Rumors, Rumors, Rumors, and More Rumors!

First of all, thank you to everyone who has been sending me your questions about what’s next for Bryan Murray in the off-season. It’s fun to answer your questions. Here are the latest rumors around the net.

The Fourth Period reports that the “Heatley to Oilers” deal is still alive. Dave Pagnotta says that Heatley never officially rejected the deal and reports say he might still be considering it. I’ve heard that the Oilers aren’t going to be waiting on Heatley much longer. Currently this is a game of cat and mouse between Murray and the Oilers, Sharks, and Wild. Bryan is trying to “elevate” the offers by saying to one GM he’s considering the other deal. Personally, that’s my conspiracy theory but I think Murray might be considering keeping Heatley for the season.

Other than Heatley, the Sens still have assets and their disposal. The 6th defenseman role is still up for grabs between Jason Smith and Alexandre Picard. Many fans’ best guess is that one of the two will be packaged with Heatley if he gets traded. There aren’t much teams interested into the two. Obviously Edmonton would love to bring back their former captain Jason Smith, and I posted on Twitter that Columbus likes Picard, though I doubt it with the emergence of their defensive prospect Kris Russell. I personally think Jason Smith would be a better linemate with Brian Lee than Alexandre Picard. Chris Kelly is beign thrown around by Murray but things are closed as of now. Detroit are still the only interested team as said before. Christoph Schubert would like to be traded out of Ottawa but don’t bet on it since there will be NO takers for the German.

On the free agent market, P.J. Axelsson is receiving more offers for his servcies and he may not at all come to Ottawa. Even though he would like to play with his friend Alfie my best guess would be that he will be shortly packing the bags and heading to Sweden. The New Jersey Star Ledger, however, is reporting Ottawa is one of few teams interested in RFA Travis Zajac. Zajac had 62 points last year with the Devils and will likely want a huge increase on the $984,000 he made last year. I haven’t heard anything about this but it sure is interesting.