Broberg, Holloway join Blues after Oilers decline to match offer sheets

When Edmonton Oilers’ general manager Stan Bowman got the news last week that the St. Louis Blues had tendered offer sheets to defenceman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway, his reaction was simple.

“I just really rolled up my sleeves and got to work,” he said Tuesday during a virtual press conference.

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After a week of playing phone tag with the other GMs around the league — and making a couple of trades that many fans believed would open the needed salary-cap space to retain the two players — Bowman and the rest of the Oilers brain trust decided not to match the Blues’ offers and let both players head off to Missouri.

Broberg's two-year deal is worth US$4.58 million a season and Holloway's two-year contract is valued at $2.29 million a season. Bowman said the economics didn’t work for the cap-strapped Oilers in the short- or long-term.

"We were evaluating the (salary-cap) situation we were in when those offer sheets came in," Bowman said. "Given that, as well as the other constraints that we have, we didn’t feel like it was the right move to essentially limit our optionality moving forward — not only for this year, but in the future.

"It's less about the players and their abilities and their talents. It’s really about trying to set ourselves up to be in the best position we can be, so we have some options."

The Blues tendered the offers to the restricted free agents on Aug. 21, and the Oilers had until Tuesday morning to match. The Oilers received a second-round pick for Broberg and a third-round pick for Holloway as compensation. St. Louis reacquired its second-round draft pick in 2025 from the Pittsburgh Penguins last week to meet the required offer sheet compensation.

Bowman has to focus on making cap room for three star players.

Leon Draisaitl is entering the final year of his contract that pays him $8.5 million a year, and is up for a significant raise. Bowman confirmed negotiations have begun with Draisaitl’s camp, but he said he would not go into any detail about them out of respect to the player and the process.

Connor McDavid is entering the seventh year of an eight-year pact that pays him $12.5 million per season. And power-play quarterback Evan Bouchard is in the final year of a bridge deal that pays him $3.9 million.

Retaining all three players over the next two years will require millions upon millions in cap space. So, for Bowman, cap flexibility trumped the need to bring Broberg and/or Holloway back.

Broberg, a 23-year-old Swede, was drafted eighth overall by Edmonton in 2019 and had two goals and an assist in 10 games during Edmonton's run to the Stanley Cup final.

Edmonton drafted Holloway 14th overall in 2020. The 22-year-old from Calgary had six goals and three assists in 38 games last season.

Broberg said accepting the offer sheet was simply "business."

"I'm very thankful for the years in Edmonton and for the teammates and the coaches I had there, and I'm looking forward to a new chapter in St. Louis now," Broberg said in a virtual media availability.

In a separate deal with the Blues, the Oilers acquired the rights to unsigned 2023 draft choice, defenceman Paul Fischer, as well as a 2028 third-round selection in exchange for future considerations.

The Oilers made two moves on Sunday, acquiring forward Vasily Podkolzin from Vancouver for a fourth-round draft pick and sending defenceman Cody Ceci and a third-round pick to San Jose for blueliner Ty Emberson. It appeared the Ceci move was made to free up space to match an offer sheet. He is owed $3.25 million next season in the final year of his contract

In the off-season, the Oilers lost defenceman Vincent Desharnais to the Canucks, who signed him as a free agent. So, the Oilers could be starting the season with Emberson, former Arizona Coyote Josh Brown and Troy Stecher fighting for third-defence-pairing jobs in camp.

Stecher was acquired at the trade deadline but played in just seven games for the Oilers, while Brown comes in as a free agent on a three-year deal.

Bowman said the team’s goal is to have the defensive corps shored up “by the stretch run,” and said Emberson, Brown and Stecher will be given every opportunity to prove themselves.

But he didn’t fully discount bowing out of the marketplace. There is the option of trying to find a veteran defenceman on a right-sized contract.

“I would say nothing is off the table at this point,” said Bowman.

“But we do have some new players and we have to give them an opportunity. Some of them have signed here for a reason, and, in Emberson’s case, we’ve traded for him. We want to give them the chance to show that they can take the step forward and be assets for us.”

As well, stashing forward Evander Kane’s $5.125 million cap hit on long-term injured reserve is not cut and dried. While Kane is not expected to be healthy enough to start the year on the roster, Bowman said the Oilers have no real idea on how long the player is expected to be out.

“It’s something he will sort through with his doctors,” said Bowman.

Extending offers to restricted free agents is a rare practice in the NHL. The last time a player signed an offer sheet was Jesperi Kotkaniemi in 2021 with Carolina, two years after Montreal tried to acquire Sebastian Aho from the Hurricanes with the same method.

Before Broberg, Holloway and Kotkaniemi, the last offer sheet not matched in 2007, when Edmonton pried forward Dustin Penner away from Anaheim.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2024.