Hockey's Summer vacation was rudely interrupted on August 13th when the St. Louis Blues tendered offer sheets to Edmonton Oilers defenseman Philip Broberg and winger Dylan Holloway.
Both offer sheets were for 2-year contracts at an amount exceeding what the Oilers likely expected to pay their young RFA's. Offer sheet compensation amounts which were adjusted by the league in May, would require the Blues to pay a 2nd round pick for Broberg in next year's draft, along with a 3rd round pick for Holloway.
Oilers make several moves, but fail to match Blues offer sheets
Historically what follows an offer sheet presentation is a lot of angry bluster as GM's puff their chest out and threaten to match. Fast-forward through the 7 day window of decision for the Oilers and even the most connected hockey insiders didn't have a clue about the outcome.
Speculation the Oilers would match started to wane somewhat as they began to make moves. Would Evander Kane's move to LTIR be enough? Were they clearing cap space in trading Cody Ceci so they could match? Were they shoring up an alternative by trading for Vasily Podkolzin from the Canucks?
In the end the Oilers passed on the offer sheet match and allowed the Blues to sign both Broberg and Holloway.
The players the Oilers trade for will not replace Broberg and Holloway but at least they save themselves serious cap issues down the road. If anything, the only kudos new GM Stan Bowman should get is for negotiating an extra 3rd round pick and a prospect from St. Louis before passing on the offer sheet match.
But the fact is, the Oilers lost 2 of their former 1st round picks which they arguably have done a decent job developing. Both of these players were in the Oilers plans, but just not at the amount St. Louis was prepared to pay them.
The Oilers failed to sign and protect their RFA's because they are clearly more concerned about pending negotiations with Draisaitl, McDavid and Bouchard who need to be paid and will eat a sizable chunk of the Oilers cap space going forward.
How this effects both teams going forward
For the Oilers, losing Broberg and trading Ceci leaves a gaping hole in their defense, which they don't seem to have any quick fix options for.
Clearly it is their biggest lineup issue, and one which could prevent them from repeating as Western Conference champs this coming season.
For St. Louis, the addition of Broberg and Holloway to their lineup does nothing but help. Broberg will slot in and likely see top-4 minutes with an opportunity to run the Blues power play since Torey Krug is now out indefinitely with an ankle injury.
The speedy Holloway looks like a good fit beside Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad on the Blues 2nd line. Overall with available cap space to pull this off, overpaying to get a couple of developing NHL'ers, there is minimal risk and practically no downside for the Blues.
General Managers around the league who are pressed to the cap and have decent RFA's pending would be wise to learn from the Oilers' pain. Don't delay on your RFA.
