is always a reason why these things happen." Tom Molloy, a close friend of the Heatley family, stoked the fires in Ottawa with a letter published in the Ottawa Citizen criticizing the widespread negative reaction to the trade request. "(Heatley's) mother is very upset. And the attacks are all personal stuff, about his character", Molloy lamented, adding that "Nobody mentions that this is a guy who gives up a month of his summer every year to play for Team Canada." Molloy went as far as to blame the Senators' organization for Heatley's decision, claiming "This is an organizational thing. If I was the owner of the Senators, I'd be calling my manager in and saying 'why don't guys want to play here anymore?'" Trading Heatley was a challenge due to his large contract, a contract that was to pay him approximately $7.6 million for the upcoming 2009–10 season, and few other NHL teams possessed the available salary cap space to accommodate it. Further complicating matters was the partial no-trade clause in Heatley's contract which limited the number of teams Ottawa could negotiate a potential deal with. A trade was worked out to send Heatley to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Andrew Cogliano, Dustin Penner and Ladislav Šmíd on June 30, 2009, but Heatley again surprised the hockey world when he refused to waive the no-trade clause which would have finalized the deal, further angering fans in both Ottawa and Edmonton. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly suggested that the Senators may have grounds to file a grievance, as Heatley's contract stipulated the team pay a bonus (due July 1, 2009) of US$4 million, as the Edmonton trade if completed would have spared the Senators that expense. Melnyk later filed a lawsuit against Heatley as the team "shouldn’t have paid a hefty roster bonus to a player who was seeking a trade", which was settled out of court in the fall of 2013 without the terms being publicized. As Ottawa GM Murray began again to try to accommodate the trade demand, Heatley was still a member of the Senators as the team opened training camp on September 12, 2009. Heatley had little choice but to report for training camp, and the atmosphere between him and his Senators' teammates was described as "awkward", "tense", and "untenable". Team captain Daniel Alfredsson admitted days earlier that a scenario in which Heatley showed up in