OTTAWA — San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson won’t dare mention the name Dany Heatley, but don’t let the sounds of silence fool you.

The Sharks remain a possible landing spot for Heatley, providing, of course, the Ottawa Senators’ on-again, off-again trade talks with the Edmonton Oilers are finally dead.

Wilson, you’ll recall, promised to do whatever was necessary to shake up his team after it underachieved yet again in the spring, bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the Anaheim Ducks after winning the NHL regular season title.

“Is this the final time we have to get kicked in the (butt) to realize we’re going to commit to whatever it takes to get to the next level?” he asked a group of disappointed fans after the club’s elimination.

That fiery, passionate comment came more than two months ago. Since then, Wilson’s biggest moves have been re-signing forward Ryane Clowe, and defencemen Rob Blake and Kent Huskins.

As for the promised shakeup? Nothing.

Sharks fans are desperately waiting for something, anything, to put the past behind them. Will Wilson finally unload captain Patrick Marleau, who has been a team leader during so many Sharks collapses? Keep in mind that Wilson has already talked to Marleau, who owns the dreaded no-trade clause, about giving up the team’s captaincy.

While Heatley has also been part of many disappointments for the Senators, Wilson certainly didn’t eliminate speculation he has an eye on him.

“I’m not talking about somebody else’s player, period,” he said, attempting to deflect away the question when asked by the San Jose Mercury News on the weekend. “I’d be furious if another team talked about Joe Thornton or Dan Boyle, and I would file tampering charges.”

Funny that Wilson should mention Thornton and Boyle, two of the game’s most gifted power-play performers. San Jose is believed to be one of Heatley’s preferred destinations, primarily because the Sharks are a high-scoring, front-running team — at least in the regular season — allowing him plenty of opportunity to score 40 or even 50 goals, and to shine with the man advantage. If Jason Spezza is one of the top playmaking centres in the Eastern Conference, Thornton fits the bill in the West.

The Sharks are currently pushing the salary cap limit of $56.8 million US for the 2009-10 season, but their only major long-term commitment is to Boyle, who will make an average of $6.7 million per season until 2014.

If the Senators were willing to take back most of Heatley’s salary in the form of another player or two — Marleau has one year and $6.3 million remaining and Jonathan Cheechoo has two years and $6 million left — there could be room for a deal. (With Heatley and Alex Kovalev currently on the books, the Senators are approximately $2 million over the salary cap, but NHL teams have until September to get under the number).

It all makes a degree of sense and cents. If something was done with the Sharks, Murray would be forced to sell the fans on the merits of an underachieving, overpaid player or two, but that wouldn’t be all that different from the potential Edmonton deal as the Senators would have been taking on Dustin Penner.

Wilson was giving himself room to avoid making a blockbuster move this summer, suggesting there might be bargains for teams willing to wait. Some clubs, he suggests, might be inclined to simply dump players because the salary cap is expected to drop dramatically in 2010-11 due to the recession.

“We have considerable flexibility in 2010, with almost $20 million coming off the cap,” Wilson said. “Other teams don’t have that. There are going to be a lot of players available later in this upcoming season because of what 2010 is going to bring.”

That’s the economic world Murray has been dealing with since the Heatley bombshell dropped during the Stanley Cup final. Wilson, however, is facing the pressure of a fan base demanding change.

“I get the idea of instant gratification and people not understanding why we’re not doing everything today,” Wilson told the San Jose newspaper. “But this team only needs to be built by the trade deadline. Big deals take time and patience. You have to wait for the moons to align. Are we done? No.”

At the very least, Wilson’s words provide a tease that there might be a team other than Edmonton that can put the Heatley saga to rest. After saying nothing since his trade demand broke, Heatley has gone from being a star to one of the biggest villains in Senators history. It makes one wonder whether he will even bother to show up for Spezza’s wedding in Ottawa on the weekend.

Ottawa Citizen