MVN - Most Valuable Network

Brian Burke vs. Kevin Lowe - The Fight Continues

Last summer Ducks GM Brian Burke made it very clear that he was upset with how Oilers GM Kevin Lowe went about throwing offer sheets at restricted free agents. Lowe made hefty offers to Buffalo’s Tomas Vanek as well as the Ducks’ own Dustin Penner. Buffalo merely matched Vanek’s offer sheet without blinking, which made Lowe take after his next target, Penner.

Penner, undrafted and signed out of college, had good chemistry with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry and the three made a great line for the Stanley Cup winning Ducks. Penner was an RFA at the end of the year and the Ducks knew they would also have to re-sign both Perry and Getzlaf this year. With Lowe throwing ridiculous cash at Penner, offering him 10 times his current salary, how could Penner say no? More importantly, how could Burke say yes? If Penner was worth $4 million plus, how much more would Getzlaf and Perry have to be re-signed for?

Burke refused to say, waved good-bye to Penner and happily said hello to draft picks in compensation. In waving adieu to Penner, Burke also waved adieu to his friendship with Lowe and the two have been feuding like the Hatfield and McCoys ever since. At least Burke has been outspoken, which is no surprise. Lowe has been surprisingly low-key and refusing to comment until now.

Lowe finally spoke out against Burke on local Edmonton radio, Team 1260. Lowe bluntly stated, “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.”

While I won’t comment on Burke’s intelligence, Lowe’s characterization of Anaheim being a pathetic hockey market is a bit off base. Anaheim has a lot of die-hard fans and hockey is growing here in California. Anaheim has sold out the past 76 games in a row at the Honda Center and had to cut off season ticket holders at 15,000 last year, in a building that seats 17,174. Dan Wood of the Orange County Register and Eric Stephens of the Los Angeles Times would be surprised to hear that their articles do not get into the sports section or on the front page of their papers. The Register frequently highlights Ducks articles on the front page of their sports section and even on the front page of the main section. Perhaps Mr. Lowe doesn’t read or bother to do his research before spewing about what he knows nothing about?

So what triggered this response from Lowe? Apparently Burke’s most recent comments about Lowe. After re-signing Corey Perry, Burke told the Los Angeles Times (in an article that did appear in the sports section of that paper!) that “You go right now from entry-level to what used to be the third contract, thanks to two offer sheets from Kevin Lowe. Most 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. Everything I said a year ago has come true. Every single word.”

After Lowe’s offer sheet, Burke said it was the second time he had offered a “grossly inflated salary for a player.” Burke said it would come back to bite all GM’s in the butt the following year, and it has. There have been countless players heading towards RFA status who were offered hefty contracts mid-season in order to avoid offer sheets. It is interesting that this year, no offer sheets have gone out to RFA’s.

Lowe did not stop at insulting Burke’s intelligence or the market that Anaheim plays in. He continued to take jabs at Burke’s incompetance as a GM in Vancouver, “(Burke) 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.” Lowe took jabs at Burke’s draft picks, “I’ll tell you this, they have not much coming. Bobby Ryan has been a questionable pick at No. 2 (overall in 2005) and up until this draft, they tried to move down and did a nice job of trying to replenish their depth chart. They had nothing coming, and that appears to be his M.O.”

Lowe even attacked Burke for how he allegedly signed Scott Niedermayer to the Ducks, “Don’t even ask me about Scott Niedermayer, I’ve already lowered myself in terms of (talking about) how they acquired him,” he said. “That’s a story for another day, but they were able to bring Niedermayer and Pronger in and they won a Stanley Cup.”

To say that the press box was a bit icy when Edmonton came to Anaheim last year would be an understatement. After this latest round of insults proffered by Lowe, you can expect more of the same this season as well.

Lowe’s attack on Burke drew over 10 pages of commentary at TSN and has inflamed Anaheim fans as well. Perhaps the best suggestion was made at www.allducks.com, where one poster suggested that Burke and Lowe have a pay per view boxing match, proceeds going to charity. One thing is certain, this war of words is not over.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 at 10:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.