Oilers and Holloway were not close in contract talks before offer sheet

For many Edmonton Oilers fans, they are still coming to terms with their team losing both Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. Once the double offer sheet was tendered by the St. Louis Blues, they probably assumed at least one of the young talents was leaving, but not both.

However, that's where we find ourselves, as the Oilers are now minus two former first round draft picks with intriguing upside. How much the team regrets their decision to let both players walk, will be answered down the road.

What has become clear though, is that neither player can be blamed for agreeing the Blues' offer sheets in the first place. At $4,580,917 x two for Broberg and $2,290,457 x two for Holloway, this was more than the Oilers had been willing to offer either during negotiations.

In fact, in both cases the offers from the Blues actually far exceeded what the Oilers were seemingly prepared to offer for either player. As we previously wrote, Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now had indicated the team was trying to get them both to re-sign in the low $1 million mark x two years.

Holloway admits he and the Oilers were not close during contract talks

Holloway spoke about the situation after the Oilers had declined to match the offer sheet for him, admitting the two sides were not close during contract negotiations. As per NHL.com, he said: "It's kind of a crazy opportunity, it doesn't happen often, but it was an opportunity I really couldn't pass up. For myself, we were trying to get a number with Edmonton and we were just pretty far off in our negotiations, I'd say."

When the two offer sheets were originally tendered by the Blues, a lot of the discussion focused on who the Oilers would pick to match the offer for, if they were indeed going to bring one player back. The case for Holloway was that he was the cheaper option, while Broberg was perceived as having the higher ceiling.

Regardless, the Oilers were immediately put into a difficult spot due to their already precarious salary cap position for the 2024-25 season. Plus, even allowing for Broberg having more upside, this didn't mean Holloway wasn't a valuable and talented asset in his own right.

A tough regular season but excellent playoff run

While the 2023-24 campaign was a tough one for Holloway, this was significantly impacted by his injury issues during the regular season. While there were other factors to consider too, this contributed towards him only playing 38 games during the regular season.

However, once the playoffs began, Holloway showed what he was truly capable of for the Oilers. He undoubtedly earned the trust of head coach Kris Knoblauch, and was one of the core of players who appeared in all 25 of the Oilers' playoff games.

Now though, Holloway is going to embark on a new adventure in St. Louis, with him happy for the opportunity. He said: "With St. Louis, I was able to talk to (general manager) Doug Armstrong before I signed (the offer sheet) and he gave me a vision of where St. Louis is going as a team. Just how they have such a good young core group and their goals for the next couple of years."

Make no mistake about the fact the Oilers still possess a roster fully capable of contending once again for the Stanley Cup this coming season. At the same time however, the reality is they are still poorer overall for no longer having Holloway or Broberg on their team.

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