Kovalev in town and Heatley-gate?

First off, Alex Kovalev threw on a Sens jersey in his first public appearance since signing in Ottawa earlier this month. Story from the Sun here.

Second, and trust me that I hate doing this, but I feel the need to respond on the "Heatleygate" from an anonymous blogger's website that shall remain unnamed. The story goes that Murray had a done deal with the Rags so long as they could clear salary, which they did in peddling Gomez to the Habs. Murray really wanted Dubinsky, though, who was not part of the offer, so he started going to the Oilers for leverage and indirectly leaked the names of the Oilers players that were being offered back. Slats, not wanting to hurt his former team in Edmonton, backed out entirely and signed Gabby instead, leaving Murray stuck with the Edmonton offer and a disinterested Heatley. Yadda, yadda, yadda, we're here three weeks later waiting to see if SJ can clear cap space or if Heatley will just take the next five years in Edmonchuk.

Let me bring you in on a secret - if Bryan Murray wanted Slats to know that an Edmonton deal was close, he would call him up and tell him the players coming back the other way. I'm not down with anonymous rumour sites acting as if Bryan Murray is as unprofessional as they are by suggesting he would stoop to lowbrow tactics. I'm well aware that the media is 'used' to push agendas and gain public favour, but to think that Murray and Slats aren't close enough and respectful enough to pick up the phone just shows a lack of understanding.

As I said in Monday's Musings - if the Rags offered a better deal than what Edmonton is offering, Murray would have taken it. If the Rags did in fact make an offer first for Heatley, then Murray has a duty to this organization to first see if there is a better deal out there for the Senators organization. In this case, he did and that's what we're left with. I don't even know if anyone is at fault here. Slats pulled out when he chose Gabby, Tambellini made his best offer, Murray took his best offer, Heatley just wants to play somewhere else, and his agents are trying their hardest to broker a deal. Everyone is within their right to take each action. At the end of the day, though, the sympathy will still be in favour of Ottawa and Edmonton, whether Heatley finds that fair or not.

FYI - photo above is courtesy of Tony Caldwell/Sun Media.

Here's the press conference with AK27