Welcome to the World of "Sign-and-Trade" in the NHL

The Ottawa Senators have discovered the best use for their most explosive goal scorer in the NHL's new economic environment - ship him out of town.

The Senators signed Marian Hossa to a three-year, $18 million contract today. Smart move, because he's been piling up points faster than guys like Jarome Iginla or Vincent Lecavalier. But the contract would have caused major salary cap trouble for the Senators, so they traded him before the ink was dry.

In the NBA, they call it a "sign-and-trade". Hockey fans better get used to it.

Ottawa sent Hossa and defenseman Greg de Vries to the Atlanta Thrashers for Dany Heatley. Both teams will insist it was time for a change, and if Heatley rediscovers his promising career path it's a great move by the Senators. But no matter what justification they offer, the Senators had to be driven by the salary cap: how many teams trade their top scorer because they feel like it? According to a report from TSN.ca, Heatley will make about $1.5 million per year less than Hossa.

Dumping de Vries and his $2.28 million salary also helps, though who replaces his 19 minutes-per-night remains to be seen.

Perhaps now is a good time for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to remind us how the salary cap will save the NHL. Perhaps he could explain why teams that draft well, trade well and develop well are punished for it by being forced to trade their best players instead of paying them.

Following the deal, Heatley's agent revealed that he had asked to leave Atlanta, the city where he was convicted of vehicular homicide. Heatley was behind the wheel in the car crash that killed his team mate, Dan Snyder, in 2003. Up to that point, he was one of the game's top young players. Since then, results are mixed. Heatley was MVP of the World Hockey Championship in the spring of 2004. But he was the only regular forward who didn't score for Canada in the 2004 World Cup, and was not very productive in Europe last season. He has limited vision in one eye and a knee injury suffered in the car accident is still a concern.

Heatley's trade request gave both teams the perfect opportunity at the right time. The Thrashers take a huge leap forward in scoring; the Senators pick up a potential MVP candidate.

But that's just hockey talk. In the new NHL, blockbuster trades aren't about hockey. They're about "cap room," another phrase fans will grow weary of in the coming years.

In the bad old days, the Ottawa Senators might have eventually unloaded a player like Hossa because he was too expensive. But in the new era, it's not the low-budget teams that get screwed. It's any team with enough smarts, scouting, patience and coaching to assemble a great roster. That's progress, I guess.