This offseason one of the major loses for the Edmonton Oilers came in the way of two offer sheets from the St. Louis Blues. One was for Philip Broberg and the other was for Dylan Holloway. While Broberg is having a solid season, most Oilers fans are looking at the numbers Holloway is putting up and are disgruntled about how if he was an Oiler he would be putting up the same numbers. To those people I think they need to pump the brakes a bit.
Now before I dive into this, I do think of the two offer sheets that were tendered, I would have matched the Dylan Holloway one over the Broberg one, but that is mostly because the money they offered Broberg was just way too much. With that being said there is no way Holloway would have been putting up these numbers with the Oilers.
Need to compare apples to apples
In the 39 games that Holloway has played so far this season he has scored 14 goals and added 12 assists for a total of 26 points. That number would put him 3rd on the Oilers in goals and 4th in points. The thing is though he is not playing on the Oilers. He is on playing on the St. Louis Blues.
The Blues are a team that work on a scoring by committee style, whereas the Oilers offense runs heavily though Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Draisaitl has 56 points and McDavid has 54 points. The highest scoring player on the Blues is Jordan Kyrou who has 32 points. While the Blues do have one more player with 20+ points they don't have one player that more than 35 points, because of this the offense of the Blues is more spread out because it has to be and that causes more players to need to score, which would give Holloway more opportunity to score.
Lineup depth
Another major aspect to look at when it comes to Holloway's point totals, if he was still an Oilers, is where he would be placed in the lineup. The Edmonton Oilers have much better offensive depth than the Blues do. If Holloway was dropped into this Oilers lineup, he would likely be either on the third or fourth line, but on the not as deep Blues team he is currently slotted on the second line.
The second line for the Blues is currently set up with Holloway, Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou. Holloway is given the opportunity to play highly skilled forwards, one that are looked at to provide offense. If he was on the Oilers, he would be put in more of a two-way role, where it would be just as important to not get scored on as it would be to score.
While I am not saying I wouldn't like to see Holloway as an Oiler right now, I think that people need to calm down when they are saying the Oilers made a huge mistake by not matching the offer based solely on stats. The argument of stating the Oilers now lack younger depth is valid, but please stop saying "Holloway has 14 goals, the Oilers could use those 14 goals." because it doesn't work like that. The sceanario that he is in currently is completely different than if he was on the Oilers.