I took some flak this morning for having the gall to mention Dany Heatley in the same breath as Zdeno Chara.We all know that fans and most media think Heatley’s demand to be traded is obnoxious. The guy made 14 million dollars last season. To play hockey. Think about that. If your salary is a healthy 140,000 dollars, it would take you 100 years to earn what Heatley did last season. I have a stroke everytime I think about it.
My argument is not that Heatley isn't obnoxious. My argument is that the players don’t think like we do. So I said this morning that Heatley’s return probably wouldn’t bother the players that much.
We had Christoph Schubert on this morning and he sounded like he’d be disappointed if Heatley weren’t back. "He's the best team guy in the world," Schubert told us. I took it a step further and said Heatley’s return wouldn’t be any more upsetting to the players than, for example, Zdeno Chara’s hypothetical return.
That’s where I lost some of you. Many of you have emailed angrily. Seriously. 6 million litres of waste drizzled into the Ottawa River last Monday and you're furious over an off the cuff hockey comparison. Weird. Most of you point out that Chara honoured his contract. Heatley did not. This is true. But both men stepped up and said they didn’t want to play for this team anymore.
Heatley has a contract and fully intends to honour it. If the Sens can swing a deal, he’s gone. If they cannot, he’ll come back and honour his deal. You’d like a guy who made 14 million dollars and was beloved in Ottawa to love our town. But for some reason, he’s not happy and that has made people furious.
That said, Chara didn’t exactly win me over with his exit either. Here’s how a Senators executive described the Chara affair. On February 11th 2006, GM John Muckler called Chara’s agent Matt Keator and said, "What is it going to take? 35 M? 40M? 50? Once I have that, I can look at how many years we will have to give him." Keator never responded with a number. He just wanted an exact offer to throw in with the pile of others that he'd get July 1st.
It was still 5 months before free agency. Even if the Sens had offered to make him the best paid guy in the league right there and then it didn't matter. Chara would still have gone to free agency - the auction - to make sure he got the most money possible....period.
Wade Redden offered Zdeno Chara 1M of his 6.5M over two years to stay and Chara did not even give him the courtesy of a response. Great team guy there.
Chara is now beloved by fans, the 2009 Norris winner, now forever the one that got away. But to the players, I think having Heatley back will be no more difficult than having Chara back. Both players effectively made the statement, I don't want to be here anymore. Heatley's demanding a trade can't be any more offensive to a Sens' teammate than Chara completely ignoring Redden's offer to help him stay.
That’s where I lost some of you. Many of you have emailed angrily. Seriously. 6 million litres of waste drizzled into the Ottawa River last Monday and you're furious over an off the cuff hockey comparison. Weird. Most of you point out that Chara honoured his contract. Heatley did not. This is true. But both men stepped up and said they didn’t want to play for this team anymore.
Heatley has a contract and fully intends to honour it. If the Sens can swing a deal, he’s gone. If they cannot, he’ll come back and honour his deal. You’d like a guy who made 14 million dollars and was beloved in Ottawa to love our town. But for some reason, he’s not happy and that has made people furious.
That said, Chara didn’t exactly win me over with his exit either. Here’s how a Senators executive described the Chara affair. On February 11th 2006, GM John Muckler called Chara’s agent Matt Keator and said, "What is it going to take? 35 M? 40M? 50? Once I have that, I can look at how many years we will have to give him." Keator never responded with a number. He just wanted an exact offer to throw in with the pile of others that he'd get July 1st.
It was still 5 months before free agency. Even if the Sens had offered to make him the best paid guy in the league right there and then it didn't matter. Chara would still have gone to free agency - the auction - to make sure he got the most money possible....period.
Wade Redden offered Zdeno Chara 1M of his 6.5M over two years to stay and Chara did not even give him the courtesy of a response. Great team guy there.
Chara is now beloved by fans, the 2009 Norris winner, now forever the one that got away. But to the players, I think having Heatley back will be no more difficult than having Chara back. Both players effectively made the statement, I don't want to be here anymore. Heatley's demanding a trade can't be any more offensive to a Sens' teammate than Chara completely ignoring Redden's offer to help him stay.
