Heatley Not Moved; Senators On The Hook for $4M Bonus

Despite the best efforts of the Edmonton Oilers, who visited Dany Heatley to entice him to play for the Oil, Heatley is not going anywhere. He refused to waive his no-trade clause before midnight, so for the time being he remains an Ottawa Senator. Which means that owner Eugene Melnyk is on the hook for a cool $4M dollars right now.

From what's buzzing around, apparently Dany was upset with the pressure put on him to make a quick decision to go to Edmonton, and that there were offers from other cities that were viable options that the Senators did not work hard enough on (notably San Jose Sharks and the New York Rangers, according to TSN's Darren Dreger). Seems he felt like the Sens put a gun to his head forcing the Edmonton deal, without presenting any other options. Playing the victim, Dany? Come on - that's not fair, given the circumstances.

Either way, it will be interesting to see what happens now. There have been conflicting reports as to whether the price for Heatley would go up after July 1st, or if Murray would simply refuse to move Heater altogether. Either way, it's hard to imagine that Murray could ask for more given the complete circus that the Heatley situation has been the past few days.

One has to think, though, that the animosity between the Senators organization and Heatley's camp has reached breaking point by now. I do not see any way that Heatley can put on a Senators sweater again.