On this Day: Oilers make $50 million offer sheet for Vanek

Talk to any Edmonton Oilers fans about the decade between 2007 and 2017 and you’ll be setting yourself up for one of the most depressing tales told since Romeo and Juliet. Now, as terrible as the team was during that span, just realize that they could have been much worse were it not for former Buffalo Sabres GM Darcy Regier.

You see, on this day in 2007 Oilers GM Kevin Lowe signed Buffalo Sabres sniper Thomas Vanek to a seven-year, $50 million RFA offer sheet that was quickly matched by Regier and the Sabres. Had Regier rejected the offer, he’d have been awarded four first round picks from 2008-2011 that ended up becoming Jordan Eberle, Magnus Paajarvi, Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Now, granted that three of those players are no longer with the Oilers, that’s still an incredibly steep price to pay for a 23 year-old Thomas Vanek.

As bad as the Oilers were when they were drafting the likes of Eberle, Paajarvi, Hall and Nugent-Hopkins, fans could at least hold onto the hope that they’d eventually turn the corner. In the end, it took drafting Connor McDavid for that to happen, but if fans were deprived of the hope that Eberle, Hall and Nugent-Hopkins provided during those dark days, there’s no telling what the state of the franchise would be in today.

So, just remember Oilers fans: as bad as things were, they could have been MUCH worse. Thank goodness for Peter Chiarelli and Connor McDavid.