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NHL Offseason Thread -- Vancouver Edition (NHL Offseason / NHL Golf Tourney)

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  • Originally posted by Mr Snuggles
    You have to admit the lunacy with Lowe on Vanek and Penner RFAs. That single action alone has inflated the RFA salaries for everyone and, arguably, UFA salaries as a result.

    I'm so thankful that Sutter locked up the core of the Flames before the salaries became REALLY absurd.
    Speak of the devil...



    DUCKS' BURKE BLAMES SALARY RISE ON OILERS' LOWE

    After signing free agent forward to a five-year extension worth $26.63 million on Tuesday, Ducks general manager Brian Burke had some choice words about the new salary climate in the NHL and Edmonton Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe.

    Burke told the Los Angeles Times that the rise in salaries for young players can be traced back to Lowe.

    "You go right now from entry-level to what used to be the third contract, thanks to two offer sheets from Kevin Lowe," Burke said to the Times.

    "Most [general] managers don't like starting fights with any other managers. . Thanks to the Edmonton Oilers, the second contract has disappeared."

    "They're all being re-signed at inflated prices," he explained to the newspaper. "Everything I said a year ago has come true. Every single word."

    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. The Ducks did not match and Penner became an Oiler.

    At the time, Burke explained he had no problem with a team putting an offer sheet forward offer sheets but the money involved was the issue.

    "I think [an offer sheet] it's a tool certainly a team is entitled to use," Burke said last July. "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 and I think it's an act of desperation by a general manager who is fighting to keep his job."

    The Ducks' GM was also critical of the process employed by Lowe and the Oilers.

    "I was not notified of this until an agent faxed it into us," Burke told Canadian Press in July. "I thought Kevin would have called me and told me it was coming. I thought that was gutless."

    The verbal jabs continued and on the TSN 2007/08 season preview show the Ducks GM had more to say.

    "If I had run my team into the sewer like that I wouldn't throw a grenade at the other 29 teams and my own indirectly," said Burke.
    "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
    Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

    Comment


    • Gillis has made depth moves, the kinds of moves other teams will make a week or two from now, and he hasn't done much of anything to improve the club's top 2lines. Soon to be gone are Naslund and Morrison, and that outcome will leave these players as the current top 6
      I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't know what plans Gillis has.
      Scouse Git (2) La Fayette Adam Smith Solomwi and Loinburger will not be forgotten.
      "Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for..."
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      • Naslund to Rangers: 2 years, $8 million
        Rob Blake to San Jose: 1 year, $5 million
        "The French caused the war [Persian Gulf war, 1991]" - Ned
        "you people who bash Bush have no appreciation for one of the great presidents in our history." - Ned
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        • Naslund for $4M a year? Wow, that's like four times his value...
          "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
          Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

          Comment


          • Originally posted by Mr Snuggles


            Speak of the devil...



            DUCKS' BURKE BLAMES SALARY RISE ON OILERS' LOWE

            After signing free agent forward to a five-year extension worth $26.63 million on Tuesday, Ducks general manager Brian Burke had some choice words about the new salary climate in the NHL and Edmonton Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe.

            Burke told the Los Angeles Times that the rise in salaries for young players can be traced back to Lowe.

            "You go right now from entry-level to what used to be the third contract, thanks to two offer sheets from Kevin Lowe," Burke said to the Times.

            "Most [general] managers don't like starting fights with any other managers. . Thanks to the Edmonton Oilers, the second contract has disappeared."

            "They're all being re-signed at inflated prices," he explained to the newspaper. "Everything I said a year ago has come true. Every single word."

            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. The Ducks did not match and Penner became an Oiler.

            At the time, Burke explained he had no problem with a team putting an offer sheet forward offer sheets but the money involved was the issue.

            "I think [an offer sheet] it's a tool certainly a team is entitled to use," Burke said last July. "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 and I think it's an act of desperation by a general manager who is fighting to keep his job."

            The Ducks' GM was also critical of the process employed by Lowe and the Oilers.

            "I was not notified of this until an agent faxed it into us," Burke told Canadian Press in July. "I thought Kevin would have called me and told me it was coming. I thought that was gutless."

            The verbal jabs continued and on the TSN 2007/08 season preview show the Ducks GM had more to say.

