Lowe bites back

A year after The Penner Incident, Ducks GM Brian Burke still has a bug in his craw about Oilers GM and ex-friend Kevin Lowe's offer sheet moves last summer. Lowe has been pretty mum to Burke's media attacks...until yesterday in a radio interview with Edmonton's Team 1260:

"This guy is an absolute media junkie and I guess he's achieving what he wants because he gets his name in the headlines. But the reality is, I hate the fact that my name is linked to his. He's an underachieving wanna-be in terms of success in the NHL. He won a Stanley Cup? Great. I've won six Stanley Cups, you want to count rings? Who cares, it's just a little pathetic that he carries on."

- Kevin Lowe on Brian Burke

Meow.

I don't know if Lowe's name is so much synonymous with Burke's as it is with tendering offer sheets to RFAs. And while the Penner offer sheet may have driven up the price for young talent, the past few days have shown us that Lowe isn't alone in making bone-headed offers which skew future salaries. The most obvious example is Jeff Finger's 4 year, $14M contract with Toronto, affectionately know as Leafs Fans Getting the Finger.

But if Lowe is right, and Burke is on his way to destroying the Ducks the way he did the Canucks, then Lowe may have the last laugh in this battle of egos.

Update: How do you prove you're not a media junkie? Don't ask Brian Burke. In response to league commish Gary Bettman telling both he and Lowe to end their stand-off, the Ducks sent out a press release about the feuding GMs' trip to the principal's office. Probably not what Bettman meant by "quit it".

Burke calls Lowe "gutless" and more

Ducks GM Brian Burke addressed the press today in response to Kevin Lowe's offer sheet to Dustin Penner. He had a lot of not so nice things to say, calling Lowe "gutless" for not telling Burke directly about the offer and "classless" for stealing the thunder at tonight's BC Hockey Hall of Fame.

One of Burke's less sensational comments is what should really concern fans and the league itself:

"I have no problem with offer sheets, they are part of the CBA," Burke said on a conference call. "I think it's a tool certainly a team is entitled to use. My issue here is this is the second time this year in my opinion Edmonton have offered a grossly inflated salary for a player, and it impacts on all 30 teams."

- Canadian Press

We'll have to wait and see if these sheets start driving up salaries but it's a real possibility.

The Vanek offer was a bit more reasonable. A proven point-a-game guy with a solid +/- can easily command $7M per year. But Vanek should have to string together at minimum back-to-back seasons like that before sniffing that kind of cash. Consistency is what separates a good season from a great career.

The same could be said of Penner: great potential but unproven. The problem here is, his sheet is about $1M above market for guys with similar numbers.

If Burke refuses to match, he'll receive Edmonton's first, second and third round picks. The Ducks could conceivably have a shot at both the Cup and first choice in the 2008 draft.

If I was Burke, I'd take the picks and start lobbying for John Tavares to enter the draft early.