The whole Vanek deal

As was stated in a previous post many people aren't thinking very highly of
Oiler's GM Kevin Lowe because he tendered an offer sheet to Thomas Vanek. I
can understand that, as it actually hurts Buffalo directly and other teams
indirectly (especially small market teams) by driving up salaries across the
league. My question is if Kevin Lowe is a bad person for making the offer
what does that say about Vanek's agent (and Vanek, since the agent works for
him) for soliciting such an offer across the league?

Don't get me wrong, I like Vanek and I'm glad he's a Sabre. However during
an interview on WGR55 right after the Sabres press conference announcing the
match Vanek said it wan't about the money, he was just glad to be back in
Buffalo for 7 years. Seems a little disingenuous when you instruct your
agent to attempt to get a team to tender an offer sheet that will invariably
inflate your market value.

Perhaps someone can answer this next question, Mike Schopp (WGR talk radio)
declined to. If a team tenders an offer sheet to a Group II Free Agent
(RFA) is that player bound by the offer at all, or can he refuse to sign it
and remain an RFA?

drax

On Jul 10, 1:07 pm, "drax" wrote:
> As was stated in a previous post many people aren't thinking very highly of
> Oiler's GM Kevin Lowe because he tendered an offer sheet to Thomas Vanek. I
> can understand that, as it actually hurts Buffalo directly and other teams
> indirectly (especially small market teams) by driving up salaries across the
> league. My question is if Kevin Lowe is a bad person for making the offer
> what does that say about Vanek's agent (and Vanek, since the agent works for
> him) for soliciting such an offer across the league?
>
> Don't get me wrong, I like Vanek and I'm glad he's a Sabre. However during
> an interview on WGR55 right after the Sabres press conference announcing the
> match Vanek said it wan't about the money, he was just glad to be back in
> Buffalo for 7 years. Seems a little disingenuous when you instruct your
> agent to attempt to get a team to tender an offer sheet that will invariably
> inflate your market value.
>
> Perhaps someone can answer this next question, Mike Schopp (WGR talk radio)
> declined to. If a team tenders an offer sheet to a Group II Free Agent
> (RFA) is that player bound by the offer at all, or can he refuse to sign it
> and remain an RFA?
>
> drax

Great points and I was thinking about the same situation BEFORE the
whole Vanek thing. Right before free agency started, I said to
myself : "Vanek is an A-Hole if he signs an offer sheet from another
team". It would mean he didn't want to play for the team that drafted
and cultivated him into the player he is today. In a sense, he'd be
stabbing our team in the back. However, I've changed my mind about
that. I think he and his agent had a talk and used the whole RFA thing
to their wallets' advantage. I truly think Vanek wanted to be a Sabre,
and used Edmonton to get a HUGE payday from Buffalo.

And I'm sure there's been cases of RFA's receiving offers and then
telling the team presenting the offer to go pound salt. I'm sure the
player is under no legal obligation to sign the thing.

Kris