To hear St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong tell it, the notion that the Edmonton Oilers replacing Ken Holland with Stan Bowman had anything to do with him signing Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway to offer sheets couldn’t be further away from the truth.
Speaking to the media after the Oilers declined to match the Broberg and Holloway contract offers on Tuesday morning, Armstrong, who is the NHL’s longest-tenured GM, was adamant that it was purely a business decision for him to go after Edmonton’s two RFAs.
“If there’s a GM code not to do offer sheets, nobody emailed it to me,” Armstrong said. “It was reported that I wouldn’t have done this to Kenny Holland. That’s the furthest thing from the truth. Quite honestly, I’d do it to my mother if she was managing the Oilers. My job is to take care of St. Louis Blues’ fans and organization.”
The Oilers received the Blues’ own 2025 second and third-round picks as compensation when they elected not to match the two-year deals Broberg and Holloway signed with St. Louis. Broberg’s new contract carries a $4.58 million cap hit; Holloway’s deal is worth $2.29 million per season.
Broberg, the Oilers’ 2019 first-round pick, reportedly requested a trade out of Edmonton while playing with the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors midway through the 2023-24 season. He ultimately skated in 22 NHL games with last year’s Oilers over the regular season and playoffs.
“At the end of the day, it’s business,” Broberg said. “I’m very excited for the opportunity here in St. Louis. I’m very thankful for the years in Edmonton and for the teammates and coaches I had there.”
In a separate trade on Tuesday, the Oilers received defence prospect Paul Fischer and a 2028 third-round pick as additional compensation for not matching either offer sheet, which they positioned themselves to be able to do by sending Cody Ceci to the San Jose Sharks on Sunday. That move helped soften the blow of losing Holloway, their 2020 first-round pick, for the relatively paltry compensation of a third-round pick in next year’s draft.
Holloway, who will turn 23 in September, collected six goals and nine points in 38 games during the 2023-24 regular season before adding five goals and seven points in 25 playoff games this past spring.
“I felt that this was a better opportunity for me personally,” Holloway said in an interview on NHL Network on Wednesday. “St. Louis is building something special. It’s got a good young core group of guys so I’m excited to be part of that.”
The Blues finished the 2023-24 season with a 43-33-6 record and 92 points in 82 games, enough to end up in fifth place in the Central Division and miss the playoffs by seven points. After failing to qualify for the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, the Blues were emboldened to make a big splash this summer.
“You’re looking at how you can acquire the players, and what circumstances set up best?” Armstrong said. “We felt if we could pinpoint those two players, make them offers that might be difficult for Edmonton to match, we would go that direction. It’s obviously harder to match two than one, so we went that direction.”
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