Daniel Heatley and the San Jose Sharks

A few months ago when summer began, Daniel Heatley demanded to be traded from the Senators. Ottawa made it no mystery they would try and oblige, and underneath the mud of 6-10 teams that he would supposedly go to laid the San Jose Sharks.
Fast forward two months, and all of a sudden I'm seing a cropped picture of Heatley's head right next to Jonathan Thornton's on the front page of Yahoo! Sports' NHL page.

Looking back, the first time I got a whiff that Heatley to San Jose was a possibility, I posted on it. That post was on June 9th. The big problem I focused on was the salary cap, and the problem is still very relevant right now for the Sharks. But surprisingly, all signs point to Doug Wilson dropping cap space to make room for Heatley. Roenick is retiring, Grier is gone, Moen is gone, Goc is gone, and Boucher is gone. Rob Blake is re-signing at $1.5 million cheaper, so Wilson just cleared up a little under $5 million in the past two months, with some of it going to the signing of fourth-liner Scott Nichol. Heatley supposedly wants something in the neighborhood of $7-8 million, but half of that would be paid by the Senators anyways, meaning the Sharks do have the wide open window of opportunity to sign a top scoring left winger.

The problem is the fact that we would still have to trade: Heatley is not a free agent. The Senators have supposedly rejected the notion of Jonathan Cheechoo, but Wilson said he did not like the rumors that the GM has already discussed specific San Jose skaters in a trade for Heatley. I quote myself discussing the notion of Heatley in the San Jose line-up: "That said, many critics are thinking he's losing his touch, as his point totals have dropped from an average of 2.95 to 2.20 in the past year (per 60 minutes played), and he had his lowest point outing last year since his rookie year. Still, 2.2 points is quite a hefty amount, and a quick comparison to a Sharks player would be along the lines of Devin Setoguchi or Joe Pavelski. Think the Sharks can use another Seto in their roster? I sure do. If the Sharks do get Heatley, we're looking at a potential 3 scoring line roster, something that GM Doug Wilson and Coach Todd McLellon expected to happen during the playoff series against Anaheim this past postseason. Obviously, Heatley would be moved to the first line right next to Thornton. Personally, I would move Patrick Marleau rather than Devin Setoguchi off the line, because Marleau can create plays on his own and is more versatile than the young Setoguchi. Keeping the second line in tact, we would have a third line of Marleau, Jonathan Cheechoo, and one more. That would be a deadly line, and may even rekindle Cheechoo's scoring touch."

In blogs and newspapers everywhere, the names being circulated around the Heatley to San Jose trade have been none other than Marleau, Cheechoo, and Michalek. The biggest mistake would be trading Michalek, as he was a third of the crucial second line that carried the Sharks to the President's trophy after the All-Star break. I'm still not a fan of Marleau taking all the heat for playoff losses, but nor am I eager to get rid of Cheechoo either. Cheech is still young and he was one of the three players that showed up to play in last year's playoff series. Marleau is one of the best PKers on the team now that Grier is gone, and even if he is ousted off the first line for Heatley, would be critical in stabilizing offense for the third line under the assumption that the second line of last year stays in tact. There's also the big possibility of a defenseman (such as Ehrhoff, whose name has been coming up often as well) being traded for Heatley, which would make a lot more sense given the drafting San Jose did as well as the huge amount of young defensive prospects they already have in the minors. The one defenseman outside of the obvious non-tradeable Blake and Boyle I would hate to see go would be Vlasic. He plays top defensive minutes, and he's proven he can skate with other top lines, using his wits and passing to compliment Blake's physical presence and slight offensive tendencies.

There were also a lot of other speculations in other free agents I had outside of Heatley, including Gaborik, Cammalleri, and Antropov, but obviously Wilson wants to play a waiting game to get the best possible deal for talent, which has seen a lot of top scorers slip to other teams quickly.

So now we're back to Heatley and San Jose, which is becoming the biggest NHL headline in August. Based on blogs and reports, the universal concensus amongst Sharks fans is Heatley would be worth having an experiment with under the presumption San Jose does not lose too much for him, and I would have to agree. If we can get Heatley without losing Marleau or Michalek, we've struck gold in terms of amplifying our offense and filling up the hole in our power play that plagued us last year. Like I said, I would prefer not having Cheechoo gone along with Marleau and Michalek, because that would give us three top scoring lines instead of just two. But we must face reality, and if someone has to go, it would probably be Cheechoo. With Brian Boucher out the door, I don't see any possibility of Nabokov leaving this season, unless Thomas Greiss has suddenly became a Vezina finalist over the course of two to three months. And assuming the Heatley deal is done, we would probably see Thornton centering Setoguchi and Heatley, Pavelski, Clowe, and Michalek on the second line, with Marleau being the facilitator on a third line that would probably include Torrey Mitchell and Jamie McGinn or Brad Staubitz.