Dany Heatley Traded To Florida Panthers

Our man Dany Heatley, late of the Minnesota Wild wing, current of the AHL, was a part of a trade on Saturday. Heatley was traded with a third round draft pick from the Anaheim Ducks to the Florida Panthers. In return the Panthers are sending 30-year-old winger Tomas Fleischmann to Anaheim.

Heatley was signed by Anaheim over the summer to a one-year $1M deal, but he spent much of the early part of the season injured and then once he was healthy, things didn’t work out quite how both parties had hoped.

The Ducks wound up waiving Heatley and when no one claimed him he was reassigned to the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL. He had a strong start there, but through 24 games in the AHL he has just two goals and five assists. He’s 34-years-old and these are the first 24 games he’s played in the AHL in his career.

The acquisition of Heatley by Florida may be more about helping Anaheim clear cap space for the deal than anything. Florida has requested that Heatley report to their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage and not the NHL squad.

The Panthers appear to be both buyers and sellers this season. They sent Sean Bergenheim and a 7th round pick to Minnesota in exchange for a 2016 third round draft pick. They made this move, which appears to be largely be for the draft pick. Then they sent draft picks to the New Jersey Devils in order to acquire Jaromir Jagr.