Sens Up Against It

From outward appearances the Heatley saga has died down, but its like that pot you forget on the back burner. The burner is still on and the water is getting pretty hot beneath the cover. Ignore it as much as you want, but its going to boil over sooner or later is you leave it too long.

Heatley blindsided the Sens in June with the trade demand and he made it worse by limiting the teams with which Murray could deal. The Sens had a very good deal worked out with Edmonton, but Heatley hummed and hawed and finally turned it down. Ottawa missed out on the start of free agency and finally made the move to pick up Kovalev to replace Heatley. The problem is that Heatley is still on the books. Now with Kovalev added, the Sens are just over the cap and have no room to move.

Can Heatley return to the team? Sure. The players would likely accept him after an apology, but Heatley has likely burned too many bridges with management, ownership and the fans. He would be under a microscope if he returned and I do not think that is something that Heatley wants to experience. You can pull this type of move in a non-hockey market, but once you do it in Ottawa I think you are pretty much done.

Heatley has also knocked down his trade value since many teams see him with a big red flag now. Strangely, it looks like the Oilers still want him, but if that deal can’t be brought back to life I do not envy the Ottawa situation.

Without Heatley the Sens have three top six forwards. That number includes Spezza who will be without his star winger and two very opposite people in Alfredsson and Kovalev. Both are 36 and we will have to see how they co-exist on the same team. Alfredsson is a heart and soul player, but his body is starting to show wear and tear. Kovalev is a talented enigma and Sens fans can only hope that he feels he has something to prove after his questionable departure from Montreal. Despite Alfredsson’s apparent excitement about Kovalev’s addition, these two may not mix well as the team hits bumps in the road. Spezza is not known as a team leader so you can not count on him being the glue of the team. His reaction to this summer’s team Canada snub will be worth watching to see if it pushes him towards a fast start to the season.

On defense they do not have a top pair defenseman on the roster. They have some serviceable players that appear to have already reached their potential, but they lack an identity. Young players like Lee and Campoli need to develop quickly and begin to take leading roles with this group.

Pascal Leclaire is the big gamble as the team’s star goalie of the future. He definitely has the potential and is young, but he has yet to put two strong back to back seasons together.

After seasons of great promise and getting close to the cup, the reality is that the Sens finished last year out of the playoffs. Having lived through decades of misplaced Leaf expectations I see some of the same delusions creeping into the world of the Sens. They are not just a tweak away from getting back to their former glory.

They need to deal with Heatley and they need to find a way to free up some cap space. Right now they appear to be gambling that things will just work out. For me that’s too big a risk to take.