Police investigate the wreckage of a car driven by the Thrashers Dany Heatley on Lenox Road Monday night.
Thrashers' Heatley, Snyder injured in car wreck
Atlanta police file charges against Heatley
By JOHN MANASSO
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Dany Heatley (left) and Dan Snyder.
Thrashers forward Dany Heatley, MVP of the 2003 All-Star Game and one of the NHL's rising young stars, and teammate Dan Snyder were seriously injured in a one-car accident on Lenox Road in Buckhead late Monday night.
Both players were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment after the 10:30 p.m. accident.
Snyder, 25, was listed in critical condition today after undergoing surgery for a depressed skull fracture, according to team president Stan Kasten. Snyder was out of surgery shortly before 10 a.m. A depressed skull fracture is one in which part of the calvarium, which makes up a large portion of the skull, is pressed inward.
Heatley, 22, the NHL's 2002 rookie of the year, was listed as stable.
Snyder, 25, was thrown from the car, which was traveling 80 mph, police said. Heatley, who police said was driving, had a broken jaw, Kasten said, and several media outlets reported that he was conscious and talking. His black Ferrari was mangled beyond recognition in the crash.
Atlanta police Sgt. John Quigley said Heatley has been charged with reckless driving and serious injury by vehicle because his passenger was injured.
Heatley, like all drivers in accidents with serious injuries, took a blood-alcohol test. Results were not back Tuesday morning, police said.
The wreck left players and fans in shock.
"Nobody's really thinking about hockey," team captain Shawn McEachern said. "We're thinking about the guys."
The Thrashers canceled practice Tuesday at the IceForum in Duluth. It's unclear whether Wednesday night's exhibition game at Philips Arena with Florida will go on.
General manager Don Waddell, who was in Toronto for NHL general managers' meetings, returned this morning to Atlanta on the same flight carrying Snyder's parents, who live in the Toronto area. The Snyders have arrived at Grady.
Heatley's father, Murray Heatley, reached on his cellphone in Calgary on his way to the airport with his wife, Karin, said he had few details. Heatley said he had not yet spoken to his son. Their plane was scheduled to arrive at midmorning.
"We don't know anything," Murray Heatley said. "We just know they were in a bad accident. We're praying for [Dany]. We're hoping and praying for Dan Snyder."
Heatley and Snyder had attended a public relations event for season ticket holders at Philips Arena from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Witnesses said both players remained at the function until at least 9:15 p.m. Team officials said they believe Heatley was headed to his Buckhead home when the accident occurred.
The team is scheduled to play its seventh preseason game Wednesday, with one more on Friday before the season starts on Oct. 9 against Columbus at Philips Arena.
At the site of the wreck this morning, fragments of the shattered Ferrari still littered the ground.
Heatley, a Calgary, Alberta, native who played two years of college at the University of Wisconsin, was sixth in the league in goal-scoring last year with 41 and ranked ninth in the NHL in points with 89. He was named the NHL's rookie of the year for the 2001-02 season.
Snyder was expected to make the team as a fourth-line center, but was going to start the season injured, as he underwent surgery several days before camp to repair a partially torn tendon in his left ankle.
Snyder, born in Elmira, Ontario, is a 6-foot, 190-pound center signed by the Thrashers as a free agent on July 6, 1999. In 2002, he helped the Thrashers' top minor-league team, the Chicago Wolves, win the American Hockey League championship, the Calder Cup.
A feisty player on the ice, Snyder scored 10 goals and had four assists in 34 games.
Heatley, 6-3, 215 pounds, is seen as an emerging leader on the Thrashers and possible future captain of the team despite his age. Over the summer, he returned to University of Wisconsin to take a political science class toward his degree in history. He said it was the first time since leaving school at the end of the 2001 college hockey season that he had returned to take a class.
Heatley is scheduled to make a base salary this year of $1.075 million, but has made several million more than that in his first two years by hitting bonus clauses in his contract.
Entering their fifth season, the Thrashers have designs on making the playoffs for the first time. They finished 10th in the Eastern Conference last year, two spots out of a playoff berth. Much of their hopes are pinned on Heatley, their best player.
