Drury for Heatley?

An interesting rumour posted last night sees Chris Drury in a package from the Rangers heading to the Senators for Dany Heatley. This trade rumour might have a little bit of meat to it, as the Rangers are a team that likes to take on big salary players and they also have some assets that may be underperforming on their team that could use a change of scenary. On the outside, this idea looks like a pretty good fit.

			2008-2009 Statistics		2010
To New York	Pos	Age	GP/MIN	Points	Cap Hit
Dany Heatley	F	28	82	72	5 years/$7.5 million
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			2008-2009 Statistics		2010
To Ottawa	Pos	Age	GP/MIN	Points	Cap Hit
Chris Drury	F	32	81	56	3 years/$7.05 million

When you look at the table above for the straight-across swap, it does lean in favour of the Rangers, despite the extra half million in salary going the other way. The Senators will also likely be looking for some more help in this deal, especially since they are trading away a ton of goals and getting half in return in Drury. The Senators would be wise to try and sneak a defenseman out of the Big Apple in this deal, maybe a Dan Girardi, if the Sens were to throw in a pick of reasonable value. There are a number of combinations that could be done here, but from where we stand here, it has some legs.

If Drury was to arrive in Ottawa, he would do well to take some pressure off the other three centres (Jason Spezza, Mike Fisher & Chris Kelly), but there isn't an increase in scoring that Heatley leaves behind. The Sens would have to be looking to swing another deal to try and snag a scoring winger, either in a trade or via free agency this summer to fill that void.

For the Rangers, they hardly have anyone signed, so they can definitely build around this move. You would have to imagine that Scott Gomez would likely get first crack at playing with Heatley, which potentially makes for a good top line, no matter who the third player is.