Heatley, who was also seriously injured but eventually made a full recovery, pled guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide and received probation.

Traded to the Ottawa Senators, Heatley became one of the team's leading scorers, setting franchise records for single-season goals (50) in 2005–06, and points (105) in 2006–07.

Heatley made his NHL debut with the Thrashers in 2001–02, leading all rookies in points (67) and assists (41) and was second in team goal-scoring (26) behind Ilya Kovalchuk.

In the 2002–03 season Heatley emerged as an NHL star, recording 41 goals and 89 points in 77 games and finishing ninth overall in league scoring.

[5] He finished the year with Thrashers' teammate Kovalchuk on the Ak Bars Kazan of the Russian Superleague (RSL), recording 4 points in eleven games.

This was unpopular with Atlanta fans, particularly as Snyder's father Graham noted that Heatley owed much to the Thrashers' organization that had particularly been extremely supportive of him during his trial and ordeal.

[6] On August 23, 2005, the Thrashers sent him to the Ottawa Senators for Slovak star Marián Hossa and veteran defenceman Greg de Vries.

[11] In his first game back in Atlanta as a Senator, he was frequently booed, indicating that Thrashers fans felt snubbed by Heatley's previous trade request.

Heatley and the Senators followed up another strong regular season going all the way to the Stanley Cup finals, but finished short in five games against the Anaheim Ducks.

Seeding seventh overall in the East, Ottawa met the Pittsburgh Penguins in the playoffs, coincidentally the same first-round match-up of the previous year.

Snyder said there were "a lot of ways" Heatley could have dealt with the decision by Clouston to reduce his playing time and bump him down to the second power-play unit, rather than demanding a trade.

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."

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.

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.

[23] 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 himself sneaked back into Scotiabank Place, avoiding the cameras and throng of media awaiting some clarification regarding his desire to leave Ottawa.

"When I looked (Heatley) in the eye, I knew the minute he walked out the door that I had to trade him," GM Bryan Murray said a short time later.

On November 20, Heatley recorded his second hat-trick in as many months, as he scored three times from passes from teammate Joe Thornton in a 6–3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Sharks were eliminated in the 2010 Conference Finals as, with Dany Heatley in the penalty box, the Chicago Blackhawks scored the game-winning goal, sweeping the series.

Several fans who attended the game held up their #15 Heatley jerseys with certain letters covered up, so the name plate would spell out the word "H-A-T-E".

However, during a game against the San Jose Sharks in April, an altercation with former teammate Marc-Édouard Vlasic dislocated Heatley's left shoulder, requiring surgery that ended his season.

In response to Heatley's impressive performance in just his second NHL season, Eastern Conference teammate Jeremy Roenick commented, "Twenty-two years old?

"[37] Heatley's next appearance came in 2007, where he played on a line with former SC Bern teammates Daniel Brière and Marián Hossa and got a goal and two assists in a 12–9 loss to the Western Conference.

The following year, Heatley led Team Canada in scoring (seven goals and ten points) at the 2003 World Championships in Finland, en route to his first gold medal.

[45] On February 28, 2010, the team defeated the United States to win Canada's eighth gold medal in Olympic men's hockey.

[48][49] On September 29, 2003, Heatley was seriously injured in a car crash after he lost control of the Ferrari 360 Modena he was driving on a curved road in a residential area of Atlanta.

[7] The Thrashers and the Atlanta community were largely supportive of Heatley, and Snyder's family told the judge and prosecutors that nothing would be gained by imprisoning him.

The suit, filed in the Calgary Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta, alleges that the defendants lured Heatley into several real estate ventures across Canada and the United States with promises of huge returns that never materialized.

The defendant companies named in court documents are Presidential Suites Inc., Waterfront Development Inc., McAlpine Sports Management Inc., and NSEM Management Inc.[51] One month later, it was revealed that Heatley's former Senators teammate Chris Phillips was also initiating a $7.5 million suit against Stacey McAlpine to recover lost money as a result of bad real estate deals.

[52] The suit, launched at the Ontario court in Ottawa, alleges Phillips felt he was misled by McAlpine and has not been able to recover monies invested.