Burke Blames Lowe For Higher Salaries

[eva unit zero 271]

How soon you have forgotten Karmano's, PYSCHOTICALLY igonorant offer sheet that was given to one Sergei Fedorov?????

Offering the best player in the world below market value per year for a long-term contract is psychotically ignorant???

[eva unit zero 271]

a unproven rookie gets paid 4m a season for 5 years.. the guy who has been playing in the league longer says well if a rookie gets paid that much i should be paid WAY more then that. So his price goes up. Again I am not saying ZOMG LOWE IS THE ONLY REASON SUE HIM!!! i am just saying of course it will effect the asking price of other players but the players arent going to say at the press conference celebrating there outrageous contract "ya i ask that much cuz of lowe"

Shane Doan, who is six years older, scored comparably to Penner in the 06-07 season. Both players signed five year deals of similar value. Penner scored more goals and was a key player on a Cup winner while playing on the second line. Doan scored fewer goals, his team did not make the playoffs, and he was the first liner.

Todd Bertuzzi scored fewer goals per game and similar points per game to Doan and Penner, is the oldest of the three, and had health issues.

Doan signed for $4.5m per year for 5 years.

Bertuzzi signed for $4m per year for 2 years.

Penner clearly performed at a level between the two in 06-07...so his contract value should be between the two...like, say $4.25m. His durability and potential for improvement is the highest, so a five year deal like Doan's is reasonable.

Ryan Smyth, who scored 36 goals and 68 points, received a $6.25m deal. He's six years older than Penner. He received slightly less per-point than Penner did, but Penner again is not even in his prime yet, while Smyth is towards the end of his.

I argue that based on these three similar style players with similar performance, Penner received fair value on his offer without factoring in that he is considerably younger and the most likely to improve his value on his current contract. Doan is the only other player I listed who I expect to earn a raise over his current cap hit; the other two may be retired by then.

As far as Vanek is concerned...many felt he was Buffalo's best forward in 06-07.

Daniel Briere received an offer worth $6.5m per year, Chris Drury received one worth $7.05 per year. If Vanek was the best forward, his deal should be worth that much. Now consider that Briere and Drury are at their peak, and Vanek was just breaking out. Vanek scored more goals than either Drury or Briere this year, and more points than Drury (almost as many as Briere) and he can be expected to get much better as he is still what, 23? Vanek's contract could turn out, long term, to be a good deal for Buffalo. Lowe made two shrewd moves last summer; he tried twice, once successfully, to poach a promising, versatile young winger who he could build his team around. More to blame for high UFA costs are teams that have signed second tier veterans who have ALWAYS been second-tier veterans with one sudden good season to top-end contracts in the hope that they are just late bloomers who will reach another level, or signing washed up vets to big contracts in hopes that they can find what they had a few years ago.

Todd Bertuzzi in Anaheim, Ed Jovanovski in Phoenix, Scott Gomez in NYR, Bryan McCabe in Toronto, Daniel Briere in Philadelphia, Dan Boyle in Tampa Bay, Manny Fernandez in Minnesota, Robert Lang in Chicago, Kevin Bieksa in Vancouver, are a few examples of this kind of thing.

Briere especially. His deal runs through 2014-15 with a cap hit of $6.5m. He'll be 36 at that point, and is a player who relies primarily on speed. Only one other deal is that long or longer for that much or more. That would be Alexander Ovechkin's deal.

Briere, Boyle, Gomez, and Miikka Kiprusoff are the only players currently over the age of 25 who are currently signed through the 2013-14 season...Briere is the only one whose deal extends beyond it. A deal where you are signing a player long term for high money in likely his best season of his career, and you are overpaying him, is always going to be a bad deal. Penner has many career years ahead of him and will be a bargain for the deal lowe signed him to. Vanek also.

Lowe is a good GM who didn't have a lot of options. Burke is a mediocre GM who has managed to inherit good cores in two cities and take most of the credit for the team's successes. If the Wings had to replace Holland with one of the two, Lowe in a heartbeat.

[10 Minute Misconduct 104]

Burke is right. I don't see why people are laughing at him. You wouldn't be laughing if someone offered Filppula an offer sheet for $4 mill right now and we couldnt match, would ya?

haha, reports indicate that the Canucks are set to make Filppula as over sheet. so not laughing now.

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

Shane Doan, who is six years older, scored comparably to Penner in the 06-07 season. Both players signed five year deals of similar value. Penner scored more goals and was a key player on a Cup winner while playing on the second line. Doan scored fewer goals, his team did not make the playoffs, and he was the first liner.

Todd Bertuzzi scored fewer goals per game and similar points per game to Doan and Penner, is the oldest of the three, and had health issues.

Doan signed for $4.5m per year for 5 years.

Bertuzzi signed for $4m per year for 2 years.

Penner clearly performed at a level between the two in 06-07...so his contract value should be between the two...like, say $4.25m. His durability and potential for improvement is the highest, so a five year deal like Doan's is reasonable.

