Doug Armstrong woke up this morning and let his intrusive thoughts win.
He makes a transaction to acquire the draft pick compo needed in case the Edmonton Oilers decide to decline his following tendered offer sheets to both Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. The details...
Offer sheet terms by #stlblues:
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) August 13, 2024
Philip Broberg: 2 years x $4,580,917
Dylan Holloway: 2 years x $2,290,457
Compensation due is a third-round pick for Holloway and a second-round pick for Broberg.
One dollar more on AAV for each player would have bumped up compensation.
This is a very interesting move seldom used as we know and has fans in an uproar for one reason or another. The Oilers front office has 7 days to match these offers as well as be at most 10% over the salary cap ceiling. There is a pathway to keep both players, but questions need to be asked.
Is Philip Broberg worth 4.580 million dollars per season? Based on his 8 playoff games last season which were stellar, maybe, yes. But is this small sample size indicative of his performance night in and night out is the bigger more important question Bowman and company will have to figure out. However, this defending unit is rather shallow as it is even with him in the lineup so can they afford to lose him at any cost? The answer to me is no, but you be the judge. Number 2.
Is Dylan Holloway replaceable? I have been hoping for this man to get work in the top 6 for quite some time, huge fan of this player. The harsh truth however is that he is probably replaceable even by some in the system like Savoie who they've just recently acquired. I still think that they should try to keep him, however, but the priority should be Broberg as they have many more options at forward.
In my honest opinion, I think many fans are directing their anger at the wrong humans today. It's either at the players for agreeing to these offer sheets (very puzzling), or the St Louis. Blues and Doug Armstrong for exercising their right to tender these offers. The people that should be getting the flak for this news today are Ken Holland, the current management team as well as ownership for nickel and diming these two players for far too long and constantly blocking their path to effective NHL minutes with inefficient and expensive veterans. These two could've been had for reasonable cap hits a long time ago, or, could've been used as trade chips for more than the possible compensation if they decline to match.
So what are the Oilers' options? The fact of the matter is there is a possibility that they can keep both players which indicates to me a silver lining here.
Cody Ceci has been an expendable player for over a calendar year and while I don't like bashing people this is just the unfortunate truth. His numbers, underlying or otherwise and his eye test are all rather poor. Ridding yourself of this cap hit via trade or release would be the first step towards cap compliancy the Oilers should be willing to make. If you can justify keeping Ceci at 3.25 million, I think you can justify Broberg at 4.58.
The other recent news of Kane likely heading to LTIR relieves you of all of his 5.125 million AAV and right there you have the dollars and cents needed to afford both players. Is this worth it? Kane will likely be activated off of LTIR long before his NMC ends so money would then have to be moved out mid-season to become compliant once again which is the kicking-of-the-can-down-the-road headache that was so popularized by Holland over his tenure.
The second option is to choose one or the other, so which one do you choose? Broberg is a very easy answer to me but it's not so clear to others. The needs of this team are not addressed with Holloway, they are with Broberg. It's really that simple.
The third and final option is to let both players walk and take the 2nd and 3rd round draft picks. There is some merit to this.
If Kane does indeed hit LTIR and you lose both players, you'll have quite a bit of flexibility to maneuver and acquire some targeted additions with your newly minted draft choices. You could bring some people in on PTOs like Tyson Barrie and Calen Addison to replace the loss of Broberg, or maybe make a splashier addition like Adam Larsson or Taylor Hall who are both UFA's at the end of this season.
Regardless, this news this morning no doubt has the offices at Rogers Place this morning absolutely buzzing. More to come.