Brian Burke-Kevin Lowe War of Words
Lowe Fires Back at Anaheim GM After Taking Heat for Past Year
By now, everyone knows the backstory. This new twist in the plot, however, is just more of the same.
The Dustin Penner Offer Sheet
There's no denying that Lowe started all the nonsense last summer when he first signed Buffalo Sabre Thomas Vanek to an offer sheet. Buffalo matched the heavily inflated seven-year, $50-million deal, prompting Lowe to search elsewhere for reinforcements to his then-depleted lineup with the trade-deadline departure of Ryan Smyth.
Lowe's search led him to Anaheim and restricted free agent Dustin Penner, offering the young forward $21.25-million over five years. Burke, Anaheim's GM, smartly opted not to match it and allowed Penner to become an Oiler. By declining to pay Penner, Burke received compensation draft picks, not to mention a whole buttload of resentment.
The Team 1260 Interview
After taking several very public shots from Burke over the course of the past year, Lowe responded in a Team 1260 radio interview on Friday. Calling Burke a "media junkie", Lowe's comments came after Burke recently reiterated what he had been saying all along, that Lowe caused player salaries in the National Hockey League to spiral out of control.
"The reality is, Rick Nash's contract [five years, $27 million] a number of years ago, [Patrice] Bergeron's [five years, $23.5 million] and [Ilya] Kovalchuk's [five years, $32 million]; that sets the standard - that's been going on for decades. I'm sick and tired of it. I know everybody in hockey is," Lowe said. And while he has a point, it would seem the bigger picture is falling on two sets of blind eyes.
The Salary Cap Skinny
Lowe does make sense in that, despite the number of goals he scores, Nash arguably has only a single dimension. Similarly, Bergeron has never put up even a point-per-game average in any of his years in the league. What's really laughable is, considering the recent deals being signed, for example Michael Ryder making $4 million a year with the Bruins despite barely registering 30 points this past season after scoring 30 goals in the two seasons prior, Kovalchuk is perhaps the biggest bargain in the league.
The only reason that NHL GMs can serve up insane deals like the one to Ryder is because the salary cap continues to go up. Before the Vancouve Canucks came up with the "bright" idea, could anyone ever imagine a 37-year old like Mats Sundin making $10 million a year in any of the past couple of seasons? No, not only because it's a stupid concept, but because the salary cap would have just barely allowed it to happen. Currently, the cap is being pushed up to $56.7 million from $50.3 last season. That's a $6.4 million increase for you mathematically challenged, or, put in perspective, Kovalchuk's average salary.
The maximum a player can make is $11.34 million. So, with teams able to spend through their teeth, it's a foregone conclusion that salaries will go up. So, sorry Mr. Burke, but, even though Lowe's offer sheets from last summer were arguably the worst mistakes of his career, you haven't a leg to stand on, blaming him for your recent signing of Corey Perry to a five-year, $26.63 million deal. That's just as much your doing as it is Lowe's. Fittingly, Lowe is just about as guilty in further perpetuating this publicity nightmare.
The Return Salvo
"Here's a fact - he left [former Vancouver Canucks GM] Dave Nonis nothing in Vancouver. 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..."
Those were words Lowe uttered, as well. And one has to think he's either off his meds, or in serious need of a first appointment with a psychologist to get a prescription. Comparing Vancouver's 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 rosters (Burke took over for Anaheim to start the 2005 season; Nonis had replaced him in Vancouver in May 2004), there are no great differences in players.
In fact, Vancouver's top five scorers from the pre-lockout season all remained to usher in the new NHL with the Canucks. In fact, Burke's last acquisitons with Vancouver, Geoff Sanderson, Martin Rucinsky, and Marc Bergevin, were all traded for to enable the Canucks to make the playoffs, which they did. All Burke gave up of considerable value was a prospect of then-questionable talent in R.J. Umberger. Hardly bad moves for arguably the league's best manager.
The Lowered Bar of Decency
At least when Burke was whining to the media, he, at least somewhat, had the facts on his side. For Lowe to use that very word in his description of made-up events is an insult to hockey fans everywhere.
So, Lowe can whine about how much of a "moron" Burke is, but, by insulting him indirectly through the media and venting his frustrations at how he's been wronged, he's proving himself to be just as bad as the object of his loathing. Lowe said he doesn't want to be associated with Burke. Well, he's doing himself a pretty good job of letting it continue.
"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, so I have no intention of talking to him anytime soon," Burke said a year ago. That trend is not likely to change, but another one seems destined to continue for the next long while.
What do you think about this article?
Latest Articles