After waiting for a week to find out for sure what the Edmonton Oilers would do regarding the St. Louis Blues offer sheet to Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg we now know what the ending of this will look like. The Oilers have decided to let both of those players walk and join the St. Louis Blues.
The Oilers do gain a 2nd and 3rd round pick, but if they were able to make a deal work at a lower cap hit earlier it would have been nice, but at the price they were offered the Oilers could not afford to pay that price. If they would have matched it would had handcuffed them moving forward. Now without matching and the Ceci trade Oilers are now cap compliant and are actually set to accrue cap space this season.
With #LetsGoOilers not matching Broberg/Holloway, have $946K Projected Cap Space for 21 healthy + Kane. With no moves, this can fit $4.4M annual cap hit @ deadline.
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) August 20, 2024
Or, could submit roster including Savoie that's $59K under cap, put Kane on LTIR, & be able to exceed cap by…
According to PuckPedia, if the Oilers can have a fairly full roster and would be able to afford a player that has a $4.4 million cap hit at the deadline. If the other team retains salary that could be an expensive player. Looking at the roster it would likely be a defenseman as that is where the Oilers now have a hole in their roster.
Defensive Problems Now
With the Oilers trading away Ceci and losing Broberg they now have a pretty big hole on their back end. The good news for the Oilers they are such a good team that this really shouldn't affect how they play this regular season. My concern is when they head into the playoffs this group is not good enough, so when the trade deadline comes expect a big move by the Oilers.
The St. Louis Blues have traded Paul Fischer, along with a third-round draft pick in 2028, to Edmonton in exchange for future considerations. #stlblues pic.twitter.com/1D6rg9m7ba
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) August 20, 2024
At the same time as the Oilers lost Broberg and Holloway the Oilers also added defensive prospect Paul Fischer and St. Louis' 3rd round pick in 2028. This have been some sort of side deal for the Oilers to let both players good.
I personally would have left both of these players walk as well. While they are both good players the amount you would have has to pay them was too high for the Oilers to match then make any upgrades at the deadline. While it sucks to see the two players leave the team, I am looking forward to seeing what can happen moving forward.