Anaheim Ducks‘ 14th year veteran left wing Dany Heatley(51) signed a one year deal over the summer after spending a three seasons with Minnesota Wild (two as assistant captain), 2 with San Jose Sharks, 4 with Ottawa Senators and his first three with 2000 draft team (1st round, #2 overall) Atlanta Thrashers.
He was hampered by an early groin injury at the beginning of the campaign and then had to fight to gain a roster spot on an already pretty deep team with many prospects in the wings.
When he did get in, reports have it that he looked out of step, unable to keep up and failed to connect with the score sheet in six contests.
Before Christmas for the first time ever he was put on waivers for reassignment to under performing minor league affiliate Norfolk Admirals.
The somewhat huge 6’3″ 219 lbs. forward looks a lot out of place skating in the AHL but basically seems to only have it in third gear most of the time.
He has an unimpressive 2 tallies and 5 helpers in 24 games.
Where the former two-time 50 goal scorer goes next is fully up in the air but retirement may not be out of the question for the 34-year old.
In a career 869 NHL games, he has scored an absolutely phenomenal 372 goals and 419 assists with a +38 rating and won an Olympic Gold Medal in 2010 with Team Canada, pretty great stats to hang up the skates with.
Original story: 2/24-15
Four days after this article was posted he would get traded from the Ducks‘ organization to Florida Panthers and be reassigned to their minor league affiliate San Antonio Rampage.
Even though he wasn’t going to be skating more NHL games with the big club, it was easily a much happier landing place as he was on a high scoring squad in playoff contention.
His play pointed towards better surroundings as he scored 6 goals and 7 assists in 18 contests but failed to connect in three postseason match-ups.
As his 15th season of pro hockey approaches he makes the commitment to join Nurnberg Ice Tigers as the new DEL calendar is just getting started.
He should be able to fully find his scoring touch on the bigger sheets of ice and may play out a few more years overseas before deciding to move onto the next chapter post-hockey life.