Dustin Penner must be a happy camper today, given that Anaheim chose not to match the Edmonton offer sheet of a 5 year, $21.25 million dollar contract. Actually, Penner likely started down the road to ecstasy 7 days ago, when he signed the offer sheet. The 7 day wait is a league rule, to allow the original team the chance to match the offer. For Penner, he was going to get a big raise, it was just a matter of whether his home would stay in sunny California, or move to northern Alberta.
In return for Edmonton signing Penner, Anaheim will receive the Oiler's own 1st, 2nd and 3rd round draft picks from the upcoming 2008 draft. I'll give some credit to Edmonton GM Kevin Lowe for making such a gutsy move, especially since Buffalo thwarted his earlier offer sheet move to try and sign RFA Tomas Vanek.
There is a chance that this Penner move will backfire on Edmonton, making him the biggest free agent albatross, since...hmm, Bobby Holik? Penner was the Anaheim player most often benched last season. It's no secret that head coach Randy Carlyle was not impressed with Penner at times, due to his indifference / inconsistency. It's going to be a big test for Penner to rise to the level of expectations of Oilers' fans, duhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gife to the relatively big salary. I'm not saying he won't do it, but at this point I'd say it's a 50-50 gamble that he sinks or swims in Edmonton.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=215308&hubname=nhl
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