An offer sheet market grew for Philip Broberg before the St. Louis Blues tendered one to the now-former Oilers blueliner, according to a report from Andy Strickland.

So much so that two other teams were reportedly prepared to send offer sheets for the 23-year-old. Ultimately, the Blues signed him to a two-year, $4,580,917-million offer sheet, one that alongside Dylan Holloway’s two-year, $2,290,457-milliotn offer sheet, was declined to be matched by the Edmonton Oilers.

Edmonton chose to take the compensation of a second-round pick for Broberg and a third-round pick for Holloway, while also getting the rights to 19-year-old NCAA defenceman Paul Fischer, drafted by the Blues in the third round of the 2023 draft, and a third-round pick in the 2028 draft.

The Oilers played their cards well, deciding the cap flexibility and draft picks were of greater value to the team than the services of the two young players. They also made moves to mitigate the loss of the players, picking up Vasily Podkolzin and Ty Emberson in separate trades Sunday.

When it comes to Broberg, however, the fact other teams were interested in tenuring him an offer sheet indicated his value as a prospect was starting to come to fruition. Selected by the team in the first round of the 2019 draft, Broberg’s development was never handled well by the organization, seeing him play in roughly 50 percent of eligible games in North America over the last three seasons prior to being assigned to the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors last December.

After enjoying a breakout performance there, he ended up being an important piece of the Oilers blueline during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, drawing in for Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Stars, playing in the final three games of that series, as well as all seven of the Stanley Cup Finals. Despite rough underlying numbers, the Oilers outscored the opposition 6-2 with him on the ice.

By declining the offer sheet to Broberg, the Oilers received a second-round pick as compensation, which, according to the NHL’s offer sheet compensation guidelines, was right at the upper limit for that bracket. A single dollar more and the Oilers would’ve received first- and third-round picks for the defenceman. One has to imagine that if the opportunity for Brobeg to earn more money was out there, he would’ve jumped at it, indicating the Blues were able to sell him on playing in St. Louis.

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.