| Nick Obergan. 10th July, 2011 - 2:39 pm
 The Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks have apparently found themselves to be a good match trade-wise, as they completed their second trade of the offseason. Unusually, the two separate deals each involved All-Stars; the first deal saw Brent Burns headed to San Jose, while the second saw the Wild acquire four-time All-Star Dany Heatley for two-time All-Star Martin Havlat. The trade gives two high-salaried forwards a chance for a fresh start.
The Wild definitely get the bigger name, as Heatley has had a far more productive career to this point. The hulking 6ft 4in. winger is a pure goal scorer with 325 goals in and 689 points in 669 career games. Heatley has two 50-goal seasons and two 41-goal seasons in his nine-year career, and was the Calder trophy winner in 2001-02 as the top rookie of the NHL (26-41-67).
As good as his numbers have been throughout his career, the 30-year-old is coming off of his worst full season yet with 26-38-64 for the Pacific Division-leading Sharks. They are productive and solid numbers, no doubt, but not the return on investment expected from a player carrying a $7.5M cap hit.
Playoffs are another reason San Jose chose to make him available, as Heatley has only managed 5 goals in 32 playoff games as a member of the Sharks – a team expected to challenge for the Stanley Cup every season. Though word did come out after the playoffs that he was playing through two big injuries this past year, when he looked his most ineffective.
In Minnesota, however, the team is merely hoping to make the playoffs, something they have not done the past three seasons. Minnesota is a fantastic hockey market with great fans, and kudos to management for attempting to improve a stagnant offensive team (they have scored fewer than 220 goals the last three seasons).
Heatley will be expected to regain his 40-goal form as a member of the Wild, and will likely play alongside captain Mikko Koivu and Devin Setoguchi, his teammate in San Jose. The Wild desperately need this trade to work because they are taking on an extra $2.5M per season with this trade for the next three seasons. Will Heatley rebound with a fresh start, or is his decline on the horizon? It is an expensive gamble nonetheless.
Grade for Minnesota:
In Havlat, the Sharks are acquiring a forward who can be electric just as often as he is ineffective. He has tremendous speed north-to-south, and is dangerous on a breakaway and one-on-one. He also has gifted hands, but is not adept at making plays for others. Still, the 30-year-old has scored 20+ goals in six of ten NHL seasons, and seems excited about joining a contender (he waived his No-Trade Clause to make the trade happen).
As with any league with a salary cap, there are financial reasons for this trade on the side of the Sharks. Heatley was making a big salary ($7.5M), and with the young players the Sharks have that will need raises, it was important to be able to shed annual salary. Havlat carries a $5M cap hit and has four years remaining on his contract, one more than Heatley. Heatley was also said to be untradeable because of his large contract, so kudos to GM Doug Wilson to be able to move him.
Another reason the Sharks make this deal is the playoff performance. While Havlat struggled early in his career with Ottawa, over his last two playoff runs he has tallied 12-16-28 in 26 games. His best full season came as a member of the Blackhawks in 2008-09 when he tallied 29-48-77 and a +29 in 81 games; last year he had 22-40-62 for the Wild, tied for most points on the team.
San Jose is full of offensive talent, and the 10-15 goal difference between Heatley and Havlat in the regular season should easily be made up by a score-by-committee mentality. The financial savings and potential playoff boost is more than enough reason to like this deal for the Sharks.
Grade for San Jose: A-
Nick the NHL Feature Writer of RealGM. You can reach him by email nick.obergan@realgm.com or on twitter @NickObergan |
