QUECHEE, Vermont -- It's been nearly four months since my last post, but I've been working diligently to launch the new and improved Bandy Central website. But the bandy season is fast approaching, and the posts will start up again even while the new site is still under construction. But before we get into the bandy news (something is really brewing in Kazan ... news coming soon), I had to comment on some of Friday's developments in the National Hockey League.
Edmonton Oilers GM Kevin Lowe submitted an offer sheet to Anaheim restricted free agent Dustin Penner for US$21.25 million over five years.
Penner possesses imposing size and good hands around the net, netting 29 goals while playing on the second line of the Stanley Cup champs; some have even compared the 245-lb, 24-year-old to a young John LeClair or Todd Bertuzzi. But Penner has only one full season of NHL service, and the offer would increase the left winger's salary nearly 10-fold per season over the league-minimum $450,000 he received in 2006-07.
Ducks GM Brian Burke was rightfully irked by the offer sheet, which he referred to as a "gutless" move by Lowe.
"I have no problem with offer sheets," Burke said, as reported by the Associated Press. "If you can identify a player and pay him appropriately and make him an offer, that's fine. At some point, the deals you make, the offers you extend, whether the team matches it or not, impacts all 30 teams, including your own," he added.
Lowe has been scrambling during this free agent season to find players to help improve his failing club. Last season, Lowe's team landed 25 points out of the playoffs, just one year after coming within a game of the Stanley Cup title.
In addition to this latest move, earlier this month Lowe offered $50 million over seven years to Buffalo's Tomas Vanek. While Vanek is a legitimate NHL star, netting 42 goals for the club with the league's best record last year, $7 million per season is quite a price to pay for a player with only two years of NHL experience.
But then again, Buffalo GM Dacy Regier may have found himself in the same position as Lowe - with lots of salary cap room and nothing to spend it on. With the departure of captains Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, it was a no-brainer for Buffalo to match any offer for Vanek, no matter how generous.
As in most sports, every off-season some GMs look to make a big splash with big signings, no matter how weak the free agent class. Lowe clearly missed the big fish, and now he's looking to grab headlines by overpaying for a second-liner.
The NHL's salary cap was supposed to reign in player salaries that had spiraled out of control. What we are seeing now is the teams that haven't yet learned how to manage the cap - in addition to drafting poorly and trading poorly - are left with gaping holes in their payroll that they are willing to fill with anything that comes along, no matter the price.
Burke has not said what he is going to do about Penner. Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne are leaning towards retirement, which would give Anaheim much more cap room and the means to match Edmonton's sheet, but Burke has said that Anaheim's initial offer to Penner was nowhere close to the Edmonton offer sheet.
Hopefully, Burke will have more sense than to match the Oilers' offer. Let Penner go for crazy money, and let Lowe dig his own grave when his team misses the playoffs yet again.
Update: The Anaheim Ducks chose not to match Edmonton's offer to Penner, meaning the winger is now an Oiler, the Associated Press reported August 3. In exchanger for signing him, Edmonton must give up its first, second and third round draft picks in 2008 to the Ducks.
"We don't believe these salaries make sense. If I believe these salaries don't make sense and I match, then I'm just as dumb as the team that extended the offer," said Anaheim GM Brian Burke.
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