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Brian Burke Responds to Lowe Down Tactics |
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On Friday evening Anaheim Ducks General Manager Brian Burke held a press conference to respond to the offer sheet made to Dustin Penner by Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe. To read the entire thing for yourself, and I encourage you to do so before you continue reading so that you can make up your own mind on what to think of it, please visit www.ducks.nhl.com.
Have you read it now? All of it? Good, then let’s continue.
I know that many people will tell you that Brian Burke is out of line here, and they will cite things that Burke never actually said to prove their points. They’ll tell you that Burke does not feel teams should offer restricted free agents an offer sheet. They’ll tell you that Burke does not feel it is right for teams to make such offers without contacting him first. They may even tell you than Burke had no problem with such deals until it affected him. None of those are true and none can be found anywhere in the transcript.
What can be found in the transcript is Burke saying, twice no less, that he has NO PROBLEM with teams making an offer to a RFA. Apparently twice in a two-page transcript was not enough for some, though, so let’s repeat it again:
“I have no problem with offer sheets. They’re part of the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement]…Offer sheets are a part of the CBA and I have no problem with that. If you can identify a player and pay him appropriately and make him an offer, that’s fine.”
Wow! Pretty scathing, eh? Clearly Burke has NO PROBLEM with the fact that another team made an offer to one of his RFA’s. How anyone with a command of the English language can read those comments and come to the conclusion that Burke is upset about the fact that Lowe made an offer is beyond me.
Now, what Burke DOES have a problem with are the terms of the deal. Anyone other than Dustin Penner and his agent should also have a problem with it. If the NHL is going to start paying second year players $100,000 per point �" we have a problem. If the NHL is going to start paying second year players $4.3 million a year �" we have a problem. Not “we” the Ducks but “we” the fans of the NHL.
Another of my favorite claims by people is that Brian Burke is simply sour because it’s happening to the Ducks. Why didn’t he say anything when the Oilers made an offer to Thomas Vanek, they ask. Why is he only saying this now?
Well, why would he have said anything about the offer the Oilers made to Vanek? That deal involved the Oilers and the Sabres, that’s it. Does anyone really think that Florida Panthers GM Jacques Martin should chime in with a comment on the Penner offer? Of course not. Burke is the Anaheim Ducks GM and he responds to matters that affect the Anaheim Ducks.
Burke did have a problem with the timing of the move considering that he is in Penicton, British Columbia to be inducted into the British Columbia Hall of Fame. I agree that where Burke is at any given time should be no concern of Lowe’s. Lowe is under no obligation to make sure that Burke is at his office, in his favorite chair and sipping his favorite beverage before he makes an offer.
So let’s revisit what Brian Burke does have a problem with? No, not that the offer was made, we’ve established that Burke has no problem with that. Instead, he’s irked at the terms of the offer. Five years, $21.5 million…for a guy coming off a rookie year in which he scored 45 points.
Penner was 140th in the league in scoring this year and finished behind such notable snipers as Sean Avery and Alexei Yashin. Petr Sykora, the guy the Oilers couldn’t wait to get rid of, is 30 years old and had 53 points this past season �" he signed a two-year $5 million offer. But that’s not fair to compare, right? Fine, let’s use a guy that is Penner’s age and has put up similar numbers.
Michel Ouellet is 25 years old. He had 48 points last year in just 73 games and he signed a deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning for two-years, $2.5 million…as an unrestricted free agent. With all the teams in the league able to negotiate with him, that’s the deal he got. More points than Penner, same age as Penner, $1.25 million a year. Now, can anyone (outside of Edmonton) explain why Penner is worth more than three-times that amount? Shocking that Lowe didn’t target Ouellet considering how badly he wants to improve his team. He could have gotten a player with a much better PPG average than Penner for a lot less! And he wouldn’t have had to risk losing any draft picks in the process!
I still claim that Lowe is playing chess and is looking two or three moves ahead. By making this offer to Penner he knows that if the Ducks match they will not be in a position to match any offer he makes to Ryan Getzlaf and/or Corey Perry next year when both of them become RFA’s. He also know that, if the Ducks match, they will have less to spend on UFA’s next season meaning he has one less team to compete against.
Everyone outside of Oilers Nation knows that Dustin Penner is not worth $4.3 million a year. Should Dustin Penner be making more, per season, than Jonathan Cheechoo? Cheechoo is 26, has a Maurice Richard Trophy in his cabinet, scored 69 points last year in a "down year" for him, had 56 goals two years ago and he’s making $3 million a year. Yet Penner is worth $4.3 million? Really?
It’ll be very interesting to see what Brian Burke and the Ducks decide to do in this situation. Do they pay Penner well over his value or do they let the Oilers do it and take Emonton’s first, second and third round draft pick in the coming draft instead?
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