Hossa - Heatley trade

[Ishdul]

1. The Senators had a major logjam at RW, with Alfredsson, Hossa and Havlat all being over a P/G in 03/04 (a major feat) and none of them working out the numerous times we tried them on LW. Heatley had no such issues.
2. Heatley was (rightly) seen as a better compliment to Spezza since he doesn't need the puck as much and Spezza feeding Heatley for one timers was always going to lead to a lot of goals.
3. Heatley cost 4.5 million per season to Hossa's 6 and it was pretty obvious the Senators were going to need to cut salary very soon. They also got rid of deVries in the deal, which was a plus for Ottawa.

Anyways, I disagree with the assessment that it didn't work out for the Senators. Hossa's a lot better now but I don't think that's very relevant to the trade. Considering Hossa turned down Pittsburgh because he didn't think they were good enough, he wasn't going to stick around for the Senators while they were in the middle of their collapse, and I don't think we're in any better position to win the Cup in the 3 years after the trade with Hossa rather than Heatley. Heatley was still one of the best players in the league and he allowed us to do Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson line.

 

[begbeee]

1. The Senators had a major logjam at RW, with Alfredsson, Hossa and Havlat all being over a P/G in 03/04 (a major feat) and none of them working out the numerous times we tried them on LW. Heatley had no such issues.
2. Heatley was (rightly) seen as a better compliment to Spezza since he doesn't need the puck as much and Spezza feeding Heatley for one timers was always going to lead to a lot of goals.
3. Heatley cost 4.5 million per season to Hossa's 6 and it was pretty obvious the Senators were going to need to cut salary very soon. They also got rid of deVries in the deal, which was a plus for Ottawa.

Anyways, I disagree with the assessment that it didn't work out for the Senators. Hossa's a lot better now but I don't think that's very relevant to the trade. Considering Hossa turned down Pittsburgh because he didn't think they were good enough, he wasn't going to stick around for the Senators while they were in the middle of their collapse, and I don't think we're in any better position to win the Cup in the 3 years after the trade with Hossa rather than Heatley. Heatley was still one of the best players in the league and he allowed us to do Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson line.

This would never happen if there was no H/H trade. Hossa felt good in Ottawa, signed fair deal and next day after signing he was traded. This is the point zero when he starts to put personal interest on the first place.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

This would never happen if there was no H/H trade. Hossa felt good in Ottawa, signed fair deal and next day after signing he was traded. This is the point zero when he starts to put personal interest on the first place.

that's an interesting thought. it was an extreme act of betrayal by ottawa, one that maybe cost them the possibility of a chara hometown discount too.

i wonder if that affected ottawa's ability to sign UFAs in later years. the richards/carter fiasco didn't seem to affect philly. but here in vancouver, there were very vocal calls from fans to trade edler before his NTC kicked in. but i think in most cases, philly i guess being the exception, the small gain is probably not worth the longterm ramifications of losing goodwill.

 

[begbeee]

The one who consider Hossa mercenary, needs deeper understanding of his case.
1) signed in Ottawa what could be his career hometown, traded next day to
2) Atlanta was bouncing bag, altough on a way to improve. He puts great effort (see: acts like professional) to play his best - led them to playoffs
3) traded again to Pittburgh, really nothing special in this, one would say playin like Conn Smythe runner-up, one would say product of Crosby. It's offered a long-term deal to him - he denied (see: acts like player who prefer winning over money
4) Detroit couldnot offer him fair money with Zetterberg, Franzen and Hossa on last year of contracts.
5) So he went to Chicago (fair money, fair chance to win).

Really nothing mercenary here, rather then finally trying to take his destiny in his hands after he had chance for the first time in long time - in Pittsburgh. He tried to act fair at first, but after he was overhelmed by "bussiness" in Ottawa, then he adjusted.

 

[frontsfan2005]

This deal made a lot of sense for Ottawa in 2005.

