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BKerr said:
Isn't this modus operandi for Burke.

In Anaheim he bitched, whined, complained, cried and threatened the Oilers because Kevin Lowe was signing offer sheets, claimed he'd never sign a player to an offer sheet.

Then in Toronto he threatened to sign Phil Kessel to an offer sheet unless the Bruins traded him to Toronto for what was the equivalent of offer sheet compensation.

Its a fine line that Burke always seems to walk here.
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That's not accurate though. We gave up more than offer sheet compensation.
 
Volcanologist said:
I've learned over the years that what he says and what he does are very often different or even opposites.
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I've learned over the years that when he explains what he does quite succinctly, people ignore it and come to their own deductions about his actions.....then complain about him being a hypocrite, despite him laying it out in quite laymen terms.

Case in point offer sheets....he said from day one he never had a problem with offer sheets or the fact Lowe offered one....it was the way Lowe went about it.

He's gone out of his way to state that he had no problem with offer sheets, or with trading for players on deals that have been approved by the league, yet we still have posts pop up over and over, with people being confused over things Burke has been quite clear about.
 
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Didn't Burke have more of a problem with the Lowe because he blindsided him with the offer and not as much about the offer itself?
 
blind·side
[blahynd-sahyd] Show IPA
verb (used with object), blind·sid·ed, blind·sid·ing.
1.
Sports. to tackle, hit, or attack (an opponent) from the blind side: The quarterback was blindsided and had the ball knocked out of his hand.
2.
Informal. to attack critically where a person is vulnerable, uninformed, etc.: The president was blindsided by the press on the latest tax bill.


Blindsided in this sense referrs to the fact that he did not inform Burke the offer was coming..not with the length of the time for a decision.

ie the otherwise healthy person was blindsided by the news they had 2 months left to live.
 
My point is what difference would it have made if he phoned up Burke and said, "hey Brian I've got Dustin Penner's agent here in my office. In three days Dustin is gonna sign an offer sheet for 4 years at 4.5 million per season, just thought I'd give you a heads up."

What difference would the extra time have made?

It sounds like complaining for the sake of complaining to me.
 
same thing as burke did with chia... have time to execute a trade, resign his player etc whether or not he was just complaining, the lack of a sight-line to the offer sheet was his main issue with the offer sheet not the actual tool itself.
 
trujaysfan said:
same thing as burke did with chia... have time to execute a trade, resign his player etc whether or not he was just complaining, the lack of a sight-line to the offer sheet was his main issue with the offer sheet not the actual tool itself.
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He had time to re-sign his player... He had 7 days to match the offer.

What if it was 5 hours before? 2 hours before? How much notice do you have to give?


Its strange to say, "I'm fine with offer sheets, you are allowed to do them in the CBA." and then say "I was blindsided by the offer sheet" when the same CBA doesn't require advance notice.
 
Its not strange at all. That isn't how he approached the Kessel situation, so obviously he has a higher standard of how he wants to handle his relationships.
 
leafman101 said:
Its not strange at all. That isn't how he approached the Kessel situation, so obviously he has a higher standard of how he wants to handle his relationships.
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Its not strange to pick and choose when its okay for other GMs to obey the letter of the law in the CBA, and when he requires them to go above and beyond the letter of the law of the CBA.

Seems an arbitrary distinction.
 
Its not arbitrary. I'm not sure why the letter of the law is the sole basis for judging conduct. For example, its not against the letter of the law to lie to people, but that doesn't mean no one can have a problem with being lied to.

He thought Lowe was underhanded and sneaky and it pissed him off. And in the exact same situation he acted very differently himself.
 
Also at the crux of Burke's ire over the Penner offer sheet was that Lowe dropped the offer sheet the weekend Burke was being inducted to the BC Hall of Fame.....something Lowe was aware of.
 
I've been very supportive of Burke and his handling of the Kessel trade and I still say he won that trade... and it doesn't matter how good Seguin or Hamilton become. I admire his stance on "if you can play" and his candor is very welcomed.

I never did understand the anger towards Lowe for the offer sheet though. I realize he was blindsided, but that's how it goes. As far as I know Holmgren didn't warn Poile that he was making signing Weber to an offer sheet. If you don't want your guys signed to an offer sheet then make sure you have them signed in time. File for arbitration... whatever it takes.

I have tremendous respect for Burke, but I just can't agree with his stance re Lowe.
 
There is a reason why players are rarely signed to offer sheets, and its not because doing so doesn't/shouldn't piss people off.
 
leafman101 said:
There is a reason why players are rarely signed to offer sheets, and its not because doing so doesn't/shouldn't piss people off.
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There are a multitude of reasons.

1) You need to find a team that is vulnerable.... either the team has a cash flow issue, or a salary cap issue. If not they will just match your offer sheet.
2) You need to overpay the player in question to discourage the other team from matching.


Now that you've done this.... it has to be a special player because

1) You've been forced to overpay him.
2) You have to give up a lot in assets and draft picks to get him.
 
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