Heatley’s forgiven, but it’s not forgotten

Graham Snyder wants Dany Heatley and the Ottawa Senators to play well in the Stanley Cup finals, an infinitely more generous wish than might be expected from the man whose son died nearly four years ago as a consequence of Heatley’s misjudgment behind the wheel.

“I think we’re happy for him,” Graham Snyder said by telephone from the family’s home in Elmira, Canada. “We’re glad to see him being productive.

“He did some things and we did some things so he could get his life back.”

Traded to Ottawa in 2005, Heatley has enjoyed back-to-back 50-goal seasons and is a fixture with Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson on one of the NHL’s most dazzling and productive lines. Although they played poorly in the Senators’ 3-2 loss to the Ducks on Monday, they will get a chance to correct their mistakes tonight.

But there’s one mistake for which Heatley can never atone, the one that divides his life into Before and After.

Dan Snyder, a center who wasn’t drafted by an NHL team but won a job because of his tireless grit, was a passenger in Heatley’s Ferrari after a team function one night in Atlanta, where both played for the Thrashers. Investigators determined Heatley was driving from 63 to 81 mph in a 35 mph zone when he lost control of the car and it crashed into a brick pillar and iron fence, shearing in half and throwing both men out of the vehicle.

A supremely skilled winger and potential franchise player, Heatley broke his jaw and seriously injured his knee. Snyder, 25, suffered brain trauma and died after six days in a coma.

Heatley, who had consumed some alcohol but had a blood-alcohol level well below Georgia’s legal limit of .08%, did not go to jail. That was largely because Graham Snyder and his oldest son, Jake, testified on Heatley’s behalf at his hearing.

It was bad enough, they said, that Dan lost his life. It would only compound the tragedy if Heatley were to lose his life and livelihood too.

A remorseful Heatley pleaded guilty to four charges and the only felony charge against him was dropped. The judge gave weight to the Snyders’ forgiveness and sentenced Heatley to three years’ probation, limited his driving to work- or medical-related matters and ordered him to deliver 150 speeches about the dangers of speeding.

Graham Snyder said his family wholeheartedly forgives Heatley but clearly, it’s not always easy. Especially during the playoffs. Dan played on championship teams in the American Hockey League and International Hockey League and it jolts his family anew each spring that he was robbed of the chance to play for an NHL title, too.

“It’s not that you don’t have your moments,” Graham Snyder said. “It’s not all positive moments that have come out of it, but we’ve tried to take as many positives as we could.

“You know there are going to be rough times. You can’t turn back the clock. Certainly, revenge is not something that we feel is good for anyone.”

Heatley returned to the Thrashers to play 31 games of the 2003-04 season. But reminders of Snyder surrounded him, giving him no peace.

While the NHL muddled through a labor dispute and canceled the 2004-05 season, Heatley played in Switzerland and Russia and pondered his future. He asked the Thrashers to trade him and they reluctantly complied, sending him to Ottawa for Marian Hossa and Greg deVries.

“It definitely helped me. It was good for me,” Heatley said. “Mentally, it was a good change for me.

“Ottawa has just been a great place for me all around, a great, great place for me to walk into. And great people to be around.”

He has seen the Snyders a few times this season and remains in contact with them. He declined to discuss whether he thinks of Snyder, saying quietly but firmly that the accident “is something that I keep close to me since it happened and something I’m not going to talk about.”

The Snyders spent much of the winter touring the 30 NHL cities to keep their son’s memory alive and raise money for scholarships they established in his honor. They’re also supporting the construction of a recreation center that’s due to open in 2009 in Elmira, a town of about 10,000 west of Toronto.

A prime fundraiser is the golf tournament planned for this summer in Elmira. The three previous events raised more than $365,000, but this time, Heatley might be able to up the ante by showing up with the Stanley Cup.

“That would be fun,” Graham Snyder said.

Heatley acknowledged that bringing the Cup there would be “something to think about” but wouldn’t go beyond that.

“I don’t like to talk about it. I don’t want to jinx it,” he said. “It’s always fun to go there. It’s a great day.”

Heatley will surely have many great days ahead of him. Perhaps tonight, if his line fights past the Ducks’ bruising checking line of Travis Moen, Sammy Pahlsson and Rob Niedermayer and eludes the long reach of defensemen Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. Coach Bryan Murray considered separating Heatley, Spezza and Alfredsson but left them together because “it’s a good test for them, a good challenge for them.”

Heatley welcomes it. “I like that head-to-head match,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

It’s nothing like the test he faces every day and will confront the rest of his life.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.