The Real Lowe Down

When Brian Burke took the soother out of his mouth and once again whined about Kevin Lowe and the Edmonton Oilers last week, the debate about salaries and who is responsible for them sky rocketing was once again a topic of discussion in many forms of media. No one can deny that the Lowe and the Oilers overpaid for Dustin Penner. But keep in mind that if they didn't overpay the kid then Burke would have just matched the offer and Penner would have still been a Duck. But the argument that Kevin Lowe is the sole reason for salaries inflating in the years to come holds no water.

With a few quick searches on a good search engine you can find some interesting results.

For instance, Scott Gomez (10 Million), Patrick Elias (7.5 Million), Ryan Smyth (7.5 Million), and Chris Drury (7.1 Million) are players that have career point averages of 60-70 at best. Yet all of them will make more money then Jarome Iginla, Joe Thornton, and Marian Hossa this season. Did you know that Bryan McCabe (7.15 Million), Ed Jovanovski (7.0 Million), and Kimmo Timonen (8.0 Million) will make more then Chris Pronger in the 07-08 season? Oddly enough,that contract that Brian Burke has Pronger locked up under, was tabled by that two headed, league wrecking, bastard Kevin Lowe. For further thought also consider that Jose Theodore (6.0 Million), Thomas Vokoun (5.3 Million), Nikolai Khabibulin (6.75 Million), and Olaf Kolzig (5.45 Million) will all make more then Martin Brodeur for the year.

Oh, one more, Todd Bertuzzi is collecting 4 Million a season from the Ducks. A contract signed and delivered by none other then Brian Burke. Brutal.

Players will always be overpaid by GM's in the NHL so that player will come play for their respective team. Kevin Lowe just used a path less taken to do so. It's also possible to argue, and I have, that Lowe's move will bring down UFA salaries. Now that Lowe has opened "Pandora's Box" teams will have to pay their younger talent more, sooner or risk losing them by Offer Sheets. In a cap system, that means if more dollars are being paid to younger players there will be less dollars for the UFA market at the end of the day.

Then again, this is just a damned opinion.

~ damned
The NHL Arena