A report in yesterday's Orange County Register claimed Patrick Marleau rejected a trade to Ottawa as part of a three-way deal.

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: reported yesterday " a proposed three-team that would've sent Ottawa's Dany Heatley to San Jose fell through when Sharks captain Patrick Marleau refused to waive his "no-trade" clause".

SAN JOSE MERCURY-NEWS: David Pollak reports Sharks GM Doug Wilson denied the story, saying Marleau has not been asked to waive his clause. Pollak dismissed the rumor, calling it "amazingly thin" and "not the kind of thing you'd expect to find on a mainstream newpaper's web site. He contacted the Register's hockey writer Dan Wood about the rumor and he said he had no idea how it got there.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL (VIA CTVOLYMPICS.CA): Eric Duhatschek reports Marleau also denied it when he was asked about the story yesterday during Team Canada's Olympic orientation camp. When asked specifically however if the Sharks had asked him to waive his clause Marleau said he'd prefer to keep that information to himself, leading Duhatschek to suggest Marleau didn't completely rule it out. Duhatschek reports an NHL source claims the Sharks and Senators had discussed a potential deal for Heatley but that the Sharks preference was to move winger Jonathan Cheechoo.

SPECTOR'S NOTE: My thanks to everyone who sent this links to me. I received the OC Register story yesterday but given how thin the report was I declined to post it until I heard and read more information. Like Pollak I was suspicious about the validity of it given the lack of details. It could be this story may have been the result of a prankster, especially since the paper's hockey writer had no idea how the story got on the web site.