Heatley invited to Sens camp!

Much to the surprise of Dany Heatley and his handlers, #15 must start thinking about packing his bags for Ottawa. BM told Garrioch in the Ottawa Sun today that they've sent out their standard camp mail, including the offer to Dany to help with his travel arrangements from Kelowna to Ottawa.

Murray adds that, as usual, there is nothing new to report on trade negotiations. He's still talking to the same two teams and they're still offering the same inadequate returns. Booboo does add, though, that Murray is demanding Thornton, while Doug Wilson has neither offered him nor Marleau. He also suggests that the Rags are the second team.

“Basically, what I’ve said (to other teams) is just tell me what you’re willing to do, I’ll talk to you and we’ll go from there and we’ll make a decision one way or another. But, I can’t say I’m overly optimistic now.”

Question - does the Euge, who is publicly upset and rattled by the whole saga, call Murray and just say, "get this mook out of here before camp, regardless of the return." Or does he not make any calls to the office and let Murray bring in the Heat to play through the season, distractions and all? I already know where some of you stand on this, with most people starting to think that he'll be a Senator this Fall. But if you were holding out hope of a last minute trade, this is a bit deflating for you. I'm still on the fence. A small part of me thinks that Murray just takes the garbage that Doug Wilson is offering, which is probably Cheechoo, Vlasic, and a prospect. Another part of me knows how stubborn Murray is and thinks that to prove his point, he'll just let Dany rot in town all season, knowing that there is enough character in this room to overcome the distractions.

Also, if you didn't catch it earlier, Alfie had some choice words which the Sun quickly took to mean, 'nobody wants him here'. Good on Alfie to not just give the normal 'we'll welcome him back with open arms' garbage that Fisher still lays on the table. These players should be offended by this and should expect a nice steak dinner and a commitment to leave it outside the rink.

And finally, unrelated to the Sens, a quiet move from Toronto tonight as they've reacquired their 2nd round pick from 2010. I guess one way to get Kessel out of Boston is to just give him a nice $4.6M offer sheet, since the Leafs now have their first three picks again. The Bruins are over the cap as it stands today without Kessel, which especially stinks since they're paying $2.2M in the buyouts of Glen Murray, Patrick Eaves, and Peter Schaefer. Maybe Burkie can find some offence after all! I can't wait to look back on the comments that he made about Kevin Lowe when the Oilers took Penner away on an offer sheet. You can accuse Burke of a lot of things, and being a hypocrite is definitely one of them! Putting the cart before the horse here, no question, but the table is certainly set here.

Reminder (sorry, just found the updated numbers for 2009-10 and edited this):
Amount Compensation Due
$994,433 or below - None
Over $994,433 to $1,506,716 -Third-round choice
Over $1,506,716 to $3,013,434 - Second-round choice
Over $3,013,434 to $4,520,150 - First-round and third-round choice
Over $4,520,150 to $6,026,867 - First-round, second-round and third-round choice
Over $6,026,867 to $7,533,584 - Two first-round choices, one second- and one third-round choice
Over $7,533,584 - Four first-round choices