BUFFALO (LGS) — Just a few days after losing Chris Drury and Daniel Briere to unrestricted free agency, the Buffalo Sabres were forced by the Edmonton Oilers to sign left winger Thomas Vanek to a seven-year, $50 million deal.

Despite pleas from the Sabres' management, Oilers' general manager Kevin Lowe extended an offer sheet this morning to the then restricted Thomas Vanek. Once Vanek signed the offer sheet, the Sabres had to match the offer within seven days. If the Sabres decided not to match the offer, Buffalo would have received four first-round draft picks as compensation.

Larry Quinn and Darcy Regier, who held a press conference this afternoon at HSBC Arena, said there was never any hesitation in matching the offer.

"We were never going to not match an offer for Thomas Vanek, he's the future of our franchise." said Quinn in the press conference.

According to TSN, the deal will pay Vanek $5 million in each of the first two seasons and then $6.4 million in each of the remaining five years of the contract. In addition, Vanek will receive a $5 million signing bonus this season and a $3 million bonus in 2008-09.

"I'm happy to be back for seven more years," Vanek said in an interview with WGR-AM. "I'm not going to kid anyone, I never expected this."

Vanek will make $10 million next season tying him with New York Rangers' center Scott Gomez and former Sabres' co-captain and current Philadelphia Flyers' center Daniel Briere as the league's highest paid players for the 2007-08 season.

Quinn told the media that the Sabres didn't negotiate sooner with Vanek because his agent wasn't willing to until he saw what he could get from an open-market.

"I guess that's partly true, it's my job to see if I can get the best possible deal for my client," Bartlett said on WGR-AM. "At the same time, I was certainly open to talking to the Sabres."

Vanek's cap hit will be over $7.1 million per season, raising the Sabres current cap total for the upcoming season to $40,670,390 with Derek Roy, Daniel Paille and Nathan Paetsch still left unsigned.

Last season, Vanek led the league in plus/minus with a +47 while finishing fifth in the league with 43 goals.

The attempt by Edmonton marks the second time in as many years that a NHL team has gone after another club's restricted free agent. The Philadelphia Flyers offered Ryan Kesler a $1.9 million deal last summer that was matched by the Vancouver Canucks.