Silver Nuggets: Revisiting Heatley trade; Parise compensation; Lehner begins final hunt

The Binghamton Senators finally return to action tonight, having last played nine days ago on May 18. They will be playing hockey in the deep south in late May as they play the Houston Aeros in Game 1 of the Calder Cup finals. According to this, Houston is supposed to have a high of 42 degrees with the humidex today. Eww!

In the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks will know their opponent for the Stanley Cup Finals after tonight, with the Boston Bruins hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning for the right to play the Canucks.

On an unrelated note, tomorrow afternoon is the Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona. The two clubs also met in the 2009 final, which attracted more viewers than that year's Super Bowl. (Mark here. It was also more boring than that year's Super Bowl. BOOYAH!) COME ON UNITED!

Here are today's links:

General Sens News

• With Dany Heatley's drop in production this year, and his $7.5 million cap hit for three more years, did the Senators not lose that trade as badly as originally thought? (Sens Extra)
• More on the Heatley trade, here is Nichols looking back at the events that led to Heatley's departure. (The 6th Sens)
• With the Binghamton Senators opening the Calder Cup finals tonight, Robin Lehner, Jared Cowen, Bobby Butler, Colin Greening, Patrick Wiercioch, Zack Smith and Erik Condra could be among the players who become permanent fixtures on Ottawa's team in the future. (Ottawa Citizen)
• Will Binghamton's run to the finals develop a culture of winning for the Senators' young players? Will this culture be destroyed if the same players are part of a horrible season in Ottawa next year? (Ottawa Senators)

More after the jump.

General Hockey News

• Here is the 2011 compensation for signing a restricted free agent to an offer sheet. If Zach Parise can be signed for less than a $6,268,175 cap hit, then the compensation is only a first, second and third round pick. At under $7,835,219, it will be two first round picks, in addition to the second and third rounder. Over that amount, it will be four first round picks. (Sporting News)
• Dwayne Roloson will start for Tampa Bay in tonight's decider. (TSN)