Ryan Smyth, who scored 36 goals and 68 points, received a $6.25m deal. He's six years older than Penner. He received slightly less per-point than Penner did, but Penner again is not even in his prime yet, while Smyth is towards the end of his.

I argue that based on these three similar style players with similar performance, Penner received fair value on his offer without factoring in that he is considerably younger and the most likely to improve his value on his current contract. Doan is the only other player I listed who I expect to earn a raise over his current cap hit; the other two may be retired by then.

As far as Vanek is concerned...many felt he was Buffalo's best forward in 06-07.

Daniel Briere received an offer worth $6.5m per year, Chris Drury received one worth $7.05 per year. If Vanek was the best forward, his deal should be worth that much. Now consider that Briere and Drury are at their peak, and Vanek was just breaking out. Vanek scored more goals than either Drury or Briere this year, and more points than Drury (almost as many as Briere) and he can be expected to get much better as he is still what, 23? Vanek's contract could turn out, long term, to be a good deal for Buffalo. Lowe made two shrewd moves last summer; he tried twice, once successfully, to poach a promising, versatile young winger who he could build his team around. More to blame for high UFA costs are teams that have signed second tier veterans who have ALWAYS been second-tier veterans with one sudden good season to top-end contracts in the hope that they are just late bloomers who will reach another level, or signing washed up vets to big contracts in hopes that they can find what they had a few years ago.

Todd Bertuzzi in Anaheim, Ed Jovanovski in Phoenix, Scott Gomez in NYR, Bryan McCabe in Toronto, Daniel Briere in Philadelphia, Dan Boyle in Tampa Bay, Manny Fernandez in Minnesota, Robert Lang in Chicago, Kevin Bieksa in Vancouver, are a few examples of this kind of thing.

Briere especially. His deal runs through 2014-15 with a cap hit of $6.5m. He'll be 36 at that point, and is a player who relies primarily on speed. Only one other deal is that long or longer for that much or more. That would be Alexander Ovechkin's deal.

Briere, Boyle, Gomez, and Miikka Kiprusoff are the only players currently over the age of 25 who are currently signed through the 2013-14 season...Briere is the only one whose deal extends beyond it. A deal where you are signing a player long term for high money in likely his best season of his career, and you are overpaying him, is always going to be a bad deal. Penner has many career years ahead of him and will be a bargain for the deal lowe signed him to. Vanek also.

Lowe is a good GM who didn't have a lot of options. Burke is a mediocre GM who has managed to inherit good cores in two cities and take most of the credit for the team's successes. If the Wings had to replace Holland with one of the two, Lowe in a heartbeat.

Eva, have i ever told you that i love you in a strictly non-sexual, and non-homosexual way?

[Copenhagen848 58]

Who cares what certain players were paid....if a GM is willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for them, then let them. They'll have less cap space to sign other players. If the players they paid top dollar for don't produce, shame on them. I see nothing wrong with it, the NHL is a business just like anything else.

P.S. Burke is an *******.

[Guest Four]

Who cares what certain players were paid....if a GM is willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for them, then let them. They'll have less cap space to sign other players. If the players they paid top dollar for don't produce, shame on them. I see nothing wrong with it, the NHL is a business just like anything else.

P.S. Burke is an *******.

++

[marcaractac 3,963]

Imagine if Vancouver signed Flip to an offer sheet, and Holland didn't match it. Imagine if Vancouver sucked during the season, and finished in the bottom 3. Imagine if their pick was drawn to get the first selection in the draft. That pick would then belong to Holland. omg.

The way I see it, if a crappy team wants to pay Flip 4 mil, then go ahead. It would suck to lose him, but we got Hossa, and Hossa > than Flip, which still makes us a stronger team than last year. Any team stupid enough to overpay Flip is gonna suck this season anyway. They'd only do it as a desperate attempt to get better, and a 40 point player isn't gonna cut it. It would suck to lose Flip, yes, but imagine having a shot at the first overall pick next year....

[Earthhuman 8]

Permission to go slightly off-topic? This is how much Briere and his ilk make per year. Each firecracker represents a dollar. They also symbolize freedom:

[Canadian_Yzerman_Fan 7]

Lowe gets even on Burke:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=242532&amp...os=topStory_nhl

he hits it right on the nose... it's relieving to hear the thruth about this guy from someone else in the biz.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

Kevin Lowe is my new hero. Fact is, hes got Dustin Penner at a pretty standard market price right now and made some good moves for his club.

Burke wants to talk about inflating numbers? Bertuzzi? Schneider? This guy is an idiot..

[12Newf 0]

i laughed my ass off reading this last night. k lowe just went way up in my books! loved it.

"Where do I begin?," started Lowe. "He's a moron, first of all. Secondly, he really believes that any news for the NHL is good news. Thirdly, he loves the limelight and I don't think anyone in hockey will dispute that. Lastly, he's in a pathetic hockey market where they can't get on any page of the newspaper let alone the front page of the sports, so any of this stuff carries on."

