What Became Of Dustin Penner's Offer Sheet?

In the summer of 2007, the Oilers were a disaster. Little did anyone know the disaster would last for the next six years, but at the time, fans thought it was rock bottom. Kevin Lowe traded Ryan Smyth to the Islanders for the famed "package", just one season after trading Chris Pronger to the Ducks for the famed "five assets". The Oilers had a defense consisting of Sebastien Bisaillon, Daniel Tjarnqvist, and Bryan Young. The Oilers finished 25th in the league and picked London's Sam Gagner 6th on June 22nd at the entry draft in Columbus.

Rather than take the talent the Oilers still had on hand and build a team from the right way, Kevin Lowe offered 34-year-old centre Michael Nylander $22 million over 4 years. Nylander agreed up until the point his wife found out how far north and west she had to move, and nixed the deal. Lowe used the media to tell his side of the story to gain sympathy, not realizing that most people thought the Nylander offer to be insane. But Lowe would not be deterred and signed an injured Sheldon Souray to a 5-year, $27 million contract 11 days later. That turned out poorly - Souray claims Lowe pressured him into playing before he was healed and Souray re-injured himself and played just 26 games in 2007-08.

But Lowe wasn't done. On July 26th Lowe offered Dustin Penner a five-year, $21.25 million deal and Penner signed the offer sheet, sending Ducks' General Manager Brian Burke into tizzy, resulting in threats involving barn fights and other ridiculous things typically associated with Burke.

The average fan at the time really liked the move, even though Burke blamed Lowe for the downfall of Western Civilization. Burke chose not to match and took the Oilers 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks in the 2008 draft as compensation. The Ducks' take from compensation package is in the chart below:

This chart should be vomit-colored to accurately represent the history. Click the picture for a larger chart.

Burke began moving pieces before the 2008 draft even rolled around, but didn't manage to do much with the overall return before quitting to move to Toronto.

February 26th 2008 - Burke traded the Oilers' 3rd-round pick (#73) to the New York Islanders for Marc-Andre Bergeron. (This was the pick that Lowe had to trade a 2nd round pick (from the Pronger trade) to the Islanders for in order to make the offer sheet in the first place).

June 20th 2008 - Burke traded the Oilers' 1st-round pick (#12) to the Los Angeles Kings for #17 and #28 in the 2008 draft.

June 20th 2008 - With the 17th pick in the first round, Burke drafted Jake Gardiner.

June 20th 2008 - Burke traded the #28 pick to the Phoenix Coyotes for #35 and #39 in the 2008 draft.

June 21th 2008 - With the 35th pick overall, Burke drafted Nicolas Deschamps.

June 21th 2008 - With the 39th pick overall, Burke drafted Eric O'Dell.

June 21th 2008 - Burke used the Oilers' 2nd-round pick (#43) to draft Justin Schultz.

March 4th 2009 - Ducks GM Bob Murray traded Eric O'Dell to the Atlanta Thrashers for Erik Christensen.

February 9th 2011 - Murray traded Jake Gardiner, with Joffrey Lupul and a 4th-round pick in the 2013 draft (#117) to the Maple Leafs for Francois Beauchemin.

January 3rd 2012 - Murray traded Nicolas Deschamps to the Toronto Maples Leafs for Luca Caputi.

Brian Burke turned the return for Dustin Penner into...nothing. Bob Murray salvaged a small part of the return by adding Joffrey Lupul and a 4th-round pick to acquire Francois Beauchemin who remains on the Ducks' top pairing.

Bergeron played 9 games for Anaheim before landing in Minnesota. Schultz chose not to sign with Anaheim, becoming a free agent, and signed with the Oilers instead. Luca Caputi plays for the Ducks' AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals. Christensen played 26 games over two seasons before being waived by Murray.

The Oilers ended up trading Penner to the Los Angeles Kings for Colten Teubert, who was not re-signed this summer, and the Kings' 1st-round pick (#19) in the 2011 draft, the pick the Oilers used to draft Oscar Klefbom.