Now that Dany Heatley no longer has the support of his possibly-soon-to-be-ex-teammates, his chances of being dealt from Ottawa seem to have reached their peak.
For most of the summer, his teammates remained relatively diplomatic, insisting that they'd wait and see how things panned out before they rushed to judgment. Heatley, who has spent the summer enmeshed in what has become a public standoff with his team after demanding a trade, obviously doesn't want to stay with the Senators. The Senators, despite his nearly production, don't want him around, either.
Until now, his teammates were on the fence. But according to Yahoo Sports, captain Daniel Alfredsson made his stance clear: He thinks the best thing would be to move on from Heatley altogether.
"Obviously, it would be the best scenario for everybody," he said. "But if it were that easy, something would have already been done. We're ready for whatever happens and [will] make something good out of it."
Despite those in Alfredsson camp, though, Heatley has at least one supporter in former teammate and 18-year NHL veteran Ray Ferraro, who told The Fourth Period, "Two years ago, he scored 50 goals and how many players scored 50 in the league last year? Two? Does he have more growing up to do? Of course he does. … The worst thing about the offseason situation is that it went public. People don't realize that players ask for trades all the time but the demands never go public and that was unfortunate."
Who's right? Could Ottawa do better without the distraction? Or would the Senators flounder without one of the elite scorers in the game?
Hopefully, there will be an answer soon.