            "If I had run my team into the sewer like that I wouldn't throw a grenade at the other 29 teams and my own indirectly," said Burke.
            While we're rehashing old ****...


            Cap making teams more predatory: Holland

            Dave Waddell, Windsor Star
            Published: Friday, August 03, 2007
            The dilemma Anaheim Ducks general manager Brian Burke faced Thursday in deciding whether to match Edmonton's offer to restricted free agent Dustin Penner is going to become more commonplace, according to Detroit GM Ken Holland.

            In Holland's opinion, the salary cap is forcing teams to become more predatory and general managers have to alter their approach if they don't want to their pool of budding stars to get picked over.

            In the end, Burke decided not to match the five-year, US21.25-million offer for Penner so the Stanley Cup champions will receive three draft picks from the Oilers.

            "I think what you're seeing this summer is how the salary cap world is going to work," Holland said.

            "If you have a premier RFA, you better address it. If not, you're opening yourself up."

            Holland said RFA offers aren't going to flood the market because it requires a certain talent and situation for them to be successful.

            However, with Oilers GM Kevin Lowe having tendered a pair of big offers this summer and former Flyers GM Bobby Clarke doing the same a year ago, there's no doubt any gentleman's agreement about not using that tool has been tossed aside.

            "They won't be everyday business, but I expect to see more of them," Holland said. "I think it's viewed as easier to do that now since we've seen a few of them. Nobody likes to be first doing these sort of things, but that's not an issue now."

            While Burke complained that Lowe is inflating salaries of younger players with his two RFA offer sheets, Holland doesn't see this issue as being the driving force in the recent trend of young players receiving contracts worth $3 to $4-million per season.

            He feels the gradual lowering of the unrestricted free agent age to 27 is more responsible for salary inflation.

            "You get a player for (three years) at an entry-level contract and then they're likely 22 or 23," Holland said. "You hope to get them cheap for another year or two, but then you're looking at them being RFAs at 25.

            "That's why you're seeing young guys identified as potential core players getting these three- or four-year deals for $3 or $4-million. If you let them get too close to free agency, they're just going wait the extra year to test the market and see if they'll get that blown-out-of-the water offer."

            Holland points out he took a lot of criticism for signing Pavel Datsyuk to a seven-year deal that averages about US$6.7-million before the playoffs.

            "Had Pavel been on the open market July 1 he would've got $10-million," Holland said. "He would've been the best free agent available and we see Daniel Briere got $10-million for next season."

            dwaddell@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5777 ext. 412
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            • I've no doubt there are other factors as well, but there's no doubt at all that Lowe's poaching of RFAs with massively overpriced salaries has contributed to this massive inflation as well...
              "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
              Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

              Comment


              • I have no doubt that if Lowe said 2+2=4, you would suck up to Aggy for a proof that it did not.
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                • So you think Lowe setting a precedent of offering outrageous salaries to RFAs which, prior to Lowe, got reasonable salaries has no impact on people offering outrageous salaries now.

                  Whatever. You're seeing what you want to see.
                  "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
                  Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

                  Comment


                  • Lowe responds to Burke's comments with personal attacks and attacks on Anaheim in general. Classy and classic.



                    "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."

                    "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."


                    Lowe better served himself by keeping his mouth shut. The best part, of course, is how he called Burke a moron just days after he offered Hossa nearly $100M and has signed nobody at all yet, leaving his team with some big holes. You can't make this stuff up.
                    Last edited by Asher; July 4, 2008, 22:02.
                    "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
                    Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

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                    • Big holes?
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                      • You need more physical/tough players. From what I can tell you've got 3 "tough" forwards: Brodziak, Cole, and Moreau. The latter two are tough but oft-injured. Given the teams you'll be seeing a lot of in the NW that have a lot more toughness, that looks to be an issue.

                        You also need another veteran d-man or so. Souray will be injured within weeks (if not in the pre-season), and even then he's not the greatest.

                        Maybe not "big" holes, but they're obvious ones to me. Obviously the Oilers can skate the team they have now, but it won't be any different than last year if they do. And make no mistake, last year's results were ballooned considerably from an improbably high success rate in and occurrence of shootouts.
                        "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
                        Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

                        Comment


                        • You have to give Lowe SOME credit though. He knew noone would want to sign with the Oilers, so he did some pre-July 1st trades.
                          Resident Filipina Lady Boy Expert.

