The Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues are set to battle on April 9 at Rogers Place, having met twice already this season, with the Oilers winning both games. Yet, this upcoming matchup has a slightly different feel—the Oilers will be without several key players, most notably Connor McDavid, who registered a combined five points in the previous two meetings, while the Blues have been on fire since the 4 Nations Face-off, with an 18-3-2 record since.

This season, tension between the two teams has heated up, driven by the Blues’ offseason offer sheeting of former Oilers Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg last summer. Of course, the Oilers chose not to match, receiving two draft picks as compensation—a 2025 third-rounder for Holloway and a 2025 second-rounder for Broberg, and the latter was traded to the Boston Bruins in a deal to acquire Trent Frederic, the main piece coming back, who recently made his Oilers debut but is now out of the lineup with a re-aggravated injury.

That said, unless you’ve been without internet service since the start of the season, it’s no secret that both Holloway and Broberg have been lighting it up with their new team. With that in mind, we’ll look at their impact this season below, and consider yourself warned—if seeing former Oilers succeed outside of Oil Country hits a nerve, this might not sit too well.

Dylan Holloway played in 28 regular season games with the Oilers last year, but it was in the playoffs that he started to shine. Playing alongside Leon Draisaitl mostly, Holloway scored five goals, including a few that made it onto highlight reels.

One of his biggest moments was when he scored the opening goal in a crucial Game 6 against the Vancouver Canucks in the second round, with Edmonton going on to win both Game 6 and Game 7. Overall, the speedy forward was starting to show the potential that made him a first-round pick, with his blend of speed, size, skill, and gritty style of play.

While he showed flashes of his potential with the Oilers last year, this season with St. Louis, he’s truly come into his own.

Holloway is currently out of the lineup week-to-week with a lower-body injury, but he sits third on the Blues with 26 goals, 37 assists, and 63 points, which includes scoring eight game-winning goals, ranking 13th in the NHL. That said, just putting that into words right now stings when you consider the potential damage he and Draisaitl could’ve done this season, especially when their chemistry last playoffs was still just in its infancy stages.

As mentioned, the Blues have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL since league play resumed after the 4 Nations Face-off and the former 14th overall pick has played a big role in that, tallying 23 points in 21 games, which ranks 20th in the NHL over that span.

Furthermore, we saw Holloway’s wheels during his time with the Oilers, and this season, he leads the Blues with 34 takeaways, which is proof of his relentless motor and he also ranks top five on the team in hits with 164. On top of that, here’s a look at some advanced metrics from Natural Stat Trick and where he stacks up on the Blues:

• 3rd on the Blues in Goals For Percentage (64.66 GF%)
• 3rd on the team in High-Danger Chances For Percentage (60.00 HDCF%)
• 4th in Scoring Chances For Percentage (57.35 SCF%)
• 5th in Expected Goals For Percentage (57.26 xGF%)

Additionally, we already knew Holloway was a powerful skater, and this season, according to NHL Edge data, he ranks in the 95th percentile for speed bursts over 20 mph, and perhaps even more intriguing, he ranks in the 98th percentile in top shot speed, having unleashed a 98 mph blast this season.

Philip Broberg, a 2019 first-round pick, was the very first draft selection made by former Oilers GM Ken Holland. The blueliner had trouble locking down a spot on the Oilers’ D-corps for most of his tenure with the team, but rose to the occasion when inserted into the lineup in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final last season, scoring his first career playoff goal two games later.

He appeared in 10 postseason games, showcasing his smooth skating, which ultimately earned him an offer sheet from the Blues. This season, between the two former Oilers, Holloway has made the bigger impact in St. Louis, but Broberg has emerged as a solid young defender. He’s recorded 29 points in 65 games, has a +20 plus/minus rating, and is averaging over 20 minutes a night, a significant jump from the 11:37 mins he received with the Oilers last season.

That said, the D-man suffered an injury on Nov. 2, missed 12 games, and had a slow return, but benefited from the two-week break following the 4 Nations Face-off, as former Blue Cam Janssen from ‘The Cam and Strick Podcast’ summarized:

In addition, he’s fourth among Blues defencemen in power-play minutes (31:51), playing on the second unit. He’s also fourth on the team in penalty-kill minutes (89:30) and ranks fourth in blocked shots with 96.

Simply put, Holloway and Broberg were often seen as players with all the tools in the toolbox to become impact players with the Oilers, and they’ve now emerged as studs for the Blues.

Regarding Broberg, I can understand why the Oilers decided not to match the offer sheet for the two-year deal with a $4.5 million AAV. It would have forced them to move a big contract to stay cap-compliant for a player who only showed flashes of his potential in a 10-game sample last playoffs. However, the decision not to match the Holloway offer sheet at a more affordable $2.29 million AAV—was difficult to understand then, and it’s still puzzling now.

Instead of matching Holloway’s offer sheet, the Oilers traded a fourth-round draft pick to the Vancouver Canucks for Vasily Podkolzin, who has 23 points in 77 games this season, mostly playing alongside Draisaitl as his centerman.

Podkolzin left the last game against the Anaheim Ducks momentarily but returned, and when you look at the deal to acquire him and his $1 million AAV and view it purely as a ‘player in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick,’ it was a good move. He’s versatile, can play up and down the lineup, works hard to keep plays alive, gets his centerman the puck, plays on the PK, and leads the Oilers with 195 hits. The downside? He lacks finishing ability.

Yet, when you view the trade through the lens of ‘the Oilers chose not to match Holloway’s offer sheet and instead traded for Podkolzin’—who have 63 points and 23 points, respectively—the numbers don’t lie, and that decision is a tough pill to swallow.

Overall, the Oilers not matching the offer sheets for Holloway and Broberg stings—quite badly, especially with Edmonton being the oldest team in the NHL, young, smooth-skating players are incredibly useful throughout the season and become even more valuable in the playoffs.

Yet, in a best-case scenario, if the players linked to the two Blues players—Frederic, the centrepiece the Oilers acquired in exchange for the second-round pick they received by not matching Broberg’s offer, and Podkolzin, the de facto replacement for Holloway—step up with a ‘Fernando Pisani-like‘ playoff performance this upcoming postseason, like scoring a big, timely clutch goal to help the Oilers lift Lord Stanley this year, the Holloway and Broberg saga will slowly fade into an afterthought… hopefully.