St. Louis Blues offer-sheeted two Oilers players—here's an explanation why
The St. Louis Blues have offer-sheeted two Oilers players this morning: Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. The offer for Broberg is for two years at $4.58M per year, and for Holloway, it's also for two years at $2.29M per year.
For those who don’t know what an offer sheet is, it's when another team comes to terms with a restricted free agent (RFA) who still has rights with another team. When the offer sheet is submitted, the original team has seven days to match the contract, or they will lose the player.
To make it more tempting for the original team not to match the offer, the NHL has implemented a compensation system. If the contract is not matched, the team that signs the RFA gives compensation to the original team. In this instance, the St. Louis Blues would give up a second-round pick in the 2025 draft for Philip Broberg and a third-round pick in the 2025 draft for Dylan Holloway.
Now let’s talk about the players
Dylan Holloway was the 14th overall pick in the 2020 draft. Since then, his development has been full of ups and downs in the Edmonton Oilers organization. This is partly due to COVID, which affected many young players in the CHL at that time, leading to canceled games, etc.
However, it's also due to the lack of space in their lineup for him. If the Oilers don’t match, this would be a massive acquisition for the Blues. He is still very young and full of untapped potential.
Philip Broberg was the eighth overall pick in the 2019 draft. I remember at the time he was viewed as a potential elite defenseman, but since then, he seems to have never really been able to get things going and has been stuck with the Oilers as a seventh defenseman in the organization.
Now, with him, the Blues hope to revive what made him a great prospect in 2019, and they certainly have the playing time to do so. In my opinion, $4.5 million for Broberg is steep, but in these cases, you won’t get the player if the contract is too good of a value for the other team.
Final Thoughts
Finally, I think Doug Armstrong did a great job here. In the past, very few general managers have had the courage to use offer sheets, but he did it and certainly chose the right team to target—the Oilers are currently over the cap. We'll see how this plays out, but I would be very happy if either of these two players becomes a Blue.
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