07-23-2009, 11:56 AM
Time for Oilers to give up on Heatley
Team sends videos to sulking forward
BY DAN BARNES, EDMONTON JOURNAL JULY 23, 2009
Desperate only begins to describe the Oilers' latest, and let us hope final, attempt at getting Dany Heatley to notice them.
The Oilers bundled up some videos for the malcontent Ottawa Senator and had a well-meaning person hop on a plane and deliver the infotainment package last weekend to Heatley's agent, Stacey McAlpine, who is staying with his client in Kelowna, B.C.
How sad is that?Let's hope the earnest employee received danger pay, or at least a humiliation bonus, in addition to the nutritious and delicious snacks that WestJet serves its passengers.
There was apparently some compelling stuff in the Oilervision gift basket on the offensive wizardry of Sam Gagner, Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff, no doubt intended to convince Heatley that playing with any or all of them on a regular basis next season would be good for his point total, which would be good for his ego, which is apparently large enough to merit even more consideration than it is already receiving.
On Wednesday, McAlpine confirmed the arrival of the videos, but declined to say whether or not Heatley had bothered to screen any of them. The big, sulking left-winger would have to know the Oilers went to a lot of trouble, so he wouldn't just ignore them, right? That doesn't sound like him.
And it's not like they were sending him chick flicks. Or circa 1950s black-and-white footage on the evils of poor personal hygiene or marijuana use. Or Dances With Wolves. It's not like they were trying to trade Dustin Penner, Andrew Cogliano and Ladislav Smid to Ottawa without first making sure Heatley would waive his no-movement clause to come to Edmonton.
They just wanted to make sure they had done everything in their power to beg him, again, to score 45 goals for them next season and several years to come.
Enough already. Actually, it was more than enough when GM Steve Tambellini and president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe took the extraordinary, unnecessary, fruitless and somewhat pathetic pilgrimage to Kelowna for a summit with Heatley on June 30. As if a face-to-face chat was going to elicit a different response from a petulant millionaire who knows he's quite likely to get his own way to San Jose if only he waits long enough.
The intervening weeks of stony silence and twisting in the wind certainly have provided just cause for the Oilers to put an end to the shameless shenanigans and resume acting like an organization with a proud history rather than a future so shaky it teeters on the whims of Heatley. And word is Tambellini was ready to do exactly that late last week. Oilers assistant GM Kevin Prendergast told the team's radio rights holders last week that they had lost hope of getting Heatley, but it wasn't quite over.
Word is, it was going to be over Monday, once and for all. But first, a brief video interlude. If a picture says 1,000 words, maybe several million would convince Heatley to embrace Edmonton's lush river valley, bizarre obsession with triangles, young hockey team and 15 minutes of summer.
Unlikely? Sure. But maybe he's a sucker for graphics and voice-overs.
On Wednesday, Oilers vice-president Allan Watt said Tambellini would not comment on anything to do with videos or Heatley.
"He said he has nothing to say about Dany Heatley or the situation. Nothing. He said we're not commenting on whether we sent faxes or letters to (Heatley's other agent J. P. Barry). That's negotiating in public and we don't want to do it."
Good. Now stop negotiating with Heatley in private and you'll be much better off. Because the Oilers aren't going to get anything out of Heatley, least of all 45 goals, and this pathetic saga will only be over when Ottawa GM Bryan Murray concocts a deal with the Sharks because that is currently where Heatley wants to play.
The Oilers, I am quite certain, are aware of their somewhat lower place on Heatley's list of preferred destinations. I have, in the past, admired their tenacity when it comes to chasing the unlikely personnel upgrades they so desperately need. It would be much easier to admire had they actually landed any offensive dynamos of late, but their challenges are many, their attributes few. So I understand why they have bowed and scraped; they need top-end offence, they have done almost nothing to improve their team over the summer, give or take a goalie, and Heatley is the only readily available superstar.
They merely have to accept that he is not readily available to them and they ought to concentrate on making themselves at least marginally better elsewhere.
That they would even go through the hassle and minor expense of putting videos together at this late date seems an afterthought, one that Heatley would surely shrug off. They might envision it as part of their ongoing sales pitch, but observers are more likely to characterize it as pathetic and inadequate.
There was apparently more to the package than highlights of the Oilers' offensive players, but what are the chances Heatley is going to spend good, quality summer minutes in front of his TV watching anything to do with the Oilers or Edmonton?
We all know how busy he is shooting pucks, jumping into Okanagan Lake, playing golf, skating with his buddies and thinking how cool it would be to play left wing for the Sharks, taking sweet saucers from Joe Thornton for the next several years. Or until head coach Todd McLellan tells him to backcheck and he asks for a trade to Chicago.
