Edmonton and Offer sheets.

Posted 2:57 PM ET | Comments 8

All week I have been sitting here reading post's from some bloggers that belive that signing group 2 free agents is poaching in the new CBA. Most of the writters who are saying this are fans of teams that are in a strong position and either have had this done to them or feel it may be heading there way. With the salary Cap and mid market players stocks rising every night I can see how it becomes a dilema to secure players long term when you are cap strapped. But there is one way of countering this and it may take a gamble and some hockey sence to pull it off which I believe alot of GM's in the league lack. For example next year Perry and Getzlaff are going to be RFA. There will we offer sheets sent out to these player's that's a for sure. Burke should be trying to sign these guys long term now before it gets to that. If that means he has to trim his roster abit to make it happen then he should do so. In the new CBA you cant play games like you could in the older agreement. There isnt a enough talent to go around and teams like edmonton that have a harsh climate, are not appealing to the pre-madonna players that we have brought up through todays system. Like Ray Shero did with crosby he locked him up long term before he even sat foot in RFA waters, why? because he seen what is happeneing around the league. I dont blame edmonton at all for putting togther group 2 sheets. For one, Edmonton has been getting robbed of talent for years because other high market teams could afford to steal there players away because of their financial situation. Now that edmonton has some money other teams cant take the bullying. As far as im concerned its been along time coming. The new GM's are cutting it close to the cap over paying veterans ( Bertuzzi) and then putting themselves in a perdicament. Is this Kevin Lowes Fault or is it his friend and pal Brian Burkes for putting the team in this situation. I dont know you tell me? If i'm a GM and I have an abundance of money i'm trying to pick up players by trade or UFA. If neither works im going for RFA's its as simple as that. If you belive a player is worth resiging then do it. Dont let him become a target and cry about how people are hunting him it's ridicualous.

Filed Under: Oilers. RFA Offer sheets Group 2 Ducks Burke Lowe

hockeylover

July 31, 2007 3:38 PM ET | Delete
Good blog!

ahbrown

July 31, 2007 3:50 PM ET | Delete
Great blog. The Ducks shouldn't blame Lowe, blame Burke for worrying more about Bertuzzi than his own young stars.

chiefwigams

July 31, 2007 4:33 PM ET | Delete
They should remove all restricted free agency and make them all unrestricted once their contracts are up. That way everyone is up for grabs and if you want someone you just go after them.

coffee junkie

July 31, 2007 5:29 PM ET | Delete
Agreed,And I think a lot of the anger is coming from GMs that didnt see this coming and didnt prepare accordingly. We will see GMs change the way they do business by signing young players to long term deals right before RFA or filling for arbiration to keep the offer sheets away, and hope to ether sign the player before the arb or allow for a decision. The players that are signed to long term deals before RFA will be paid for their potential and the GMs job will become that much harder because they will really need to evaluate future talent. Good blog!

Polarking

July 31, 2007 6:28 PM ET | Delete
I commend you on a great blog, duckyjets. You make some very valid points that most people are too near-sighted to realize:1. Teams can avoid this by taking care of their own RFA's (ie. Lowe signing Torres and Greene)2. The big spenders poached off the small market teams for years and don't like the shoe being on the other foot.3. Lowe isn't the one to blame for driving up prices, all the others have already done that therefore making it palatable for him to offer 4M to Penner.Keep up the great work, sensible commentary is greatly appreciated.

bettman_is_satan

July 31, 2007 8:50 PM ET | Delete
good blog..too truei've never said a bad thing about lowe and i never will, just because he is being a little more innovative at getting players, does not mean that he deserves to be fired. Edmonton is a band wagon hopper city and I am getting damn tired of people complaining about him, when they will be calling him a god if he actually manages to put together another suscessfull team.

tml1967

July 31, 2007 10:49 PM ET | Delete
Nice Blog but lets not kid ourselves the fact that Lowe needs to overpay players to get them to play in Edmonton speaks volumes of what players think about Edmonton in this league, this isnt the 60s where players didnt like each other, they get together out of town, play golf together so the root of the problem is the Edmonton franchise. Lowe is smart to use the CBA to his advantage but to pay a player like Penner more money a season then Frolov, Morrow, Rolston, Ryder and Tucker to name a few is a joke, i hope Burke lets him go i cant see Penner scoring even close to 30 goals with the talent currently in Edmonton.

goldenj