Offseason Story lines

Here are some interesting story lines and possible endings for them this offseason:

-Firstly the Dany Heatley saga has become the major story of the upcoming draft much the same way that Chris Pronger was a few years ago. By demanding a trade out of Ottawa Heatley has forced GM Bryan Murray into dealing him and odds are he will be heading out West somewhere and there's no way that Ottawa will get back equal value for him either. As you'd expect the western canadian teams have figured prominently into rumors and while Vancouver and Edmonton are two viable options (Calgary won't have near enough cap room) they'd have to give up healthy packages for him and Vancouver simply doesn't have the depth. Personally I think it would take a package of Tom Gilbert (whom Ottawa is reportedly smitten with) Andrew Cogliano (whom apparently Oilers management doesn't want to trade) and the 10th overall pick. However if I had to pick a current frontrunner for Heatley I'd say it would be San Jose who has Patrick Marleau, Milan Michalek, Jonathan Cheechoo, Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski to chose from to trade along with prospect Logan Couture so they have much more to offer up to trade.

-The Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke has promised to go out and spend boatloads of money this offseason and with the Sedin twins looking more and more like they aren't going to re-sign in Vancouver and with the history between the two sides it would not be suprising to see the Sedins in Leaf blue next year along with a couple of other high priced free agents.

-Will the Montreal Canadiens, with the most cap room in the league, so spending crazy or will they do something that is long overdue and rebuild. Also the free agent class next year (Roberto Luongo, Marc Savard, Ilya Kovalchuck, Rick Nash) will be far superior and with the cap going down, some smart GM's will be hoarding cap space like it's gold for next season and I hope/a part of me believes that the Habs will be very quiet and do this.

-With a lot of important UFA's and it seems that they're going to let alot of them walk away and without a whole lot of prospects outside of Cody Hodgson the Vancouver Canucks could very well be in a tough spot especially because with the noises that Roberto Luongo is making about only wanting to play for a contender, Mike Gillis is going to be in tough to deliver one for Roberto next season.

-There will be over 7 new head coach's in the NHL next season, how will they fare?

-Will the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins be able to stock up to get back to the cup finals for the third year in a row?

-Will the Islanders take Tavares or Hedman? My money is on Tavares, natural goal scorers don't come along every day.