Nothing is more of a slap across the face in today’s National Hockey League than when a team tries to take advantage of a cap-tight team by sending an offer sheet to their pending restricted free agents. Well, that’s exactly what we saw early on Tuesday morning as the St. Louis Blues sent two offer sheets to Edmonton Oilers RFAs Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.
St. Louis signed both players to two-year deals, Broberg holding a $4,580,917 average annual value (AAV), Holloway to a $2,290,457 AAV. If the Oilers decide against matching either offer sheet, they will receive a 2025 second-round pick for Broberg and a 2025 third-round pick for Holloway. It was a slick move by Blues General Manager Bill Armstrong as if either player were to receive $1 more, the compensation would have been bumped up an extra round.
To start the morning, the Blues made a head-scratching trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins, losing significant value in terms of draft rounds.
But now, this trade makes sense. The Blues needed to retain their own second-round pick to be able to offer sheet Broberg.
This now puts Edmonton in a sticky situation. If they are to match both deals, they currently sit $7,225,541 over the salary cap. However, Sportsnet’s Bob Stauffer reported that Evander Kane will likely start the year on the long-term injured reserve (LTIR), freeing up his $5,125,000 cap hit.
But now what? They’re still $2,100,541 over the salary cap. Not to mention, Kane is only expected to miss the start of the season. He’ll be returning at some point during the season, and then the team is even more in trouble with the salary cap.
The Oilers currently have 13 forwards, eight defencemen, and two goaltenders under contract. They could send down one forward and two defencemen to make the money work. However, NHL teams often like to have an extra forward and defenceman on the roster in case of injuries or illnesses.
So, what options do the Oilers have?
Bury two contracts
They can make it work, but the team’s depth will suffer. Edmonton could send down Corey Perry’s $1.15 million and Josh Brown’s $1 million contracts and decide to run with just Troy Stecher as the only extra body with the big club. This could be problematic on a road trip during the season if a forward is ruled out, as they’ll likely have to run 11 forwards and seven defencemen.
If a player is injured, they can be placed on the team’s injured reserve (IR). However, this only allows a team to go over the roster limit of 23 players. The injured player still counts toward the salary cap. It isn’t until the player is placed on LTIR that the club gets salary cap relief.
If Perry and Brown are the club’s options, the Oilers would only have $49,459 of available cap space, not enough to make the money work within the salary cap.
So, yes, Edmonton can retain both of their RFAs. But they’re going to need to get very fortunate with the injury bug not to end up getting monumentally screwed. This option will buy them time to make a trade to clear up space for Evander Kane’s $5.125 million once he’s ready to return.
Go down the trade route
If both offer sheets are matched, they’ll likely have to resort to this scenario. Cody Ceci has been in trade talks for the past few seasons, so immediately, he’s a name on the trade block. Trading his $3.25 million, as well as Kane’s $5.125 million on LTIR, will take the Oilers $1,149,459 below the cap ceiling. You’ll still need to make room for Kane to return, but it helps for now.
This route also allows the team to have an extra forward and defenceman available for injuries.
But here’s the bad part: Who’s going to trade with you?
Firstly, the fact that Ceci is still on the Oilers despite being in trade rumours for years should tell you that nobody wants his contract. Now, with just one year remaining, does it make it more digestible? Absolutely.
But now all of the other 31 teams know that you are desperate, and you need to make this trade to retain your RFAs. To get off a contract like this, you’re looking at at least a third-round pick but most likely a second-round pick.
Here are some of the cap-dump trades we’ve seen around the league this past season: Kevin Hayes (2 x $7.14 million) with a second-round pick, Ilya Mikheyev (2 x $4.75 million) with a second-round pick, and Jake Walman (2 x $3.4 million) with a second-round pick.
However, that’s the going rate for just a salary camp dump. Now add the whole league knowing your desperation to make this trade with just one week to do so. You’re likely needing to pay a premium and trade your first-round pick, as well as a prospect.
Edmonton is without a first or second round pick this season. So now they’re forced to dip into the 2026 NHL entry draft picks, which only hinders a potential depth addition to go on another Stanley Cup run. But realistically, they might not have another option if they want to keep both Broberg and Holloway.
Bite the bullet and take the compesation
This one will sting for Oilers fans, but it might be their best option.
Nobody wants to see a 22-year-old forward or a 23-year-old defenceman depart after showing like they could turn into an NHL player. However, that’s the predicament Edmonton finds themselves in.
Holloway scored six goals and nine points in 38 regular season games last year. However, his efforts earned him ice time on Leon Draisaitl’s wing in the playoffs, and he didn’t look out of place. He scored some important goals, including the opening goal in an elimination game against the Vancouver Canucks and a two-goal game in the Stanley Cup finals. Holloway played all 25 playoff games for the Oilers, scoring five goals and seven points.
Broberg registered only two assists in 12 regular season games last year. But when his team needed a breath of fresh air come playoff time, he ran with the opportunity and didn’t give it back. Broberg was injected into the Oilers lineup for Game 4 against the Dallas Stars, where he performed well, and got rewarded by scoring an insurance goal in Game 5. He finally started to show signs that he could be an integral part of the Oilers’ blueline for the future.
With all of this considered, are they worth the contract they signed for?
Holloway looks to be the more digestible contract of the two, coming in at just under $2.3 million AAV. With the additions of wingers Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, Holloway likely slots into a third-line role. But that’s a solid contract for a 22-year-old third-line speedy winger. He’s shown enough flashes that he could develop into a top-six forward by the time Skinner or Arvidsson’s contracts expire.
On the other hand, you’ve got Broberg. He’s undoubtedly the more mesmerizing of the two young players, given he’s a defenceman and a former eighth-overall pick. But that is a hefty contract for his resume.
Broberg will make just shy of $4.6 million on his deal. He has played just 81 games of his three-year NHL career, scoring two goals and 13 points while averaging 12:42 minutes of ice time per game. If retained, Broberg would be the third highest-paid defenceman on the Oilers. The two defencemen above him? The two other starting left-shot defencemen, Darnell Nurse and Mattias Ekholm.
If retained, where would Broberg play him? The connection between Ekholm and Evan Bouchard has proven to be one of the league’s top pairings; they won’t split them up. So maybe the second pairing? Well, that means you’re paying Nurse $9.25 million per season to play bottom-pairing minutes. That won’t make fans too pleased. There’s no other choice but to play him on the bottom pair, and that’s an expensive ticket for his minimal minutes and NHL track record.
Our Prediction: The Oilers match the offer sheet on Dylan Holloway, take the compensation for Philip Broberg.
There have only been 10 offer sheets extended in the salary cap era. Only two of those 10 have gone through: The Edmonton Oilers offer sheeted Dustin Penner, to which the Anaheim Ducks received a 2008 first, second and third round picks; The Carolina Hurricanes offer sheeted Jesperi Kotkaniemi, to which the Montreal Canadiens received a 2022 first and third round picks.
What do you think, Canucks fans? What do you think the Oilers will do? Match the offer sheets on both RFAs, one RFA, or take the compensation?
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