How Lowe Can You Go?

“And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.”
--Bob Dylan

Any time a radio interview starts out with a general manager saying, “He’s a moron, first of all,” you know there’s going to be some fallout. I have to admit, as much as I hate mudslinging in the press, it’s about time that Kevin Lowe manned up and said something to Brian Burke. Ever since Kevin Lowe and the Edmonton Oilers signed then-Restricted free agent Dustin Penner to a 5 year, $21.25 million dollar offer sheet, the Anaheim GM has been taking shots at Lowe at every opportunity. For the most part, he’s been questioning Lowe’s tactics in building the Oilers team, as well as driving salaries upward around the entire NHL. He’s been insinuating that all of the skyrocketing contracts can be directly attributed to Lowe’s actions from last summer. Is he right? Maybe—but probably not. Has Burke acted like a child in this entire situation? Hell yes.

The major problem that I have with Brian Burke in this melodrama is that he’s not holding himself accountable for his own actions. When it comes to the escalating prices for free agents, each and every GM has played his part (except for Dean Lombardi, he doesn’t sign anyone to ANY contracts—therefore can’t overspend). Last season, he dropped a 2 year contract for $11.25 million on Mathieu Schneider. That’s the same Mathieu Schneider that was playing with the 3rd defensive pairing by the end of the season. How is that even remotely fiscally responsible? It’s also ironic that the man that is complaining about rising costs is also the man that is $2.4 million dollars over the cap right now. Come to think of it, the Ducks still have to sign RFA Andrew Miller, so there’s a good chance that their cap deficit will be over the $3M mark. Please tell me again…Who is the one complaining?

It’s not as though Burke has made savvy choices to set up the Ducks for the long haul. When you look at their pipeline, they are seriously lacking in depth in most positions. Bobby Ryan should be up with the big team for good this year. On the back end, Brian Salcido may make the team as a bottom-pairing guy if Schneider’s contract is moved. But that’s it. From all accounts, there’s nothing left in the cupboard.

I think the main reason that Burke is complaining about the salaries is because that’s the way that he’s always built his teams. It was one thing to try to build a team through free agency before the lockout. Nowadays, how can anyone expect to fill all of their holes through their checkbook? When there’s a cap, it seems like its common sense to build from within. Burke should be realizing that it’s simply not cost effective to BUY a contender in this economic climate.

On top of trying to buy talent to compete with the upper-tier teams, this looks like the last year before a potential drop of NHL depth for the organization. After next season, Brendan Morrison, Todd Marchant, Rob Niedermayer, Sammy Pahlsson, Travis Moen, Brian Sutherby, Brad May and George Parros all become unrestricted free agents. The daunting aspect to Anaheim’s problem is that those are just the FORWARDS who become unrestricted. Next season is also the last for 5/6 of their defense corps (only Chris Pronger is signed after next year, who has 2 years left on his deal). So like it or not, the Ducks look to be in for a rebuild after next season. There’s really only one person to blame for that. If you can’t figure it out, ask any Vancouver Canuck fan—they’ll be able to blurt out the answer faster than you can say: “Sedin Twins.”

(Edit: Since writing this, Anaheim signed yet another defenseman to a 1 year contract. So now they are currently $3.2 million over the salary cap—not counting Miller—and still, the only defenseman signed past next year is Chris Pronger. Brilliant.)

Apparently this is par for the course for Brian Burke. In Vancouver, he left the organization bare with aging players with huge contracts. If it wasn’t for Dave Nonis’s ability to unload the Bertuzzi mess to Florida in exchange for Roberto Luongo, Vancouver’s freefall would have been much more severe. Clearly Brian Burke has an affection for those Canuck teams and still has not learned his lesson, because he just signed another player from those teams. Hopefully for Brendan Morrison’s sake, he’ll be able to bounce back from a serious knee injury—but given Burke’s track record with moves lately, I wouldn’t count on it.

When the GM is speaking to the public as if he can do no wrong, he opens himself up to ridicule. Here’s a perfect example:

I could care less about the Ducks trade with St. Louis in the middle of last season. Andy McDonald was traded for Doug Weight in a move that was clearly to win now. I can respect that. But when the General Manager is in the press destroying another executive for his deals, I’m more inclined to look deeper into any deal by Burke. Since he’s been bullying other GM’s in the press, if the deal isn’t successful, I’ll judge swiftly and harshly. It’s just human nature. So let’s break out the microscope and analyze last year’s transaction:

1. So Doug Weight was brought in to win NOW. They didn’t win and Weight is gone. Strike 1.

2. Andy McDonald was moved to make room for Teemu Selanne’s contract so they would win NOW. They didn’t win and Selanne may or may not be gone. Regardless, there’s no contingency plan if he decides to retire. Bottom line: it doesn’t sound like it was handled well. Strike 2.

3. Andy McDonald was already more productive, younger, and a better fit than Doug Weight. The Ducks scoring woes only intensified when McDonald was traded. When a team is having problems scoring, trading away one of their best, young offensive players sounds counter-productive. Strike 3.

The only argument for making the trade is that they had to dump salary to stay under the cap. Now I ask you, whose fault is that? Is it because of Todd Bertuzzi’s contract that there was no room under the cap? Maybe Burke shouldn’t have offered $4 million per year after consecutive injury plagued, non-productive seasons. It’s not like the Neidermayer/Selanne situations came out of left field. Even if Burke didn’t think it was likely, there still should have been a plan in place.

Speaking of which, let’s fast forward to today with these 3 particular players. Bertuzzi’s contract has been bought-out and Doug Weight has left as a free agent. Contrast their situation to Andy McDonald’s with the St. Louis Blues. First and foremost, he’s still WITH the team (which is more than we can say about Bertuzzi or Weight). By all accounts, he’s the youngest and best of all the players mentioned at this stage in their respective careers. All in all, it’s a bad situation for the Ducks that was caused by multiple bad decisions by Brian Burke.

The most interesting part of this story has nothing to do with the pattern of bad decisions Burke has made. The far more fascinating pattern is the GM’s typical exit strategy from an organization. As previously mentioned, the Ducks will be a mess after next season with plenty of holes to fill all over the ice. Ironically, another free-agent to be after next season usually wears a coat and tie to games and watches from the press box. There have been rumors about Burke bolting to Toronto for over a year now. When confronted with a similar situation as he was in Vancouver, what’s to stop him from jetting north of the border? I’ve always found that the best predictor of the future is the past. And where he can find more television cameras eager to broadcast his face? Toronto would give him an avenue to run from a problem that he created and find more money, all while receiving more attention. It sounds like a match made in heaven!

It’s important to not forget that there are 2 sides to this story. Kevin Lowe offered not one, but 2 untraditional contracts last year. Before the offer to Penner which was not matched by the Ducks, Lowe and company presented a 7 year, $50 million offer sheet to Thomas Vanek. Buffalo matched the offer sheet, but it seemed to signal the direction the Oilers were going to go during the summer of 2007. Instead of throwing millions of dollars around for the older unrestricted free agents, Lowe decided to go against tradition and actively pursue RFAs in their early 20s that would better fit the overall plan he had set out for his team. He made a calculated decision that it would be worth the draft-pick compensation if he was able to land one of the young, NHL-ready players. You can debate whether they were good moves or not, but I understand where he’s coming from. When you draft a player, you’re goal is for them to develop into a 30 or 40 goal scorer. Instead of drafting players with his picks, he was trading the picks for a player that had already proven he was capable of producing at the NHL level. Anytime a GM aggressively goes after a young, proven NHL commodity, I’ll applaud his actions.

Even though there had been the opportunity for opposing GMs to sign restricted free agents to offer sheets since the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was approved, it was frowned upon to take advantage of it. Burke responded by saying, “If I had run my team into the sewer like that, I wouldn’t have thrown a grenade like that at the other 29 teams.”

Remember, Kevin Lowe did not do anything against the rules of the CBA. No, he was going against tradition. If I was the CEO of a major corporation, I’d love to have employees that were always thinking outside the box to bring valuable assets to my company.
Kevin Lowe was the first to go after a high priced player and accordingly, he was the first to offer up a contract of that magnitude. As he stated in his rebuttal of Burke’s year long comments, “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,” (TSN.com). As market factors push prices skyward, there will always be noticeable leaps that in retrospect are milestones. I can’t fault the offer for Vanek, because it was actually matched by the Sabres. If it was completely out of line, then Buffalo would have simply walked away with 4 draft picks. Additionally, looking at Penner’s current contract, it’s in line with the market. It certainly doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb like Alex Rodriguez’s contract. The contract fits both the current financial climate and the player’s ability. Isn’t that the definition of a good contract?

Brian Burke has recently been complaining about the Penner contract because he had to sign Corey Perry to a contract extension. Again, I’m not sure why Burke is complaining that Kevin Lowe is forcing him to do anything. Signing Perry to a 5 year contract worth just over $26 million dollars was a strategic move to keep Perry in Anaheim long-term. Also, it looks like Perry is getting paid $1 million more per year with the Ducks than Penner is with the Oilers. Does that mean Perry’s contract is off the charts? Of course not.

The reality is that salaries are simply escalating. By all accounts, this feud between general managers has gone way past competition and is now personal. In fact, my favorite part of this story has just unfolded. At the end of the radio interview with Edmonton’s Team 1260, Kevin Lowe’s final words were, “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." His sharp statement cuts through all of the financial BS. No concerns about “economic climates.” Just straight out, “if you don’t like having to pay your good players, we’ll be happy to take him off your hands and pay him ourselves!” Lowe clearly made a tongue-and-cheek remark to end the interview and drive home his point of how ridiculous Brian Burke has been.

In the interim, Gary Bettman has stepped in to tell both of the General Managers that enough is enough. Since we’re talking about 2 grown adults, this is over, right? Well, not exactly.

Apparently Anaheim’s GM has filed a complaint with the league office. I’ll quote this, because it’s so miserable that I can’t do it justice with paraphrasing. Regarding Lowe’s final statement about Corey Perry, Burke said, “Our understanding is that such an expression of interest constitutes tampering. We have asked the league to investigate whether a tampering episode has taken place.” I can honestly say, if they really wasted the league office’s time with such a pathetic complaint, that might be the most offensive part of this debacle. After a year of aggressively attacking Edmonton in any press outlet he could find, now he’s crying to the league office that THEY are the victims?

Maybe as a penalty, the Ducks will be forced to spend market value to retain their own players. The horror!