Stan Bowman complains about criticism re: Broberg and Holloway situation

Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman has had enough and is firing back against the critics. However, not because of the much deserved criticism he continues to receives to this day, about how he dealt with matters which led to the end of his time in Chicago with the Blackhawks.

Instead, Bowman decided it was time to defend how the Oilers organisation dealt with the recent fallout regarding Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. More specifically, that they let both players leave, rather than match either of the offer sheets tendered by the St. Louis Blues.

Bowman shared his thoughts during an interview with The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun. (Subscription required.) He said: "The way it’s being portrayed is also a little bit unfair, that the Oilers were doing some sort of poor-faith negotiating. If you look at both those players, based on their performance, there’s lots of comparable players that have signed this summer and recent years."

Given the Oilers' tenuous financial position with the salary cap for this coming season, Bowman felt the Oilers couldn't justify matching the Blues' offer sheets at this time. He said: "The players can probably grow into those deals, but as of today, they’re way above their actual performance."

Yes it IS a lot of money

Now in this respect, there is no denying the money being offered for Broberg and Holloway was indeed a lot, at just over $4.58 million x two years and $2.29 million x two respectively. In the case of Broberg specifically, he received around 400 percent more than he was expecting.

Despite this, there are a couple of factors which Bowman is leaving out, although the first one isn't exactly his fault. The reality is that the Oilers did drag out negotiations with Broberg and Holloway, and could have gotten something agreed well before the Blues entered the picture.

Now in fairness, this can be countered in the case of Broberg, just because of how he perceived his treatment and development -- or lack thereof -- by the Oilers during his time in Edmonton. In fact, a report came out that the relationship between the two sides was fractured, making you wonder if he would have been allowed to leave anyway, even if the Blues offer wasn't as high as it was?

Holloway a different story to Broberg

However, in the case of Holloway, we firmly believe the Oilers have no excuse for allowing him to walk. And you can forget about the argument that the Blues' offer for him was similarly too much to justify.

As Holloway said himself recently in an interview with Blues' reporter Andy Strickland, his preference was to remain with the Oilers. He did everything possible to negotiate and agree a deal, to the point of letting Bowman and company know about the Blues' offer sheet before signing it.

Holloway went on to explain that despite this, the Oilers were just not prepared to budge and come closer in order to agree a contract extension. In the end, he felt he had no choice but to sign the Blues' offer sheet, and we can't say we blame him.

Overall, Bowman has every right to defend the position of the Oilers, and he is correct to comment on the extortionate amount of the offer sheets, combined with the organisation's salary cap position. However, we would contend they are not immune from criticism, given that how this all eventually played out is at least partly their own fault.

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