Heatley Swims with the Sharks

Ottawa was finally able to get some value back for the disgrunteld Dany Heatley after then dealt Heatley and a 5th round draft pick to San Jose for Milan Michalek, Jonathan Cheechoo and a 2nd rounder.

Fantasy Impact - for Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks, their ability to land a bona fide 50 gaol scorer for essentially Michalek and a 2nd rounder, is impressive for the Sharks. It's been a few season since Heatley hit the 50 gaol plateau, but he has done it twice and he'll get prime time minutes with Thornton and as much PP time as he can stomach. Heatley's arrival will also impact the Sharks in another way: what happens to Marleau. Marleau also plays LW, same as Heatley and it makes me wonder if he'll be asked to move to the RW, or perhaps back to his natural center position and allow last years' RW sensation Devin Setoguchi to remain with Thornton and Heatley? Depending on where utlimately either of those two guys end up playing, your best bet for poolies in keeper leagues is to trade Marleau and/or Setoguchi as their trade value may not be any higher than it is right now. We did see Thornton between Marleau and Heatley at the recent Team Canada Olympic Training camp and they were reportedly excellent together. Poolies should also recognize that the Sharks PP has become even deadlier and perhaps the best in the league in Thornton-Setoguchi-Heatley-Boyle-Marleau as their top 5 unit.

For Ottawa, they receive a younger very solid offensive contributor in Michalek, and a big question mark in Cheechoo. They did not receive an NHL ready defenceman as part of this deal, and that could come back to haunt this team. Michalek will now patrol the top spot on the left side beside Spezza and he should do very well. He's not the natural goal scorer that Heatley is, but he did tally 23+ plus goals for the last 3 seasons. He's only 24 and still got some room to improve. That said, he's not ever going to score 50 goals. Jonathan Cheechoo was a bust last season after hitting the 20+ goal plateau the previous 3. On the upside, if he's healthy and gets a decent play-making center to play with, Cheechoo should see 20 goals yet again this season. On the downside, he may just be one of those players who's best year(s) are behind him. For the Senators, the Oilers offer was a better deal for them. Right now, they need Cheechoo to rediscover his scoring touch and they need Michalek to tally at least 30 goals this year for the bad taste in their mouths to dissipate. For the rest of the Senators, they will at least be able to move on now that the Heatley fiasco is behind the team. If the Senators stink early this season, both Cheechoo and Michalek could be moved yet again as the Sens start from scratch and rebuild.