Monday, July 4, 2011

Sharks send Heatley packing, add Havlat

Very rarely do we see these types of trades in today's NHL. It was a shocker for sure and It seemed to come out of nowhere. The San Jose Sharks have traded Dany Heatley to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for scoring winger Martin Havlat. Havlat and Heatley are both 30 and both players are true offensive wingers.

On paper, the deal is a wash, both players have dynamic offensive ability and are both top line skaters. Heatley played the bulk of last season with a broken hand, and didn't ask out of the lineup, just sucked it up and still put up a respectable 26 goals, 38 assists in 80 games. That is the lowest point total Heatley has had in any season with at least 70 games played. Heatley is a determined player and playing with two All-Stars in Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau gave him many opportunities to score.

Martin Havlat has been a consistent scorer in the NHL, and had a brief period where he would be slightly invisible. A few years back Havlat was also a member of the Senators and was pawned off to the Blackhawks, in a three team trade, that also included, yep, the San Jose Sharks. Havlat quickly re-upped with Chicago on a 3 year deal, but his first two seasons in Chicago were met with injuries, until 08-09 when Havlat became team MVP. He had an incredible year in 08-09, notching 77 points and quickly became a hot commodity on the free agent market. He wanted to remain with Chicago, but former GM Dale Tallon would only offer a one year contract. Havlat signed with Minnesota, for 6 years, 30 million and quickly moved to the Wild's top line with rising center Mikko Koivu.

Havlat and the Wild struggled for much of his time there as the team was still very young and inexperienced. The Wild have without question shaken things up with their earlier acquisition of Devin Setoguchi, from the Sharks and tough two way center Darrol Powe from the Flyers. The Wild also bought out Cam Barker likely to make room for a new defenseman.

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