Kevin Lowe is at it again. Yesterday (July 26), he signed Ducks Restricted Free Agent, Dustin Penner, to an offer sheet worth $21.25 million over 5 years. This comes a couple weeks after Lowe failed in the same sort of attempt to get Sabres forward, Thomas Vanek. There is an immediate difference to both these offer sheets. The Sabres had lost both of their big two Unrestricted Free Agents and had cap space to spare for the large offer sheet Vanek had signed. The Ducks, on the other hand, do not have the cap space to give Penner over $4 million a season. If Brian Burke is to let Penner go, the Ducks will receive a 1st, 2nd and 3rd round pick in next season's draft.
To me, this one is a no-brainer. Let Lowe overpay for Dustin Penner, Burke will gladly take 3 more picks in next year's draft (one of the deepest in recent history) and watch the plan utterly backfire against Lowe and the Oil. However, Penner's 29 goals last season was pretty good... I would almost think though, the rough & tumble games of the Northwest Division will probably take that total down a bit, if he was to end up in Edmonton.
Stay tuned!
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