Heatley for Havlat

			2010-2011 NHL Statistics				July 1st Status
To Minnesota	Position	Age	GP	G	A	P	Years	Cap Hit
Dany Heatley	F	30	80	26	38	64	3	$7.5 million
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To San Jose	Position	Age	GP	G	A	P	Years	Cap Hit
Martin Havlat	F	30	78	22	40	62	4	$5 million

An unexpected deal, right out of the blue, came down on Sunday evening, seeing a pair of celebrated goal scorers, on non-advantageous teams in their careers, get dealt for one another, trying to be beneficial for both teams in the deal. The Sharks dealing Dany Heatley to the Wild for Martin Havlat, straight up.

Heatley, a two-time 50-goal scorer with the Senators, in 2006 and 2007, never eclipsed 40 goals in his two seasons with the Sharks, despite some set-up talent from Joe Thornton, so it is quite possible that the Sharks were thinking that they were not getting the return on investment that they were hoping for.

Heatley will now join former Sharks teammate Devin Setoguchi in Minnesota and may likely be paired with centres Pierre-Marc Bouchard or Matt Cullen, trying to spark some new offense in the Wild system.

As for Havlat, he becomes a more cost-effective scoring winger, for a Sharks team that can use the same amount of goals with a bit more savings against the cap.  Havlat was top dog for the Wild over the past two seasons and as much as he led the team in scoring for both seasons, he didn't make any players around him better.

With the Sharks, he won't be relied upon to make the rest of the team better, he'll be one of the top support wingers for a few top centres in the league and might make a bigger impact as a top six role scorer.

As you can see, this is a $2.5 million cap hit swing in either direction, the Wild taking on more and the Sharks giving that up.  This deal brings the Sharks down to $56.2 million for 17 players and brings the Wild up to $50.4 million for 17 players and two buyouts.  Financially, this deal makes a great deal of sense, both for the high spending team and the budget team that can use a little bit more help staying above the cap floor.

I think the Sharks come away really well in this deal, because they will get a star that can score when the pressure is off and they save $2.5 million against the cap.  The Wild don't exactly have the talent to help Heatley get above 40 goals in 2012 at the moment, on paper, but they do have a guy that can be leaned upon, if he is the only star that is healthy on the team.  Financially, I think this deal is beneficial both ways, but I think the Sharks win this deal on scoring potential.