I like to read Jay Feaster's blog now and then on The Hockey News website. Sometimes it's fluff, but sometimes he brings his past experience as the Lightning's GM to bear.
That's why I was looking forward to his recent post entitled "Trading for Heatley a mistake." I figured he might shed some light on the real issues behind Heatley's trade demand or, at the very least, discuss the nature of San Jose's resultant cap crunch and top heaviness.
No such luck.
First, he declares Bryan Murray to be the front runner for "the executive of year" for extracting Milan Michalek and the broken Jonathan Cheechoo from San Jose. The same GM that paid Alex Kovalev $5M and signed Chris Neil to a $2M contract this summer. Maybe Feaster relates to the pain-in-the-ass of trying to deal a high-priced malcontent with a NTC, but that's a pretty silly statement even if you agree the package the Sens got for Heatley was a good one.
Things get worse after that:
Historically, I have been a Doug Wilson fan. He seemed to understand the importance of chemistry and the need to acquire players who value the crest on the front of their sweater more than the name on the back.
...
For a group that appears to need more leadership, grit and mental toughness how is Heatley the answer?
This sounds eerily like the diatribe of a ranting no-nothing fan during a post-game radio call-in show rather the insights of a former NHL executive. I don't know if Feaster is writing for his supposed audience here, but giving credence to the mythical values of "more leadership!" and "mental toughness" is dubious enough to make me question Feaster's qualifications as an analyst, let alone an NHL decision maker.
Do fuzzy things like "playing for the team!!1!" exist? Probably. Do they outweigh the fact that Heatley is one of the best pure offensive players in the game (who will, incidentally, be playing alongside one of the best puck distributors)? I really doubt it. It's like Feaster forgets Heatley was part of one of the most dominant lines (and teams) in hockey a few short years ago - one that, incidentally, made it to the Stanley Cup finals.
Maybe Heatley is a gaping asshole who is going to stamp his foot in the middle of the Sharks dressing room and piss everyone off and that's somehow going to impair the Sharks "chemistry". And maybe we don't know the real reasons he wanted out of Ottawa (like, say, the club's rapid decline under Murray?) and Heatley's just going to score 50 goals and 100 points. Again. I have my own reasons for raising an eyebrow at the trade for Sharks perspective but Feaster doesn't touch on a single one of them.
