Ducks let Penner leave for the Oilers

The Ducks officially parted ways with left wing Dustin Penner on Thursday, opting not to match the five-year, $21.25-million offer sheet the burly power forward signed with the Edmonton Oilers last week.

General Manager Brian Burke, who sharply criticized Oilers GM Kevin Lowe for what he felt was an outrageous offer for a second-year player, did little to contain his disdain Thursday.

“Dustin Penner is a good kid,” Burke said. “I wish him good luck. But we do not believe these salaries make sense. If I think they don’t make sense and then match them, then I’m just as dumb as the team that offered it.”

It is the first time a team has not matched an offer sheet since 1997 when Tampa Bay declined to match Philadelphia’s offer to Chris Gratton.

Lowe reveled in successfully raiding the Ducks but his recent moves in the off-season have stirred up the league.

Having been unable to land any top free agents until signing All-Star defenseman Sheldon Souray, Lowe went after those with restricted status and signed Buffalo’s Thomas Vanek to a seven-year, $50-million offer sheet that the Sabres hastily matched.

Burke held to the belief that the lucrative offers to Vanek, 23, and Penner, 24, will affect every team that has talented youngsters and that offer sheets will become more commonplace.

For instance, the Ducks could be faced with bids on stars Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry next year if they cannot get the pair signed ahead of time. Both will be restricted free agents and could use Penner’s contract as a starting point in negotiations.

“Those offers become comparable in arbitration and they become comparable in negotiations,” Burke said. “I would assume as teams get better if they have good, young players and they come near the cap, [offer sheets] will be a common practice. Hopefully, it’s at dollars that make sense.”

Not matching Penner doesn’t totally solve the Ducks’ current salary-cap issues.

They still have $48.2 million committed for the 2007-08 season after re-signing goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere to a four-year, $24-million contract and signing free agents Mathieu Schneider and Todd Bertuzzi to two-year deals totaling $19.25 million.

Burke said he knew that the uncertain status of Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne -- each is considering retirement -- and the signing of Schneider and Bertuzzi put the Ducks in a vulnerable position. Keeping Penner could have put them over the NHL cap of $50.3 million.

Jim Rutherford, the Carolina Hurricanes GM, said teams in the Ducks’ current situation will become targets of those with plenty of cap room.

“It’s tough because you invest a lot of time in these young players and then another team can come and try to take that player away at a young age,” Rutherford said. “I know that’s why we always like to keep a little room” under the cap.

Lowe, a former star defenseman with the Oilers, defended his actions, saying he will do whatever he can to improve the team and get into the playoffs.

“My own responsibility is to the Edmonton Oilers fans and the Edmonton Oilers owners,” he said. “I’m not in the business of trying to make friends. Never have, never will be.”

The Ducks will receive the Oilers’ picks in the first, second and third round of what is widely expected to be a deep 2008 entry draft.

Edmonton is betting on potential as the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Penner had 29 goals with the Ducks in his first full season.

Penner will make $4.25 million in each of the next five seasons, a sharp increase from his $450,000 salary last season. His agent, Gerry Johannson, did not confirm a report that Penner would have jumped at a two-year, $4-million deal from the Ducks if offered.

“We were talking to the Ducks as normal and then the Oilers’ offer came,” Johannson said. “Had the offer sheet never come, for sure we would have worked out something with the Ducks.”

It was only two years ago that the NHL suffered through a lockout partly because of out-of-control salaries. A new collective bargaining agreement included a salary cap.

Yet the move by small-market Edmonton could help drive up salaries anyway.

Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, acknowledges that the offer sheet procedures, as worked out in the CBA, can have an impact on salary structures. But he is cautious.

“Typically, clubs have not seen much value in the offer sheet process,” he said. “Whether that dynamic has changed or is changing under the new CBA, only time will tell.”

Burke said his problem is not with offer sheets but the terms that falsely escalate salaries.

“Would I be offering this player this kind of money for five years? No,” Burke said.

eric.stephens@latimes.com