Burke and Lowe have been at odds since the Oilers put forth a five-year, $21.25 million offer sheet to Group II restricted free agent Dustin Penner last summer - a contract that the Ducks did not match and sent Penner to Edmonton.

At the time, Burke explained he had no problem with a team putting an offer sheet forward, but the money involved was the issue. Lowe responded in kind on Friday, saying the standard for such contracts was set long before the Penner signing.

"I mean, if he wants to debate what our offer sheet did to them or to the salaries, anytime," he explained to Team 1260. "The reality is, Rick Nash's contract a number of years ago, (Patrice) Bergeron's and (Ilya) Kovalchuk's; that sets the standard - that's been going on for decades. I'm sick and tired of it. I know everybody in hockey is. I know our peers are like, 'Well, that's Burkie.' 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."

The latest chapter in the feud came on Wednesday, after the Ducks signed restricted free agent forward Corey Perry to a five-year extension worth $26.63 million. Burke had some choice words about the new salary climate in the NHL after this week's high-profile signings, and blamed Lowe for eliminating the 'second contract' from team-player negotiations.

The long-standing rivalry between Lowe and Burke has also brought up whispers of a conspiracy theory that the two men are hamming it up for added exposure for the league.

"I remember (L.A. Kings general manager) Dean Lombardi last summer saying to me, 'You guys are (just) putting this on, you're not really feeling this way. The NHL likes this stuff, they want to create a little angst in the media and stuff and get some headlines?'" recalled Lowe.

"I said, 'No Dean, this is real.' He was shocked that this was going on but Burkie loves the limelight. He's all bluff and loud and Mac T (head coach Craig MacTavish) said it best - he's like the Wizard of Oz, you pull the curtains away and there's not much substance."

Burke, who joined the Ducks as general manager in 2005, helped build a championship contender in Anaheim that eventually won the Stanley Cup in 2007. That achievement didn't score too high with Lowe, who was quick to point out the other ups and downs of his time with the Ducks, along with the shortcomings of Burke's former team, the Vancouver Canucks.

"Here's a fact - he left (former Canucks GM) Dave Nonis nothing in Vancouver," he explained. "Nothing. He destroyed that team. If it wasn't for Nonis' incredible deals - to con Mike Keenan to get (Roberto) Luongo in Vancouver - that team was taking a nose dive two years ago."

"I mean, that's his M.O., but no one says anything. He goes into Anaheim and he inherits an incredible team. He gets Chris Pronger - not because of our relationship, it just so happened we had five or six teams and targeted their assets. We had Florida, Anaheim, Philadelphia, San Jose and Los Angeles. He just happened to throw enough assets our way to get the player. Kudos to him. He recognizes that at the end of the day, you throw enough assets, you get the best player and you get a good deal. You never know in this business if you're going to win at the end of the day. He could have just decimated the franchise forever. I'll tell you this, they have not much coming. Bobby Ryan has been a questionable pick at No. 2 (overall in 2005), and up until this draft, they tried to move down and did a nice job of trying to replenish their depth chart. They had nothing coming, and that appears to be his M.O."

Lowe even left an intriguing cliffhanger for the radio station's listeners.

"Don't even ask me about Scott Niedermayer, I've already lowered myself in terms of (talking about) how they acquired him," he said. "That's a story for another day, but they were able to bring Niedermayer and Pronger in and they won a Stanley Cup."

In closing, Lowe went so far as to send out a tongue-in-cheek message to his front office nemesis.

"Anaheim has decent players - Corey Perry is a hell of a player," he said. "What I really want to say about his bickering about parity and the salary cap is if you're unhappy about them, then trade him (Perry) our way, we'll be glad to have him."

Edited July 5, 2008 by 12Newf

[sether 5]

lmao at Lowe's cup comment.

[HenryMalredo 2]

Lowe gets even on Burke:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=242532&amp...os=topStory_nhl

he hits it right on the nose... it's relieving to hear the thruth about this guy from someone else in the biz.

This would be applaud worthy if it where a competent GM attacking Burke, but unfortunately it is Kevin Lowe.

[betterREDthandead 58]

Tell it like it is, Lowe.

On a related note, think there will be any Ducks-Oilers trades any time soon?

[eva unit zero 271]

Tell it like it is, Lowe.

On a related note, think there will be any Ducks-Oilers trades any time soon?

The day after we see the Wings swap Datsyuk for Marc Savard.

[miller76 463]

Not sure if this has already been shared. Definetly not worth a new thread, but I thought I would share that Nonis is most likely joining the Ducks soon. I guess to be brought on as an advisor. Burke and Nonis together again. Fitting, I think. I hope they destroy the Ducks organization like they did in Vancouver. imo I think Nonis will run the Ducks and Burke will go to Toronto still!

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=241170&amp...s=headlines_nhl