New GM Stan Bowman is playing a blinder for the Oilers

There are a lot of people out there who want Stan Bowman to fail, unable to forgive him for the part he played in the scandal that ended his time as Chicago Blackhawks general manager. Not quite as substantive but still an inevitable knock-on effect if Bowman does fail, some folks also want the Edmonton Oilers to suffer some bad karma after their decision to hire the controversial figure.

As such, when the St. Louis Blues made their shocking double offer sheet for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway last week, this seemed to answer the hopes and prayers of those same people. However, instead of Bowman falling flat on his face, he's playing a blinder and as a result, is putting the Oilers in position to keep both Broberg and Holloway if they so desire.

We'll stand -- and now likely fall -- by our initial prediction that Broberg is going to leave Edmonton. A prediction which only seemed to be reinforced by comments from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, that his relationship with the Oilers organisation was beyond repair.

An eventful Sunday for the Oilers

Then, when the Oilers traded a 2025 fourth round draft pick to the Vancouver Canucks for Vasily Podkolzin, we wondered if this meant they were also going to let Holloway walk. Specifically with Podkolzin also being a forward and having some intriguing -- if so far unfulfilled -- upside.

However, as we noted at the time, something didn't seem quite right or sit well, about the thought of the Oilers losing both Broberg and Holloway. So what the heck was going on?

Well, we didn't have to wait long to find out about the next piece in this intriguing game of chess by Bowman. As first reported by Sportsnet's Mark Spector, the Oilers subsequently traded Cody Ceci to the San Jose Sharks.

Salary cap deficit being chipped away at

The Oilers also traded a 2025 third round draft pick, in return for Ty Emberson who, like Ceci, is a right-shot defenceman. Ceci was always the prime candidate to be traded, in large part given his $3.25 million cap hit for the coming season.

As per PuckPedia, as things stand the Oilers are now $5,925,541 away from being cap compliant at the time of writing. With Evander Kane set to begin the 2024-25 campaign on Long-Term Injured Reserve, that's another $5.125 million you can deduct, albeit likely only offering the team a temporary reprieve pending how long he needs to rehab from surgery.

As a result, the Oilers can now definitely keep one of Broberg and Holloway. Interestingly, a lot of hockey media folks believe the preference is to match the offer sheet for Broberg, rather than his teammate.

Broberg, or Holloway, or both?

In one respect this is entirely understandable, given that Broberg has the higher ceiling, but it's a gamble given his $4,580,917 cap hit for each of the next two seasons. Aside from the blue liner's frayed relationship with the Oilers, Holloway would have been the safer -- and at $2,290,457 x two years, cheaper -- bet.

However, there is a growing suspicion that Bowman and the Oilers are positioning themselves to match both offers prior to Tuesday's deadline. They could then cover the remaining $800,541 deficit on the salary cap, by sending down one of their new additions or someone already on the roster such as Josh Brown.

Whether the Oilers keep both Broberg and Holloway or let one walk, remains to be seen. However, the fact is that Bowman has now put the organisation in a position where both scenarios are realistically in play.

This is in stark contrast when compared to the initial panic and concern, after receiving the Blues' double offer sheet last Tuesday. As such, no matter how much some people out there may despise Bowman -- and with understandable reason -- the reality is he's handling his first test/case of adversity extremely well.

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