As previously mentioned, the Sens had too many RW's and no one to play LW. Going back to 2003-04, the Sens top scoring left winger was Peter Schaefer and his 39 points. Alfie, Havlat and Hossa all were tried at LW, and had poor results, so they played RW on three different lines. With Spezza emerging as a top centre, who is he going to feed passes to on the left wing? Vermette? Schaefer? A deal needed to be made to balance out the scoring.

Heatley also cost less than Hossa by $1.5 million, plus Greg de Vries and his $2 million were added to the deal with Atlanta, and the Sens were desperately trying to get under the $39 million cap.

From 2005-07, the Sens won this trade easily, Heatley was a 50 goal, 100 point scorer, formed chemistry with Spezza and Alfie to form the Pizza Line, all three guys tied for the NHL lead with 22 playoff points in 2007, as Ottawa went to the finals. Hossa at the time was productive too, but put up a very poor playoff showing for Atlanta in the 2007 playoffs (1 assist, -6 rating in a sweep).

In 2007-08, Heatley dominated Hossa in regular season scoring, but Hossa stepped up in the playoffs, helping Pittsburgh to the finals, while Heatley had a poor playoff for the Sens.

By the end of the 2008-09 season, Hossa leapt over Heatley, and hasn't looked back, as he has had some very productive seasons with the Wings (08-09) and the Hawks (09-present), winning two cups in the process. Heatley is now in a steep decline, isn't a 30 point scorer anymore and is a regular healthy scratch with the Wild. Of course, his demanding a trade out of Ottawa hurt the Sens, but who knows, maybe Hossa bolts out of Ottawa in 2008 after his contract is up and the Sens look like they are beginning to decline. He wouldn't have received a 12 year offer from Ottawa in he elected free agency.

At the time, it was a good deal for the Sens.

 

[Ivo]

Despite Hossa being my favorite player, I think the deal made sense for Ottawa, mainly because of the 39M salary cap and them shedding some 3.5 in the trade. I do think that Hossa was the better player at the time and ever after, and not taking cap hit into consideration, the trade was a bad one for Ottawa.

I don't really understand the RW-LW explanation. It's not like Ottawa had to put their three best forward on one line.

Instead of:
Heatley - Spezza - Alfredsson
xxx - yyy- zzz

They could play:
xxx - Spezza - Alfredsson
yyy - zzz- Hossa

And maybe they would be better off with much better depth. IIRC Hossa didn't play much with Kovalchuk and Savard in Atlanta and still produced elite offensive numbers. He could have done the same on Ottawa's 2nd line. I always thought Ottawa's over-reliance on the Pizza line and lack of secondary scoring were not suited against top defensive teams (like 2007 Ducks).

 

[Ishdul]

Despite Hossa being my favorite player, I think the deal made sense for Ottawa, mainly because of the 39M salary cap and them shedding some 3.5 in the trade. I do think that Hossa was the better player at the time and ever after, and not taking cap hit into consideration, the trade was a bad one for Ottawa.

I don't really understand the RW-LW explanation. It's not like Ottawa had to put their three best forward on one line.

Instead of:
Heatley - Spezza - Alfredsson
xxx - yyy- zzz

They could play:
xxx - Spezza - Alfredsson
yyy - zzz- Hossa

And maybe they would be better off with much better depth. IIRC Hossa didn't play much with Kovalchuk and Savard in Atlanta and still produced elite offensive numbers. He could have done the same on Ottawa's 2nd line. I always thought Ottawa's over-reliance on the Pizza line and lack of secondary scoring were not suited against top defensive teams (like 2007 Ducks).

They also had Havlat, who looked like an emerging superstar after 03/04 and who would have been stuck on the 3rd line (and not with Spezza as he did in 03/04) in that setup or tried again on the LW which never worked. And really they just didn't have anything on LW, the only proven NHL LW we had going in was Peter Schaefer.