HALIFAX - The year was 1999 and Dany Heatley had a decision to make.

He wasn't invited to the evaluation camp for Canada's world junior team when the German federation called and tried to convince him to join their program instead.

"We asked the question years ago when Dany wasn't at the U-20," German GM Franz Reindl said Friday. "He was not selected. We talked. We tried. We negotiated.

"He was 18 years old and was not the biggest thing. Of course we tried."

Heatley ended up holding on to his Canadian eligibility and has been more than rewarded for that decision. He wore the Maple Leaf at the the next two world junior tournaments, the 2006 Olympics and is currently playing in his fifth IIHF World Hockey Championship.

It's interesting to consider how differently things might have turned out. Heatley was born in the German town of Freiburg while his father Murray was playing