faba Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 Sabres' Vanek Signs Oilers Offer Sheet By JOHN WAWROW, AP Sports Writer document.write(getElapsed("20070706T160355Z"));16 minutes agoUPDATED 1 MINUTE AGO BUFFALO, N.Y. - High-scoring Sabres forward Thomas Vanek signed a seven-year, $50 million offer sheet from the Edmonton Oilers, his agent told The Associated Press on Friday. Buffalo now has seven days to match the offer or Vanek will immediately join the Oilers. In exchange, the Oilers would have to provide the Sabres with four first-round draft picks as compensation. The Sabres were not immediately available for comment, but had scheduled a news conference for 12:30 p.m. In only his second year, Vanek led Buffalo with 43 goals and finished tied for 20th in the NHL with 84 points. "Obviously, the terms are pretty great, and we felt it was something Thomas wanted to do," agent Steven Bartlett said, adding that he also received offers from other teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MasonJet Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 Four 1st round picks??? That plus $50 mil is a hell of a lot for a guy with only one good year in his career. The Oilers must really think a lot of Vanek. Oh and the Sabres just went even further down the sh!tter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faba Posted July 6, 2007 Author Share Posted July 6, 2007 I can not see how Buffalo can keep him with the salary cap-4 first round picks is huge though but in hockey that is a crapshoot with 17 year old kids and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmike1 Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 Buffalo matched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Jet Posted July 9, 2007 Share Posted July 9, 2007 Buffalo matched. They had to or the fans would have openly rioted and possibly burned down HSBC Arena. The off season has been a nightmare for the Sabres front office with one blunder after another another then compounding it by calling Briere and Drury and their agents all liars. The local media has been ripping the FO a new one (actually several) when word game out on how they ignored BOTH their captains till the last minute before free agency. Now they are finger pointing at everyone instead of looking in the mirror. It's the ever popular Buffalo Blame game played to perfection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
faba Posted July 9, 2007 Author Share Posted July 9, 2007 The question becomes why did they not give the money to Briere and Drury- more important players than Vanek? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashlynh Posted July 10, 2007 Share Posted July 10, 2007 hello Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Jet Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 The question becomes why did they not give the money to Briere and Drury- more important players than Vanek? Answer: They tried to take the "cheap" way out, gambled and lost. According to reports in the Buffalo News, Briere agent wanted a 5 yr. /$25mil deal at the start of the season. The Sabres said forget it. Once the Sabres realized when the season ended that Briere would command A LOT more in free agency they offered him a 5yr./$25 mil. contract 3 days before free agency began. The agent took all of 35 minutes to reject it. As far as Drury, His agent says that they had a verbal agreement (the figures escape me) prior to the start of last season. They waited 3 weeks and the Sabres never contacted or sent them the contract. At that point Drury figured the Sabres weren't serious and said "screw it" and withdrew the offer. The Sabres gambled and lost by trying to be cheap. Now they are trying to spin it every whichway to appease their majorly pissed off fan base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.