(Rumor) and Heatley rant

[MXHockey]

Comparing Heater to Dats/Zetts is like comparing Scott Gomez to the Sedins..........the comparisons make little sense.

If I was the coach of an NHL team, I would take Dats 100 out of 100 times.

A fantasy league that\'s goals or Pims heavy - Heatley.

A fantasy league +/- heavy or points only - Dats.


Heater should be a ppg player no matter where he ends up. Heater hitting 110pts - Like lanky stated I would say that\'s 5% or less, but again it depends on his situation - personally I doubt he ever surpasses 110pts, and is hard-pressed to hit 100pts. Very unlikely he\'ll be in a situation again where his line-mates are the calibre of Spezza/Alfie - but I guess we\'ll see.



Thought it would be worth it to pull up Heater\'s stats before and after HArtsburg was fired and Clouston was hired. Hartsburg was fired on Feb 2/09.

Before Clouston was hired HEatley had 45pts/48gms - Heatley had over 20 minutes TOI in 36 of these 48gms.

After Clouston was hired Heatley had 27pts/34gms - He only had over 20mins TOI in just 10 of these 34gms.

The stats show a drop in ppg avg from .93/gm to .81/gm - which is pretty significant. I would estimate Heater\'s ice time dropped by 2 minutes/game which is pretty substantial as well. Not saying this is why Heatley wants out, but he\'s definitely not a .8pt/gm player, and should be closer to .95-1.0/gm. On the flipside however, the Sens posted a better record when Clouston took over.


An interesting tidbit here is in the final 2 games of the regular season, Heatley played over 22 minutes each time - Perhaps the tension was already there and Clouston was giving him as much TOI as possible to smooth the waters???


Anyways, let\'s just make Heatley an Oiler........B)

Cheers.

[playmaker26]

oasiswings1 wrote:

Oh man come on lets not start comparing Heatley with AO.

He, Heater, was compared with Detroits duo and I disagreed that he is remotely close to Datsyuk. If I were an NHL GM I would choose Datsyuk over Heatley 100 times out of 100 no questions asked. He brings so much more to the table its not even funny.

I was not comparing Heatley with Ovechkin. I was comparing YOUR basis behind saying Heatley is not a star...Ovechkin does the same thing, just better.

I\'d choose Datsyuk over Heatley 100 times out of 100 as well...it doesn\'t mean Heatley is not a star though...because he is.

[oasiswings1]

Forget it. I dont think Heatley brings much to the table beyond finishing what others have done for him. My basis for deciding who is/isnt an elite player/star goes beyond one ability. Ovechkin does so much more than just score goals. I would like to know what else Heatley does?

[playmaker26]

He\'s not just a goal scorer, he is a smart player and can set players up. His role though, is to score goals so that is what he focuses on.

I wasn\'t saying my basis for deciding who is and isn\'t an elite player is on one attribute. You are taking my words and twisting them.

What \"so many things\" does Ovechkin do besides score goals? Aside from hitting. And like I said before, I wasn\'t comparing the 2. I brought Ovechkin up because he is counted on to score goals, as is Heatley.

[jL67s]

lanky wrote:

...you don\'t put your best offensive threat on the second powerplay to spread out scoring...

Totally agree.

Since the Sens are a one line team, I\'d have the Pizza line out there the whole two minutes if possible.

But that\'s what Clouston decided to do. If they were deeper and could put two solid PP units together, then I\'m sure Heatley would be on the top PP no question.

Over the last two seasons they\'ve tried Alfredsson all over the place and he\'s never complained about it.

lanky wrote:

...Heatley is a star. Stars should be treated a certain way...

Agree again.

Unless that star isn\'t playing hard enough, or playing the way everyone knows he can, or buying into the coach\'s system.

Over the last two seasons, the players have run the roost. Paddock, Hartsburg and Murray all failed to reign them in.

Paddock was just too soft, so Hartsburg was brought in to make the players accountable. He used that word about 100 times in his introductory press conference. But he never did.

So in comes Clouston, who actually did something about it. He pulled Spezza\'s and Heatley\'s minutes back on them when it was deemed they weren\'t playing hard enough.

Star players love nothing more than tonnes of ice time, and a good way to motivate them is by pulling their ice time back.

I don\'t see anything wrong with that.

lanky wrote:

...as for signing a deal and then asking to be traded. Who cares? How often do GMs sign a player to a deal and then trade him within a year or two...

Happens all the time. Players and GM\'s know in this business that no matter the contract anyone can get moved or fired at any time.

Who does care though, are the fans. He is (or was) one of the most popular players for the Sens and the fans thought they\'d get to enjoy at least another 5 years of the Spezz and Heatley show.

playmaker26 wrote:

...he\'s not just a goal scorer, he is a smart player and can set players up. His role though, is to score goals so that is what he focuses on...

Agreed as well.

Heatley IS primarily a sniper, but he IS also a good player. He just had a down season (for him) last year.

Ironically, it was while he was on the 2nd PP unit that you could really see he was capable of more than just sniping. He handled the puck more, battled harder for pucks along the boards, set up guys and controlled the play at times.

Overall, I don\'t think Heatley\'s problems with Clouston are the only factor here.

I get the feeling that he doesn\'t have confidence in the Sens turning it around any time soon playing into this decision.

I\'m still a Heatley fan. If he\'s not happy, then you have to move him. I see this as an opportunity for Murray to acquire other pieces the team needs.

Sorry for the long postage.

[bluejays]

WTF oasiswings1?
Who is comparing Datsyuk and Heatley as all around players? Last time I checked we were in the fantasy business, so why those ramblngs, I have no idea!
Secondly, who posted Heatley to NYI or Nsh??? That\'s just a waste of ink.
Thirdly, Ottawa is no Detroit - depth wise. Yes, Det roles(2) top PP units, but how can you compare that depth with Ott doing the same! Heatley maybe one deminsional, but there\'s a reason why he\'s scored 41 (partial season), 50, 50 goals. He\'s talented!

I too am dissapointed if the media crap is true - saying he has a short list of teams. B/c after all if your upset with your current team, anywhere else is better, right?
But, I\'m in the fantasy business, and I think he has been around and accomplished enough that people should cut him some slack.

After all, it wasen\'t #15 that moved Chara and kept Redden. Or re-signed Alf (who I agree is a hell of a captain) but is 36 and has 4 yrs left! C\'mon. What about still not having a decent goalie? Band aid boy Leclaire? What off. PP QB do they really have? Campoli or Kuba! C\'mon.
If anything Heatley may bring some return and start the re-build there.

No need to bash Heater, as he will be staring on the 1st line PP for Team Canada come 2010. He\'ll be fine.
But, to rejuvenate that damaged franchise of mismanaged personnel.