Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Heatley to Oilers: maybe, maybe not

I see that bingofuel just changed the title of his post from "Gregor Rings . . . Heatley Arrives" to "Gregor Rings . . . Heatley stays in Ottawa".

So apparently the Sens and the Oil worked out a deal, but Heatley declined to waive his no-trade clause. (IIRC, Edmonton wasn't on the list of teams that he had previously indicated he was interested in being traded to. On the other hand, he did ask to be traded, and reportedly there aren't many teams in the ballpark for what the Sens are looking for in exchange, so I don't know what Heatley was expecting.)

Oh, and apparently the Sens won't be on the hook for the $4MM July 1 payout if they trade Heatley before 12AM July 2, so we still might see a trade tomorrow.

UPDATE: In his latest post, my new best friend Jonathan references the TSN link above and shares his thoughts, which include a "good grief" that I share regarding the semantics of Heatley's failure to waive his no-trade clause (apparently he "didn't oblige" when asked to waive the clause, and that's different that an "outright refusal".) So he could still waive it. But honestly, if he were going to waive it, why wouldn't he just go ahead and do so when asked?

By the way, I'm pretty sure TSN changed the title of their article (appending "for now") as well as some of the body of the article. Unfortunately, I didn't save the original text. But I'm pretty sure the original article was more on the lines of Heately "refusing" to waive the no-trade clause.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Aw hell, you should just go to Jonathan's post and read the updates he keeps adding. Despite the fact that the Oilers and Sens both seemed to think the deadline was 12 AM July 1, Heatley's agent is saying they knew the deadline was 12AM July 2 and so they felt that a "decision does not have to come until that time... Dany is going to sleep on it." Jonathan's take is this: "Does this mean that Healtey prefers Edmonton to Ottawa but would much rather go to New York? Probably."

MORE FROM THE RUMOR MILL: I can't find a link, but here's some interesting chatter from a comment on Lowetide's blog.
Daren Millard dropping bombshells...

- heatley didn't kill it. the oilers are on the list and he confirmed it with his agent.
- still has to approve it etc
- rangers have entered the fray. package is getting better. callahan, dubinsky and del zotto and are improving it. still want mark staal.
- he believes ottawa was not aware the deadline was midnight tonight
- they were pissed that they weren't gonna be able to deal heatley by tonight. if they have to pay the bonus he will be in ottawa
- he is not against playing for the oilers. rangers are top priority
- oilers are still fully in this thing and they will improve the package to keep with the rangers.
- sens are still talking with both teams and will squeeze both teams
- penner and cogliano have been informed they were traded
- believes this is the rangers deal to lose. believes the sens want staal or nothing
- stating again heatley did NOT kill the deal.
- deal is still on the table. its tambellini vs glen sather tomorrow
- oilers still want to be involved in this deal
- rangers are his first choice
- believes that dany heatley hasn't said anything and its his representation yet

Sounds like the Sens camp probably leaked it to get the Rangers to boost their offer. Millard says Heatley likely hasn't even been asked to make a decision yet.
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