Team sends videos to sulking forward
BY DAN BARNES, EDMONTON JOURNAL JULY 23, 2009
Desperate only begins to describe the Oilers' latest, and let us hope final, attempt at getting Dany Heatley to notice them.
The Oilers bundled up some videos for the malcontent Ottawa Senator and had a well-meaning person hop on a plane and deliver the infotainment package last weekend to Heatley's agent, Stacey McAlpine, who is staying with his client in Kelowna, B.C.
How sad is that?Let's hope the earnest employee received danger pay, or at least a humiliation bonus, in addition to the nutritious and delicious snacks that WestJet serves its passengers.
There was apparently some compelling stuff in the Oilervision gift basket on the offensive wizardry of Sam Gagner, Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff, no doubt intended to convince Heatley that playing with any or all of them on a regular basis next season would be good for his point total, which would be good for his ego, which is apparently large enough to merit even more consideration than it is already receiving.
On Wednesday, McAlpine confirmed the arrival of the videos, but declined to say whether or not Heatley had bothered to screen any of them. The big, sulking left-winger would have to know the Oilers went to a lot of trouble, so he wouldn't just ignore them, right? That doesn't sound like him.
And it's not like they were sending him chick flicks. Or circa 1950s black-and-white footage on the evils of poor personal hygiene or marijuana use. Or Dances With Wolves. It's not like they were trying to trade Dustin Penner, Andrew Cogliano and Ladislav Smid to Ottawa without first making sure Heatley would waive his no-movement clause to come to Edmonton.
They just wanted to make sure they had done everything in their power to beg him, again, to score 45 goals for them next season and several years to come.
Enough already. Actually, it was more than enough when GM Steve Tambellini and president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe took the extraordinary, unnecessary, fruitless and somewhat pathetic pilgrimage to Kelowna for a summit with Heatley on June 30. As if a face-to-face chat was going to elicit a different response from a petulant millionaire who knows he's quite likely to get his own way to San Jose if only he waits long enough.
The intervening weeks of stony silence and twisting in the wind certainly have provided just cause for the Oilers to put an end to the shameless shenanigans and resume acting like an organization with a proud history rather than a future so shaky it teeters on the whims of Heatley. And word is Tambellini was ready to do exactly that late last week. Oilers assistant GM Kevin Prendergast told the team's radio rights holders last week that they had lost hope of getting Heatley, but it wasn't quite over.
Word is, it was going to be over Monday, once and for all. But first, a brief video interlude. If a picture says 1,000 words, maybe several million would convince Heatley to embrace Edmonton's lush river valley, bizarre obsession with triangles, young hockey team and 15 minutes of summer.
Unlikely? Sure. But maybe he's a sucker for graphics and voice-overs.
On Wednesday, Oilers vice-president Allan Watt said Tambellini would not comment on anything to do with videos or Heatley.
"He said he has nothing to say about Dany Heatley or the situation. Nothing. He said we're not commenting on whether we sent faxes or letters to (Heatley's other agent J. P. Barry). That's negotiating in public and we don't want to do it."
Good. Now stop negotiating with Heatley in private and you'll be much better off. Because the Oilers aren't going to get anything out of Heatley, least of all 45 goals, and this pathetic saga will only be over when Ottawa GM Bryan Murray concocts a deal with the Sharks because that is currently where Heatley wants to play.
The Oilers, I am quite certain, are aware of their somewhat lower place on Heatley's list of preferred destinations. I have, in the past, admired their tenacity when it comes to chasing the unlikely personnel upgrades they so desperately need. It would be much easier to admire had they actually landed any offensive dynamos of late, but their challenges are many, their attributes few. So I understand why they have bowed and scraped; they need top-end offence, they have done almost nothing to improve their team over the summer, give or take a goalie, and Heatley is the only readily available superstar.
They merely have to accept that he is not readily available to them and they ought to concentrate on making themselves at least marginally better elsewhere.
That they would even go through the hassle and minor expense of putting videos together at this late date seems an afterthought, one that Heatley would surely shrug off. They might envision it as part of their ongoing sales pitch, but observers are more likely to characterize it as pathetic and inadequate.
There was apparently more to the package than highlights of the Oilers' offensive players, but what are the chances Heatley is going to spend good, quality summer minutes in front of his TV watching anything to do with the Oilers or Edmonton?
We all know how busy he is shooting pucks, jumping into Okanagan Lake, playing golf, skating with his buddies and thinking how cool it would be to play left wing for the Sharks, taking sweet saucers from Joe Thornton for the next several years. Or until head coach Todd McLellan tells him to backcheck and he asks for a trade to Chicago.