton deal goes through. Rumors of poor morale in the Oilers dressing room were rampant last year and the addition of Heatley cannot bode well for the room if there’s a hint that he doesn’t want to be there.

Plus, you can’t help but think that Heatley may request another trade from Edmonton once he doesn’t want to play there anymore. Heatley has played for two NHL teams in his career and has requested trades off both those teams. As we all know, Edmonton fans don’t appreciate players requesting a trade. Heatley’s jersey could be the next one added to the fire that is still smoldering from the Pronger jerseys.

There’s also the possibility of Ottawa filing a grievance for the $4 million bonus will be a hit against any team struggling against the cap.

In my opinion, there’s not room for divas in the NHL and regardless of what happens, I agree with many of the sports commentators – it will probably not end well. Edmonton won’t hold open the door for much longer and with no other teams waiting in the wings, Heatley will have no choice but to report to the Senators training camp.