Allen Panzeri's piece in this morning's Ottawa Citizen mentions that several agents have speculated that the Bruins could be one of the suitors for Dany Heatley's services. The Ottawa Senators' left winger has asked to be dealt this off-season. Heatley still has four years left on his contract ($8 million each of the next three seasons and $6 million in '12-'13), so the Bruins would need to shuffle around some salaries to find some cap size.
Panzeri speculates that a deal to Boston would have to include both Phil Kessel and Patrice Bergeron. This seems like a steep price to pay considering Kessel scored 36 goals this season and Bergeron is starting to look like his old self again. On the other hand, if the Bruins can't re-sign Kessel in the next few weeks, they need to get something of value for the RFA in return. Renuiting Heatley with former Thrashers linemate Marc Savard and Sens teammate Zdeno Chara might be a good fit. Dany Heatley has been a consistent performer over the course of his NHL career, who can be counted on to be a 40 goal scorer. The probability of Kessel repeating his contract year performance or Bergeron returning to form remains to be seen.
While I would like to see Heatley in Black & Gold, I don't want to see Peter Chiarelli overpay for one of "his guys" like he has in the past, but this hypothetical dealing appears to be just that: hypothetical. I seriously doubt that the Bruins will deal for Heatley because neither the B's nor the Sens want to make a deal of this magnitude within the division. Chances are that Heatley will be traded to a contender in the Western Conference.