Brian Burke thinks the Edmonton Oilers will not regret losing Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway to the St. Louis Blues via an offer sheet this past offseason.
During an appearance on The Sheet with Jeff Marek Friday, Burke was asked about the offer sheets that shocked the hockey world over the summer and how things stand with the two teams set to face off for the first time since on Saturday. He felt that the Oilers did what was best for them salary cap-wise in letting them go without matching the offers.
“Well, they could have matched on one of them. They didn’t have to say no to both of them. They made an intelligent decision based on their cap decision. What I thought when it happened was, creativity adds value. Doug Armstrong was creative here. He put two, by putting both players in play, he put them in a tough spot in Edmonton. And they took advantage of that and walked on both players.”
At the time the moves happened, there was a lot of frustration among Oilers fans because this was off the heels of the team falling short in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final and two young talents would be gone for a lesser return relative to where they were selected in their respective draft years. It didn’t help matters when Holloway came out soon after becoming a Blue that he believed Edmonton handled it weirdly and that ‘I felt like I had no other option but to sign the offer sheet.’
The way their tenures ended left a sour taste in the mouths of some Oilers fans, especially with Holloway tied for second on the Blues in scoring and Broberg being St. Louis’ second-highest-scoring blueliner behind only Colton Parayko. Burke feels that despite their strong starts, the Oilers won’t miss them in the grand scheme of things given where they stood on the depth chart before getting the offer sheets.
“Broberg’s having a really good year. It’s easy to say now, ‘Well look, they should have matched.’ This is a guy that played part time up until this year. Played part time in the minors, didn’t play big minutes. It was a real iffy player. I liked him, but Doug Armstrong loved him and he’s turned out to be a much better player in St. Louis than he was in Edmonton. So the value there is that the team did their scouting, not that they used the money to advantage maybe over an unsuspecting player. They just had a lower assessment of this player than someone else did, which is the GM. That’s his credit. Good for Army. Dylan Holloway, to me, is a player that’s a good player, not worth that money in their mind, so they decided not to match. I don’t think it’s hurt them not having those two players. I think they both played well for St. Louis, but they didn’t have an impact in Edmonton.”
Indeed, the Oilers have not skipped a beat despite their early-season struggles. They sit in a Wild Card spot but are just two points back of surpassing the Calgary Flames for third place in the Pacific Division. The players they got to fill the void, Vasili Podkolzin and Ty Emberson, have slowly integrated themselves into the fold and should help offset the off Broberg and Holloway over time. Of course, it has not impacted the production of the top guns, who continue to lead the charge offensively.
Burke has had his run-ins with offer sheets as he fell victim to one as GM of the Anaheim Ducks when Dustin Penner was nabbed by the Oilers in 2007. While he was able to get Edmonton’s first, second, and third-round picks in the 2008 season, the fallout from that led to a rift between him and then-Oilers GM Kevin Lowe to the point that the two nearly fought. Even though the saga remains a part of his legacy in the league, Burke feels he isn’t misinterpreted on his thoughts about offer sheets.
“I don’t really care. I’ve never thought about it. I don’t. I’m not bossed by imperviousness. I don’t really care what people think. I don’t really care what people think. So if they misinterpret say, ‘Brian Burke’s all wrong.’ I was upset about the offer sheet because it messed up (Ryan) Getzlaf and (Corey) Perry’s contract by overpaying Dustin Penner. It messed up my cap situation for a player I didn’t think it was worth that money. I think history bore me out on that. The personal stuff about not calling me. That just was just being crotchety.”
Burke was about to talk about the infamous threat of a barn fight between him and Lowe, getting so far as saying “Kevin was the guy that started that whole thing about fighting, so I want to make that clear. Kevin was doing an interview… —” before his connection unfortunately froze. Hopefully, Marek will have him back on, and he can finish that story.
You can listen to the full interview as well as the entire episode down below:
