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San Jose Sharks winger Dany Heatley

Photograph by : Bruce Bennett, Getty Images, File

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SHARKS at OILERS 7:30 p.m. Media: 630 CHED

Radio, RSW

Nobody knows if Dany Heatley thought to text Chris Pronger to ask what it was like to hear a cacophony of boos from 17,000 Edmonton Oilers fans, but the San Jose Sharks winger might feel the need to slip some earplugs under his helmet tonight at Rexall Place.

Pronger asked to get out of Edmonton; Heatley didn't want to come here.

It's a subtle difference, but Oilers fans don't like to be jilted. Hell hath no fury like a city scorned, again.

The Oilers faithful could be heaping vitriol on their own team, which hasn't won two games in a row since the third week of October, but for tonight, they'll pick on an opponent.

After a trade package of Dustin Penner, Andrew Cogliano and Ladislav Smid was agreed upon with the Ottawa Senators, Heatley decided he would rather play in San Jose and exercised the "no move" clause in his long-term contract.

San Jose has (a) good weather, (b) Joe Thornton, and (c) a hope to win the Stanley Cup, so Heatley went southwest, not straight west.

"Should be noisy in there," Heatley told Pierre Lebrun at ESPN.com."They're entitled to that (booing). They're paying to go to the game. Edmonton is one of the most passionate hockey cities and you can understand why they're upset. But, like I've said, there's more to this story, from my point of view. Whether or not they(fans) accept it, it is what it is and it's in the past," Heatley told the San Jose Mercury News.

Heatley refused to talk to Edmonton reporters until today, when he expects a full-court press.

"It'll probably be the same questions that went on in September and August, and I'll have the same responses for them," said Heatley.

Heatley's new boss, San Jose general manager Doug Wilson, thinks Edmonton has a lot to offer, but not necessarily to Heatley or Pronger or, for that matter, Michael Nylander, who backed out of a verbal agreement to sign here in 2007.

"Edmonton's a great hockey town, with a great history. I've played Canada Cup games there. I love it," Wilson said in a phone call before he sat down to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

"Dany had a no-movement clause in his contract. When a team gives that to a player, you are giving him complete control. He can pick and choose yes or no on where he wants to go to. In essence, it's the same as being an unrestricted free agent."

Wilson bided his time this past summer, waiting for the Oilers-Senators deal for Heatley to crater. He knows you can't necessarily deal players to where you want them to go, and you can't send them to the minors.

"At the time, all I could say was I knew there were other teams out there," Heatley told ESPN.com."I just wanted to wait. I wasn't ready to jump in and make a decision."

Heatley did not budge, even when Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini and president Kevin Lowe came calling to his summer place in Kelowna. Truth is, the Oilers were never on Heatley's list of possible changes of address.

Wilson was sick that the players' names were somehow leaked to the media in the Heatley deal.