Havlat Traded For Heatley

While I was not expecting San Jose to move Heatley this offseason, neither is it a surprise. He has been experiencing diminishing production and is no longer worth the money he's being paid. That being said, Havlat isn't exactly a bargain. From a production standpoint, these two players were virtually identical last season. The only real difference is that Heatley was far more productive on the power play, which could be because he played on San Jose's mighty PP. Heatley also can fulfill a secondary penalty killing role (granted it only represents 5% of his total ice time). Havlat does not kill penalties at all.

The bottom line is that Heatley is on the cap at $7.5M per season for 3 more years, where Havlat is due $5M per over 4 more years. In terms of real money and not cap hit, technically Havlat's contract is more expensive. Havlat used to be injury plagued, but has been reasonably healthy over the past 3 seasons. Heatley seems to have a chemistry expiry date, and needs to be moved to a new team every few years. The good news for Minnesota fans is that he gets a boost when he moves into a new situation.