Heatley Finally Traded

These Dany Heatley trade reports are taking on its own life now. Word now from TSN and ESPN is Heatley has indeed been traded to San Jose, but not as part of a three-way deal with the Kings, and not involving Patrick Marleau. Heatley reportedly has been traded, along with a fifth round pick, for LW Jonathan Cheechoo, RW Milan Michalek and a second round draft pick. Here is TSN.ca's report.

BREAKING..................??

Update (10:10 PM CT): How about another link. This one has a little more to the story in that it breaks down how ESPN seems to be ahead of the game in reporting deals and whatnot of late.

Not to say this is dead or alive, but something about this Puck Daddy story tells me there's more to this than we know, and that this one is far from over as I mentioned an hour ago.

In other words, there's still tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

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Update (9:15 PM CT): Kings GM Dean Lombardi, as well as Ottawa GM Brian Burke and San Jose GM Doug Wilson, has denied this trade. In a two-word text back to ESPN and to the Daily News' Rich Hammond, Lombardi says the deal is "complete bull".

So much for that!

The deal didn't make any sense from the Kings standpoint anyway.

Stay tuned. We probably haven't heard the last of this one.

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UPDATE (8:06 PM CT): Here's ESPN's link to the trade. Still no confirmation from any of the teams.

Talk of this deal was reported yesterday by The Fourth Period.

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ESPN's John Buccigross is reporting a blockbuster three-team trade that sends Dany Heatley to San Jose, Patrick Marleau to the Kings, and Alexander Frolov and Jarrett Stoll to Ottawa.

More on this as information becomes available.

All Quiet on the Kings Front

Free agency started earlier this afternoon, and the Kings had been linked to a number of players. So far, however, it's been a relatively quiet day for the Kings. They are rumored to have made an offer to winger Marian Gaborik, and word is they were interested in winger Martin Havlat. For the time being, both players remained unsigned.

Meanwhile, there were some other big free agent signings today. Among others, Marian Hossa inked a 12-year deal with Chicago. Nikolai Khabibulin signed a four-year deal with Edmonton. Former King Michael Cammalleri signed with Montreal for five years. Defenseman Mike Komisarek is headed to Toronto for the next five years. The Sedin twins re-upped in Vancouver for five years, as well.

For a complete list of who went where, TSN has a free agent tracker up and running.

Yesterday, Jay Bouwmeester, whose rights were traded to Calgary on draft day by Florida, signed for five years with the Flames. The Rangers traded Chris Gomez to the Canadiens for Chris Higgins as part of a six-player deal. And the Oilers and Senators agreed in principle on a deal that would send disgruntled forward Dany Heatley from Ottawa to Edmonton, pending Heatley's approval as he has a no-trade clause. So far, the deal is still waiting a decision from Heatley.