Regular Season Finish: 10th in Eastern Conference
If there was any team that really doesn’t know how next season will pan out, it would have to be the Ottawa Senators. The dominant story of the entire 2009 offseason has been the Dany Heatley ordeal. Early on, Heatley expressed his desire to be moved, and has since made it more than difficult for that to be made a reality. Multiple teams have expressed interest in the Senators’ leading goal scorer, who finished last season with 39 goals and 72 points, but despite reports that deals have been worked out with both the Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers, the disgruntled winger remains a Senator, at least for the moment. 
In the meantime, Ottawa picked up what will likely be Heatley’s replacement in the event that he ever does get moved, adding superstar Alexei Kovalev from Montreal. The Russian winger produced at pretty good pace in Montreal, but still managed to receive his fair share of both good and bad publicity. It will be interesting to see how he adapts to the new environment in the Canadian capital.
While the addition of Kovalev and his 60+ points should help ease the seemingly inevitable loss of Heatley, it will come at the high price of $10 million a season. This serious cap hit basically closed out the Senators’ activity in the free agent market, aside from the signing of promising young center Martin St. Pierre.
Assuming the Senators do trade Heatley, they could be looking to pick up any number of pieces, as they could use help at both ends of the ice. In 2008-09, they were mediocre at best in both team offense and defense. Regardless of what happens, the Senators are a team that has consistently shown a lack of chemistry and team play in the past few years, despite being loaded with talent. The Heatley situation is only one more item on a laundry list of personnel problems that have plagued them since the lockout.