Welcome to my annual player review series, where I dive into the Edmonton Oilers season player-by-player. We’ll look back at the season that was, what kind of impact each player had, and what we could see from them next season. You can read about the analytics behind my analysis here.

Talk about a rocky year.
Philip Broberg started the season playing a few games early in the season before the Oilers fired Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson. But when Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey came to town, he found himself a healthy scratch as he had for over half the time he’s spent in the NHL.
When you’re a young defenceman, this isn’t a good development path and it’s caused its issues. A trade request became public, and the Oilers ended up holding strong, assigning him to the American Hockey League. There, Brobeg ripped it up playing in all situations, scoring five goals and 38 points in 49 games.
He got a pair of games at the end of the season with the Oilers, scoring two assists, one each against the Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche, as the team sat a number of their top players. He would find himself thrust into action in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Stars and would become a mainstay in the final three games of that series, and all through the Stanley Cup Finals.
Broberg excelled, scoring two goals and three points and looking comfortable in 10 games as the Oilers ran hot with him on the ice. While not reflected above, the Oilers controlled 42.41 percent of the shot attempt share, 34.87 percent of the expected goal share, 37.39 percent of the scoring chance share, but a staggering 75 percent of the goal share, outscoring the opposition 6-2. All in all? He had a 5v5 playoff PDO of 1.101, a very high number.
I don’t put as much weight as some into the PDO of that small sample size, but rather that Broberg did all of the things in the playoffs asked of him. Sure, he was shaky at times, but he made play on the ice and excelled at breaking the puck out of the Oilers zone. He’s a big, rangy skater who can make plays with the puck on his stick in any three zones.
The offer sheet looms large, and while it may be more money than the Oilers may have wanted to spend on him, I think they need to match the offer sheet, and see what he can do in a larger sample size of NHL games.

PHILIP BROBERG’S CAREER SO FAR

Regular SeasonPlayoffs
SeasonTeamLgeGPGAPtsPIM+/-GPGAPtsPIM
2017-18
AIK Jr.
Swe-Jr
23
6
7
13
6
5
2017-18
Orebro HK Jr.
Swe-Jr
15
0
2
2
0
-1
2018-19
AIK Jr.
Swe-Jr
8
2
6
8
8
3
2018-19
AIK
Swe-1
41
2
7
9
14
-1
2019-20
Skelleftea AIK
SweHL
45
1
7
8
6
0
2020-21
Skelleftea AIK
SweHL
44
3
10
13
10
-4
12
0
0
0
2
2021-22
Edmonton Oilers
NHL
23
1
2
3
8
-8
1
0
0
0
0
2021-22
Bakersfield Condors
AHL
31
4
19
23
18
14
4
0
1
1
0
2022-23
Edmonton Oilers
NHL
46
1
7
8
2
6
9
0
0
0
4
2022-23
Bakersfield Condors
AHL
7
2
2
4
0
-2
—
—
—
—
—
2023-24
Edmonton Oilers
NHL
12
0
2
2
0
-3
10
2
1
3
0
2023-24
Bakersfield Condors
AHL
49
5
33
38
16
11
2
0
1
1
0
NHL Totals
81
2
11
13
10
20
2
1
3
4

PLAYERS REVIEWED SO FAR

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

PRESENTED BY A&W BURGERS TO BEAT MS

Burgers to Beat MS Day is back, celebrating its 16th year on Thursday, August 22nd! For every Teen Burger sold on Burgers to Beat MS Day, $2 will be donated to Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Canada. In the lead-up to August 22nd, you can support Burgers to Beat MS by rounding up your bill with any purchase at an A&W, donating online at BurgersToBeatMS.ca or through the A&W app, or by adding a donation option to your cart when ordering A&W on delivery apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash, and SkipTheDishes.