Last summer the first offer sheets didn’t appear until several days into the UFA market.

This year we’ve got one on opening day, as the Vancouver Canucks have signed St. Louis Blues RFA forward David Backes to a three-year, $7.5 million offer sheet.

As per TSN the Blues now have a week to match the offer or received the Canucks second round pick in the 2009 entry draft as compensation.

Canucks GM Mike Gillis promised to make some bold moves and this one is certainly bold, although this move is a puzzling one.

Backes is a promising young forward whom the Blues hoped to re-sign but in his first two NHL seasons he’s posted up 23 points in 49 games and only 31 in 72 games last season.

The Canucks are hoping to bolster their offensive depth and it’s understandable they’d want to bring in a younger forward with his best years still ahead, but $2. 5 million per season is a steep raise and could put significant pressure on Backes if the Blues match or not.

I’m not sure if Backes is a former client of Gillis when he was still a player agent but if he is that’ll go a long way to further explaining why the Canucks new GM is taking this risk.

**UPDATE!**  The Blues wasted little time in announcing they would match the Canucks offer, meaning Backes will be staying in St. Louis. Swing and a miss for Gillis.

The hockey world will have to wait a little while for the Anaheim Ducks decision on Dustin Penner's offer sheet.

Ducks GM Brian Burke addressed the situation on Friday, July 27th, telling the Canadian Press that he expects to meet with Ducks ownership on Sunday to discuss their options. Burke was being inducted into the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame, which would explain why he didn't immediately respond to the offer sheet on Thursday.

The Edmonton Oilers on Thursday tendered a five-year, $21.5 million contract to Penner. The Ducks have one week to match the offer or lose Penner to the Oilers, receiving the Oilers 2008 first, second and third round picks.

As expected, Burke had some choice words for Oilers GM Kevin Lowe, who's also considered one of Burke's good friends. As per Canadian Press:

Burke was also disappointed with the timing of it _ Burke was entering the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame in Penticton, B.C., on Friday night.

"Kevin Lowe has been in Penticton this week," Burke said. "Tonight is the induction ceremony for the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame and I certainly think this could have waited until Monday. I don't think it shows a lot of respect for the B.C Hockey Hall of Fame.

"I think it's a classless move timing-wise."

Sabres GM Darcy Regier, who matched an earlier offer sheet from the Oilers for forward Thomas Vanek, also chimed in:

"I still don't believe that this will be an effective way to acquire players," Regier told The Canadian Press on Friday. "There will be circumstances where the odd offer sheet will not be matched but I think it'll be driven because of cap issues.

"But generally, and I may end up being wrong, but I'm in the camp where I don't thinks this is going to work."

Well, boo-hoo-hoo.

Forgive me if I don't have any sympathy for either Regier or Burke.

As I noted in my recent Foxsports.com article, Burke had plenty of warning that Lowe was trolling the offer sheet waters when the Oilers GM made his seven-year, $50 million pitch for Vanek. He could've re-signed Penner to a more affordable $2-$2.5 million per season contract (comparable to former Duck Joffrey Lupul), or taken Penner to arbitration thus making him ineligible to receive an offer sheet.

But Burke didn't do those things, so he's got no right to huff and puff about it. I think he's just ticked because it was his buddy Lowe who did this. Burke's one of the better GMs in the league but this time he got caught napping.

As for Regier, there was widespread speculation back in May that Vanek could be a target for an offer sheet, but he didn't use that time to re-sign Vanek to keep him off the market. Rather than paying the talented forward a more affordable salary, say, comparable to Carolina's Eric Staal, Regier is now paying Vanek over $7 million per season for the next seven year.

Yes, Lowe's offer sheet efforts will drive up the salaries of comparables, but it's his right to do so under the current collective bargaining agreement.

You know, the "owners" CBA? The one that guys like Burke and Regier claimed in 2005 would make it possible for their respective teams to be competitive.

