Dany Heatley is now the Most Hated Man in Hockey

When a superstar comes out and demands a trade, teams will usually try to deal that player due to chemistry issues. After all, who wants a player who doesn’t want to be on the team? Dany Heatley did just that for the Ottawa Senators, and GM Bryan Murray obliged by calling around the league to gauge interest in Heatley. The only takers were the always desperate Edmonton Oilers, who offered up Dustin Penner and two others in a 3-for-1 that would’ve benefited both teams.

Problem was that Heatley has a no-trade clause in his contract that he personally has to waive. After requesting a trade, and getting just that, he nixed the trade for two reasons. The first, and most dubious reason, is the $4 million bonus he was entitled to had he stayed with Ottawa until this week. The second is that Edmonton was not on his “list of preferred teams”. Now Heatley, a perennial All-Star and one of the most prized skaters in the league, is being leveled as the most hated man in the game.

It’s one thing to put your team in a position like he did; forcing a trade and then nixing it to get $4 million (not that I blame him entirely), but it’s another to do it in the way that Heatley has done. The funny thing is that GM Bryan Murray did his best to move him. The issue was simply that no team wanted him. Heatley scored 72-points last season but is a cap hit for any team at $7.5 million with a contract that averages just that until the end of the 2013-14 season. That’s a lot to pay for a guy who suddenly grew a malignant attitude.

Not many teams can afford that, and the one team that could likely afford it, and is willing to pay it, is Toronto, a team that has been Ottawa’s main rival for the last decade. There is no way in hell that Murray would trade his best player to his most hated rival. The fans would lynch him in the streets of the nation’s capital.

Heatley’s only escape route had him going to Edmonton, but his nixing of the trade (twice) has infuriated the Senator’s ownership to play hardball with him in return. Murray came out and declared that Heatley isn’t “going anywhere” and that he will remain with the Ottawa Senators no matter what.

Now the Senators have flipped the script on Heatley. He just cost them an extra $4 million bonus. He’ll count as $7.5 million against the cap in 2009, with only Daniel Alfredsson making more money than him next season. At +4000 to win the Stanley Cup, the Senators are far from being a long-shot. But they’re far from being a close team now that Heatley is turning in to a diva. Four words of advice for you, Mr. Heatley:

Shut up and play.