Heatley in Calgary – Pipedream? Nightmare?

I’ve mostly avoided this topic, but Im starting to warm to it. With the Oilers announcing today that Dany Heatley is out of the picture, the Senators are fast running out of trade partners. It was an extremely shallow pool of clubs to begin with given his cap hit, demands and rapidly eroding reputation and the word is the Oilers were the only club that tendered a palatable return. There’s also rumors that the Sharks are interested, but their cap situation is even more dire than Calgary’s: they currently have 250k in cap room with just 18 players signed and 3 RFA’s still needing a contract. It would take some really significant manuevers for the Sharks to be in the running for Heater.

There’s been no indications that the Flames are interested in the Native Calgarian…but perhaps they should be. His acquisition would solve a number of the Flames problems presented here. It firms up the weak left side, it adds another superstar forward to a roster completely lacking in superstar forwards behind the aging Jarome Iginla and it would restore balance to the budget by re-allocating dollars to the front end.

Heatley had a rough season last year (as did every other Senator) and his name has been run through the mud the last month or so, but the there's no question the guy is an elite offensive contributor. He's one of the few NHLers that has scored more goals since the lock-out than Jarome Iginla and he's been amongst the top echelon of players in terms of PP production and SH% for a long time.

Rumor is, the Sens want some roster players, including a defenseman and a top notch pick/prospect. Of course, their demands may be softening in the face of the soft market, but a Flames package for Heatley could probably look something like this:

Cory Sarich (3.6M)

Olli Jokinen (5.3) and

prospect (Chucko, Negrin, Pelech, Greentree) etc.

Obviously Phaneuf is another option, but I can't see Sutter giving up on the kid after an injury plagued year. So assuming this hypothetical package is the one that gets the job done, the Flames would have Langkow, Conroy and Boyd as their top 3 centers (Backlund in the wiings), with Heatley, Bourque and Glencross down the left side. They would also have about $3M in cap space.

That actually looks pretty good to me.

by Kent Wilson