The Ottawa Roster (part 3 of 3)

The final part of this blog looks at the Ottawa trading block

Trading block forwards: Dany Heatley

Now, this one is obvious given what has transpired over the summer. But I am even more alarmed and concerned by what I have heard today in his press conference. He REALLY doesn't want to play here. His attitude today stank richly of a sense of entitlement and a definite sense of looking out for #1.

His trade stock probably plummeted with the performance he put on today, but there is no reason the Sens shouldn't get something serviceable back. The Edmonton offer of Penner, Cogliano and Smid should be used as a template - GM Murray wants a top 6 forward, a top 4 defenseman and a prospect/pick. This seems about right. If Edmonton offered that deal again and included, say, Tom Gilbert instead of recently re-signed Smid, or perhaps Paajarvi-Svensson (or similar prospect) - the deal would be back on.

The sleeper team in this I feel is Tampa Bay. Now, I'm not claiming to be an Eklund or Senschirp here, I don't have any sources, I'm simply using commonsense. Ryan Malone is good, but he is overpaid. The Lightning need to shake things up. They have upgraded their D a lot but haven't really done anything on the front end yet. Say the package looked like Heatley for Malone, someone like Paul Ranger and a high draft pick or prospect? I think that trade actually works for both teams...but, we all know that's no guarantee that they'll want it.

Imagine a line of Heatley-Lecavalier-St Louis...pretty scary talented huh.

Outrageous, baseless rumours aside (maybe I am pulling an Eklund here come to think of it :P), let's look at the rest of the trade block:

Trading block defensemen: Christoph Schubert, Alexandre Picard, Jason Smith

Poor Schubie just can't catch a break here in Ottawa, constantly on the outer fringe of making the team on both the 4th line and the bottom-pairing D. He's copped a lot of criticism for being particularly useless up front - but as with all our bottom 6 forwards, that's not really the role a Schubert is designed to play.

If Schubie gets a shot here it will serve him well to remember his fundamentals. Forecheck with hustle. Hit players. Be more assertive. He's listed at 230lbs and he looks even bigger than that - time for him to throw some of that size around. I kinda hope he impresses enough to be kept around...but if he is traded, I can see a 4th to 6th round draft pick for him

Picard is another defenseman who has just had no luck this season. When Hartsburg finally got the boot, Picard got injured and found that his spot had been taken up by Lee and Bell. With Bell gone and Lee needing to be mentored, perhaps Picard could be swapped for a veteran defenseman presence on the blue line.

Let's face it, Jason Smith was a failed Ottawa experiment. In the final year of his contract and with a desperate need to lose salary off the books - he is almost certain to stay this season on the long-term IR. However, if a team wants him packaged into a deal I don't think BM would hesitate.

Seeing as we don't have any goaltender depth in the system, I think that wraps this post up.

Just a quick word of thanks to all you people out there reading my blog and encouraging me to keep going - the support is greatly appreciated. :)