Anaheim, Calif. – During the 2006-07 regular season, Graham and LuAnn Snyder attended games at all 30 NHL arenas to raise money for the Dan Snyder Memorial Fund and construct a rink named in his honor in his hometown of Elmira, Ontario.
They had Ottawa Senators winger Dany Heatley’s blessing, plus his gratitude for the way they handled the loss of their son.
“I think very quickly after the accident, one of the goals was to raise money to build the arena in Ontario,” Heatley said in the visiting locker room Tuesday, on the eve of Game 2 in the Ottawa-Anaheim Stanley Cup Finals.
“I’m a huge supporter of that. Whatever I can do at the (fundraising) golf tournament or with different things, that’s the goal. I don’t feel like it’s bringing up bad memories. It’s bringing up a positive thing.”
Dan Snyder was a 25-year-old Atlanta Thrashers center, thrilled to have cracked an NHL roster, that night in October 2003, when he was riding with his pal and teammate, Heatley. They were young, they were on top of the world, and they had been having a convivial boys’ night out when Heatley lost control of his Ferrari 360 Modena in Atlanta. Six days later, Snyder died.
Nearly four years later, it can seem almost impolitic or insensitive to bring up the subject during the Finals, and part of that is that it has been so deeply chronicled, at least in Ottawa, where Heatley landed with the Senators following the end of the NHL lockout in 2005 after requesting a scene- changing trade. On Aug. 23 of that year, he came to the Senators in exchange for standout winger Marian Hossa and journeyman defenseman Greg de Vries.
But it’s there.
It will be there the rest of Heatley’s life, the mistake that cost his friend his life. Perhaps in part because the Snyders said they didn’t want Heatley to go to jail, and that it wouldn’t bring back their son, Heatley ended up being sentenced to three years’ probation on several charges related to the accident.
“We chose that route and I think people have responded in a very positive way and lent their support to it,” Graham Snyder said in Denver during the regular season. “It was a little bit unexpected for a lot of people, but it’s the right thing to do for us.”
Heatley, already stamped as one of the game’s bright young stars after going second overall in the 2000 NHL draft following his sophomore season at Wisconsin, then winning the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of year in 2002, has thrived – at least on the ice – in Ottawa.
With 50 goals in each of the past two seasons, he is the top goal-scorer in the league since the end of the lockout. His total this season was second only to Tampa Bay’s Vincent Lecavalier, who had 52, and Heatley has six goals and 15 assists in the postseason for the Senators. If he is being weighed down at all by angst or regret, he hasn’t let it affect his game.
“Hockey-wise, I felt I was ready to go last year after the lockout, regardless of where I was,” Heatley said. “There was a lot said about me, but I felt real confident in my ability to come in and play well. It was just a nice change for me. I think it’s a great group of guys, a great organization to be a part of, and I’ve had a great two years here.
“I have some great family and great friends that helped me through the tough time, and emotionally I felt I could have been fine (at Atlanta). But I just thought it was a fit for me to move on.”
Ottawa general manager John Muckler said the trade “had to be made,” but he added that at least from the Senators’ end, it involved cap issues as well as Heatley’s desire to escape haunting memories in Atlanta.
“It we hadn’t have made that deal, we would not have either one of the players today,” Muckler said.
He said that Hossa, who had 43 goals for the Thrashers this season, could have been an unrestricted free agent in another year, and that the deal also ensured that Ottawa would get something for him.
Muckler said Heatley has “just been a delight to work with. I felt that when he came to us he was more of a goal- scorer than anything else. Now he’s a complete hockey player.”
Ottawa coach Bryan Murray said Heatley “was a real good player for us last year, but I think his determination to become a good two-way player really took effect in the November-December area. I think he’s a real dynamic player with the puck and a real good player without the puck. I don’t know that I would have said that every day last year. But he’s certainly become that.”
Heatley’s line – he plays with center Jason Spezza and Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson – has been dominant in the playoffs until a Game 1 hiccup against the Ducks, when they were neutralized by Anaheim’s Samuel Pahlsson-centered checking line.
“Dany’s a great hockey player,” Spezza said Tuesday. “He’s one of the best offensive guys in the league. He’s a great teammate. He works hard. He’s a big body that goes to the net. He’s been through a lot and he’s matured because of it and we’ve all kind of grown together.”
Dany Heatley/Timeline
1981 – Born in Freiburg, West Germany, where his Canadian father was playing professional hockey.
1999 – After scoring 70 goals for Calgary of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, enrolls at the University of Wisconsin.
2000 – After his freshman season, the Atlanta Thrashers take him with the second choice of the NHL draft. He stays one more season.
2002 – Wins the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year with the Thrashers.
Sept. 29, 2003 – Loses control of his Ferrari, and a teammate riding with him – Dan Snyder – is critically injured. Snyder dies six days later. Heatley later pleads guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide and other charges and is placed on three years’ probation.
2005 – After the lockout, Heatley joins the Ottawa Senators, who acquired him for veteran winger Marian Hossa.
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
