It was no surprise that the St. Louis Blues’ offer sheets of Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg were designed in a way to make the Edmonton Oilers uncomfortable.
Both were right on the threshold of compensatory value, with Broberg accepting a two-year, $4,580,917-million per year offer, and Holloway a two-year, $2,290,457-million per year offer. Edmonton got their compensation — a second-round pick for Broberg which was used to acquire Trent Frederic and Max Jones, and a third-round pick for Holloway.
Holloway and Broberg have both had breakout seasons in St. Louis. Holloway has racked up 23 goals and 58 points in 72 games, including 19 goals and 50 points in 50 games since Jim Montgomery took over behind the bench, while Broberg has scored seven goals and 23 points in 59 games.
Oilers general manager Stan Bowman was asked during his appearance on Sportsnet’s After Hours program last Saturday about how he looks back on declining those offers, saying the team would’ve be able to field the roster they have today if they accepted.
“I think they both have had good years in St. Louis, so that’s got a lot of attention saying, ‘Well why wouldn’t we have matched?’, but it really came down to a fundamental salary cap challenge for us,” said Bowman. “We wouldn’t have the team we have now if we would’ve matched either one of those offers. We would’ve had to have gotten rid of a pretty core player. Simply, the math didn’t work. It’s not like we didn’t like the players or didn’t think they could be good players for us, but when you look at the salary cap, that was what we’re studying, was ‘Is there any possible way to match either or both?’
“And as I recounted back at the time when we decided not to, we wouldn’t have been able to field a team if we matched either of those offer sheets. We would’ve had to move out a very important player on our team. We didn’t have the flexibility.
“I think we pivoted pretty good. We brought in Podkolzin and Emberson, and they’ve played really well for us. Low-priced players that came in and found a role on our team. I think we made it work and we like where we’re at.”
Both Holloway and Broberg have become very effective players in St. Louis. While Holloway’s driven play offensively at a league average rate, according to HockeyViz, his defensive contributions have come at an eight percent rate above league average, with his overall impact that of a border-line first-line player. Broberg, meanwhile, has been impactful on both ends of the ice, driving offence at a five percent rate above league average and defence at a four percent rate above league average. HockeyViz has his impacts slightly above a first-pairing rate.
Looking back, Holloway is the one that the Oilers should regret the most, as he’s played very effective top-six minutes for the Blues this season, after a playoff run where he was showing great signs of development alongside Leon Draisaitl. The issue for the Oilers with both players, though, is the team didn’t do a good job developing either player.
You can listen to Bowman’s full appearance on After Hours below.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.