The St. Louis Blues are coming to town this weekend and Saturday’s late Hockey Night in Canada game is one that a couple of players will certainly have circled on their calendars.
For the first time since signing offer sheets with the Blues this summer, former Oilers Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg will play against their former club. In this week’s roundtable, we looked back at the decision by general manager Stan Bowman and Co. to let the team’s top picks from the 2019 and 2020 drafts walk away and wondered with the benefit of hindsight if they made the right move.
Zach Laing – Both Broberg and Holloway have played well and the Oilers bungled this
Despite missing nearly all of November with a knee injury, Broberg has scored two goals and 12 points in 15 games this season. He just had a two-assist performance against Calgary Thursday night and racked up 26 minutes and 51 seconds of ice time. Holloway’s had success, too, with eight goals and 16 points in 27 games, and is red hot right now with four goals and eight points in his last five games.
I lean towards the Oilers having made a mistake in letting both of these players walk. It’s tough to see them racking up points in St. Louis as Edmonton struggles with their depth scoring, and for as good of a story Vasily Podkolzin is, and how Ty Emberson’s game is coming around, the Oilers could really use both Broberg and Holloway.
The Oilers bungled all of this from the get-go, mind you. There were more than enough opportunities to give both of these players more ice time in the NHL to really see what they had, but they opted to limit their ice time, keep Broberg in the American Hockey League after a trade request, and still let him walk after some great games in the playoffs last year.
Liam Horrobin – Stan Bowman did a good job of handling a difficult situation
It’s hard not to be disappointed after seeing the success the two of them have had. I believe the Oilers miss Philip Broberg the most, not because the defence is struggling but because he could’ve elevated the group to another level. Ken Holland and his staff mismanaged Broberg which also adds to the disappointment. As for Dylan Holloway, the Oilers should’ve signed him before putting pen to paper with Corey Perry or Mattias Janmark. Yes, the two of them are having good seasons so far, but we can all agree the upside on Holloway is more appealing.
Stan Bowman did a good job of cleaning up the mess that was put in front of him with the acquisitions of Vasily Podkolzin and Ty Emberson. However, I’d take Holloway and Broberg back on this team over them any day of the week. Don’t get it twisted, Jeff Jackson did a good job on July 1st but there is a part of me that wonders how an experienced general manager would’ve handled the off-season as a whole.
Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman and CEO Jeff Jackson
Tyler Yaremchuk – Ken Holland should have locked both players up sooner
It stings to see both of them out in St. Louis having success but where I think I still come out on this is that I agree with the decision to not match either offer sheet. The Oilers opted for picks and cap flexibility instead of locking in Broberg and Holloway based on where they’re at in their Stanley Cup window. I understand that choice.
The big mistake was not locking these guys up before spending money on both Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson in free agency. Holloway and Broberg should have been signed at some point last season or shortly after the Stanley Cup Final. I’m not upset at how Stan Bowman handled this, I’m upset at how Ken Holland handled this.
Cam Lewis – The Oilers have replaced Holloway but they haven’t replaced Broberg
Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, it’s strange that nobody saw this coming. The Blues were ultimately the ones to pull the trigger and offer contracts to both restricted free agents, but the Calgary Flames and one other team were reportedly also mulling over the idea of making offer sheets to the pair of Oilers. Considering Broberg had been seeking a change of scenery while struggling to get consistent playing time in Edmonton, an offer sheet wasn’t really out of left field.
The Oilers focused on contracts for veteran players rather than rewarding two young players for strong play in the playoffs. They figured that other teams around the league would let them take their time getting Holloway and Broberg signed, just as they had done in the past with Ryan McLeod, Kailer Yamamoto, and Evan Bouchard. This time, they were wrong.
As others have said above, this situation was messed up by multiple people over the course of a few months. It wasn’t ideal to lose Holloway and Broberg, but the Oilers got two draft picks and some salary cap flexibility in return. They’ve replaced Holloway’s speed and skill with the additions of Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen but they haven’t found a top-four defender as good as Broberg. If they can use those two picks to find Darnell Nurse a strong defensive partner, this whole transaction becomes much better.
Baggedmilk – I think I miss Holloway more than I miss Broberg… maybe
As I sit down to write this on December 6th, I’m having a hard time getting over Dylan Holloway not being in the Oilers lineup. When the news came out that there isn’t a timeline for Viktor Arvidsson’s return, all I could think about was how it may have been smarter to use that money to get Dylan Holloway locked up than betting on a 31-year-old veteran with a bad back. Of course, when Arvidsson is healthy and at his best, he’s a better player than Holloway is today, but that doesn’t really matter when he hasn’t played in a month. The same could be said about Jeff Skinner.
If I was in charge and could do it all again, I would have picked either Skinner or Arvidsson but not both. And if I was narrowing that down even further, I’d still probably pick Arvidsson over Skinner even with the health issues he’s facing right now. There’s still hope in my that he can come back to the lineup and contribute at the rate he’s done historically, but for Jeff Skinner, he’s not getting the minutes or opportunity to be successful. Put another way, I think Dylan Holloway would have been able to get more down as a 3LW than Skinner has, and he also brings some speed and grit the former Sabre doesn’t have either.
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