As Chrissie Hynde once sang: "It is time for you to stop all of your sobbing".

Just when you thought the Edmonton Oilers were done going the offer sheet route this summer, they've struck again. 

TSN reports the Oilers have tendered a five year, $21.5 million offer sheet to Anaheim Ducks forward Dustin Penner, a Group II (restricted) free agent.

Oilers GM Kevin Lowe made headlines earlier in July with a seven-year, $50 million offer sheet to Buffalo Sabres forward Thomas Vanek, which the Sabres promptly (and angrily) matched.

As of this writing there's no word yet from Ducks GM Brian Burke if he'll match the offer for Penner or not. Burke has one week from the time the offer was accepted by the Penner camp to decide if he'll match, otherwise Penner will become an Oiler.  If Burke announces he won't match, Penner becomes an Oiler.

TSN reports last season was Penner's first full one in the NHL, scoring 29 goals and 45 points. Regardless of whether or not he becomes an Oiler, he's now guaranteed to earn $4.3 million per season, which is how it'll be counted against the cap no matter the distribution of the salary.

$4.3 million per is a lot of money to spend on a guy who's only played one full NHL season and it's a heckuva gamble on Lowe's part. While Penner definitely appears poised to become a power forward, it's possible that this could backfire on Lowe, just as the acquisition of Joffrey Lupul as part of the return for Chris Pronger did.

Lupul was coming off a 28-goal, 53-point performance in 2005-06 with the Ducks and big things were expected of him last season with the Oilers. Unfortunately, the hometown boy failed to rise to the occasion, and his woeful performance got him packaged with Jason Smith to Philadephia earlier this month.

It remains to be seen what Burke's reaction will be, but regardless of his decision, you can bet he won't be a happy camper. If you thought the Sabres management were spitting mad over Lowe's attempt to sign away Vanek, wait until you see Burke's reaction, for it'll be very surprising if he doesn't erupt.

I'll update this post further as more news about this comes in.

The Edmonton Oilers were unable to land any of the big fish in this summer's UFA pool, but they're now hoping to land a big name restricted free agent via offer sheet.

Various sources report the Oilers signed Buffalo Sabres forward Thomas Vanek to a staggering seven-year, $50 million offer sheet.

The Sabres have called a press conference for 12:30 ET today to address the signing, at which time we'll know if they intend to match or allow the signing to go unchallenged.

If it's the latter, the Oilers will owe the Sabres four first-round draft picks as compensation, although that'll scarcely mollify a Sabres fanbase already shaken by the double-whammy of losing Daniel Briere and Chris Drury to unrestricted free agency several days ago.

The Buffalo Sabres announced they'd matched the Oilers offer. As per TSN:

"The deal will pay Vanek $5 million in the first two seasons, and $6.4 million in each of the following five seasons. The contract will also pay him a $5 million and $3 million signing bonus in the first two years."

Recently in my Foxsports.com column, I suggested the possibility of teams "back-loading" contracts for younger players with more upside, and that's what the Sabres did with his base salary, although they've also kicked in significant bonuses as well in the first two seasons thus increasing what he'll receive in the first two years.

Still, the average salary will still count as just over $7 million per season against the Sabres cap, although Vanek will have the distinction of next season being tied with former teammate Daniel Briere as the highest paid players in the NHL, set to earn $10 million.

This hasn't been a good week for Oilers GM Kevin Lowe, as now he's been thwarted of signing a potential marquee RFA.  He's entitled to make another offer to another RFA player, but having tried and failed to pry away Vanek with an eye-popping offer he could decide RFAs like New Jersey's Zach Parise or Anaheim's Dustin Penner aren't worth the effort.

It'll be interesting to see if other teams also try their luck with offer sheets to RFA players. If the Oilers successfully signed away Vanek, it might've opened the floodgate for more offer sheets, but having seen the Sabres match what appeared to be an unmatchable offer, that could put the brakes on other potential offers.