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                          • SLAP SHOT
                            DEAR ANNOYED HOCKEY FANS: I DON’T GIVE A PUCK

                            Last updated: 2:17 am
                            July 6, 2008
                            Posted: 2:00 am
                            July 6, 2008

                            A stifling cloud of sadness hangs over me as I write these words. Can you taste the despair? All across this great land of ours, from Saskatchewan to Manitoba, the grim fact is beginning to settle in: Hockey season is over.

                            Remember the Stanley Cup final between whoever it was and whoever they beat? Remember how the series lasted several games? Congratulations to all the residents of wherever. Perhaps it was Las Cruces, or Laredo, or Tuscaloosa, or some other hockey-crazed metropolis with a fanatical devotion to the sport dating all the way back to the late spring of 2006.

                            Hockey fans may accuse me of not knowing the details of their great love. And they will be right. Because the truth is, I'm not even sure there was a hockey season this year. I mean, are they still on strike, or what? Or was it a lockout? Or do they sometimes just cancel the season for lack of interest?

                            Hockey fans have their mullets in a twist about me. This is because I keep mocking them and their human demolition derby. Last month I got angrygrams protesting my frequent hockey-fan jokes. Why do I keep making fun of these people? Because it is easy, and I am cruel.

                            One guy sent me an angry e-mail full of surreal references to testicles. Which is a really telling metaphor when you're defending the only major sport that doesn't use a ball. Well, there's curling, which combines the atmosphere of hockey with the skill set of custodial work.

                            OK, I just went to NHL.com. Time for some statistics! Last season, which was 37 games long, all teams qualified for the playoffs, which meant an additional 223 postseason matches per team. The current season ended in June, but began in 1974. There were 132 violent fights, and then the second game of the season started.

                            Why is hockey so vile and yet so boring? Maybe because it wafts down like a low-pressure system from the most boring country on Earth, America's hat, a place that puts you on trial if you express politically incorrect opinions and makes you wait eight years to get your strep throat treated. We are talking about the land of Molson, Labatt's and other strange brews so vile and boring that, even in high school, when I would get drunk on Asti Spumante or Harvey's Bristol Crème or some other dusty near-poison from the back of the parental liquor cabinet, yes, even in high school, when having a drink with a friend meant gulping in the woods and chuckling feverishly like sprites, I thought Canadian beer tasted like something collected from the floor of the locker room after everyone has taken a shower.

                            (And drank it anyway.)

                            I believe, but am not sure, that there is a National Hockey League franchise called the Penguins. There is also one called the Ducks, and the Tinkerbells, and the Wee Willie Winkles (from, of course, Winnipeg). Cute family-friendly names are essential if you are going to get Mom, Dad, Scooter and Trixie to attend the bloodlettings of unibrowed Muscovite thugs.

                            My friend Chris was once arrested by New York City police after participating in (and winning) a street fight that lasted for exactly one shove and two punches, one of which missed. In a hockey fight the referees stand by like the UN in Darfur while carotids spray the ice like cherry flavoring on a Slurpee.

                            That last bit wasn't even an exaggeration. In February a hockey player nearly died on the ice when a skate sliced open his neck. The most surprising detail of this injury is that it happened accidentally.

                            Even hockey's one great moment occurred very . . . hockeyishly. The Miracle on Ice against the Soviet Union wasn't even the final - the USSR still could have won the Gold, and the US team could have finished anywhere from first to fourth depending on how it did in the followup game against Finland.

                            And it wasn't broadcast live, though it happened in Lake Placid at 5 p.m. By the time Jim McKay came on ABC to tell us we were about to see the epic clash, everybody already knew we'd won. That's hockey for you: when the game was on TV, everyone had to pretend to get excited again.

                            www.kylesmithonline.com


                            This struck my funny bone.
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                            • ok
                              "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
                              Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

                              Comment


                              • Smoke signals are indicating Big Bert is close to signing a 2-year deal with Calgary.

                                Initial response is disgusted, I hate the guy...

                                ...

                                but if he signs on the cheap to prove he can still play, it may be okay.
                                "The issue is there are still many people out there that use religion as a crutch for bigotry and hate. Like Ben."
                                Ben Kenobi: "That means I'm doing something right. "

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