The Edmonton Oilers will not be matching the offer sheets extended to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway by the St. Louis Blues.
After a week of deliberation that saw the team make two separate trades, Oilers GM Stan Bowman and CEO Jeff Jackson have decided to allow Broberg and Holloway to leave the team and join the Blues.
The Oilers will receive a 2025 second and third-round pick from the Blues as compensation. It was also announced that Edmonton acquired a 2028 third-round pick and the rights to defenceman Paul Fischer in a separate deal with the Blues.
The Oilers confirmed this with a social media post this morning.
The #Oilers have announced they will not match contract offer sheets presented by St. Louis to Dylan Holloway & Philip Broberg.
In a separate transaction, Edmonton acquires a 2028 third-round pick & the rights to defenceman Paul Fischer from the Blues.
Full details ⬇️
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) August 20, 2024
Broberg will sign a two-year deal with the Blues worth a cap hit of $4.58 million, while Holloway inks a two-year contract that carries an AAV of $2.29 million. The Oilers have now lost or traded every first-round pick since 2019, with only their 2024 pick, Sam O’Reilly, remaining with the organization.
Losing both of these players in such a manner will hurt the team in both the short and long term. Holloway and Broberg are coming off great performances in the playoffs and the pair was expected to play big roles on a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations.
Bowman has made moves to help compensate for the loss of the two players. Edmonton traded for Russian forward Vasily Podkolzin from the Vancouver Canucks over the weekend, and offloaded veteran defenceman Cody Ceci in a deal with the San Jose Sharks that saw the team acquire young defenceman Ty Emberson.
The Oilers should be able to weather the blow of Holloway with a wealth of depth up front, but losing Broberg will require some work on their defensive group. There is now a massive hole at the 2RD position and, while Emberson may prove to be a sneaky good pickup, there is no obvious candidate for that spot at the moment.
The free agent pool doesn’t appear to have any obvious candidates as well. This could mean that Bowman and Jackson look to make another trade, perhaps utilizing the draft picks that they acquired from the Blues in compensation for the offer sheets.
Edmonton has now put themselves in a position where they will have much more cap flexibility. With Ceci traded and Evander Kane expected to go on LTIR to start the season, the Oilers will have quite a bit of cap space if they want to add another player through trade.