Edmonton Oilers Let Both Philip Broberg And Dylan Holloway Go To St. Louis Blues
Since the offer sheet was tendered last week Oilers fans have been wondering if the Oilers will match. Today they made it official to let them both walk.
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.
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.
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.