The Two-Line Pass

Last week, Vancouver GM Mike Gillis attempted to sign St. Louis Blues forward David Backes to a three-year, $7.5 million offer sheet. That didn’t go over so well with Blues GM John Davidson, who promptly matched the offer.

See, common courtesy among NHL GMs is that if you’re going to sign a player to an offer sheet, you should first attempt to make a reasonable trade for him as kind of a heads up on the deal. That way, the team that currently holds the player’s rights can weigh the price of the contract against how much it’s worth to them as far as draft picks go.

Gillis failed to offer Davidson such a courtesy.

“The offer was like a Volkswagen for a Porsche,” said Blues president of hockey operations John Davidson, who wouldn’t elaborate on trade details. “It didn’t make any sense at all — not even close to being sensible.”

Davidson said the offer-sheet average was a “little more” than the club was willing to pay Backes, but worth the investment in a player who has been called a future leader with the Blues.

Later in the week, the Canucks acquired former San Jose and Buffalo power forward Steve Bernier in just such a pre-offer sheet deal. He would have cost the Canucks a second-round pick in 2009, but Vancouver was nice enough to throw in a 2010 third rounder for the trouble.

Well today, just to be a jerk, Davidson signed Bernier to a one-year, $2.5 million offer sheet. Vancouver, of course, matched.

“We have a great deal of respect for the St. Louis Blues, John Davidson, Larry Pleau and their management team, said Gillis. “The offer sheet to Bernier is a clear indication of how highly Steve is thought of in our league.”

But here’s why Gillis was secretly cursing Davidson: the Canucks would surely have liked to sign Bernier to a longer deal than that. He hadn’t had an especially great year, and would have come cheaper than he’s probably worth in the long term. Now, Bernier, who is expected to play on a line with the Sedin twins, will be able to cash in on 30-plus tap-in goals that come with playing alongside those adorable, pony-loving Swedes. He’s going to cost Vancouver a LOT more.

One hopes that this is just the beginning of a feud that has the potential to reach Lowe-Burkeian porportions. I’d love to see the Blues sign Sundin to an $11 million contract! That’ll show ‘em!