This in from Dylan Holloway on St. Louis hockey commentator Andy Strickland’s “Hockey Sense”podcast, Holloway’s statement that the Edmonton Oilers were aware of St. Louis’ intention to give offer sheets to him and Philip Broberg well ahead of the actual offer sheets.
Said Holloway: “We knew about the offer sheet before we had any negotiations with Edmonton, which was kind of weird. We were trying to get a deal done. I don’t think we were asking for anything crazy at all. If anything we were very upfront with Edmonton the whole time, even about the whole offer sheet. We explained, ‘Hey, this was an option for us. Can we get a deal?’ And it was weird the way they handled it. I felt I had no other option but to sign the offer sheet.”
Holloway also said it was “bittersweet” to leave Edmonton the team that had drafted him and one that was close to his home in Calgary. “But at the same the opportunity to play in St. Louis is a good one. I’m really excited to be with the team.”
It was a tough week as Edmonton decided on matching the offer sheet or not, Holloway said. “Edmonton fans wanted my head there for a bit. They probably still do.”
Holloway said his Oilers teammates understood his decision. “Everybody understands. It’s the whole business. I don’t think the fans really understand. It’s the whole-business side to it. I can want to be on a team for all the right reasons but if the management doesn’t see eye-to-eye. It’s the whole business with the salary cap.
“It was definitely hard. You have a good group of guys. You want to be with them forever. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t work like that. Hockey ultimately is a business and you got to take look after yourself. That’s kind of the advice I was given from a lot of guys too. You got to take care of yourself first.”
My take
1. It’s interesting that the Oilers knew about a possible Holloway offer sheet in advance but it makes sense. Holloway wanted to sign in Edmonton and stay with the Oilers. He also wanted more money than Edmonton was offering. Of course his agent is going to use the threat of an offer sheet to try to make both things happen. Why would he not?
2. As for Holloway’s assertion that Edmonton’s negotiating stance with him was “weird,” I don’t buy it in the least. Edmonton is in a salary cap bind. They have been since Edmonton’s hockey boss Jeff Jackson spent over the cap during the free agency period. Jackson did so by bringing back the team’s escellent checking line (Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown) and signing quality newcomers Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner.
To get down to the cap, Jackson was going to have thread the needle, maybe with Evander Kane going on Long Term Injured Reserve if that made sense for Kane, maybe by moving out veteran Cody Ceci and his $3.25 million contract, and most probably by having Holloway and Broberg accept contracts with average annual salaries of less than about $1.3 million per year, the amount most RFAs sign for in similar positions. If the Oilers weren’t budging in negotiations or were bargaining hard, that might not have been pleasant for Holloway or for Broberg, but it was Edmonton’s only route, given the hard realities of the salary cap. There was nothing weird about it.
3. The threat of offer sheets is always there in contract negotiations with a team’s restricted free agents. But the reality of offer sheets almost never comes to pass. They are almost never signed by players, even as Holloway and Broberg did so.
Should the Oilers have traded away Holloway and Broberg for higher draft picks if the reality of the St. Louis offer sheets was made clear to them, and before the two players actually signed the offer sheets? That would have been a dramatic move, and likely a rash one, considering that, in the end, few players actually sign offer sheets. But, again, Holloway and Broberg did so.
4. Should Edmonton have tied up Holloway and Broberg before the July 1 free agency period? Should Edmonton have refrained signing up so many veterans and instead paved the way to new Holloway and Broberg with higher offers before the free agency spending spree, maybe well before it in January or February, when both players were in the minors and in weaker negotiating positions? These are fair questions to ask.
5. In years to come, with so much money projected to be tied up in contracts for Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard, the Oilers were always going to be seriously challenged to find enough money to pay Broberg, Holloway and other younger and improving players.
For example, this summer if Broberg had been with a team that had had plenty of cap space it would have been no surprise to see him sign a long term deal, say five years at $4.0 million per. Teams with cap space can make that kind of bet on a young player. The Oilers, straining to win the Cup and with their backs hard up against the salary cap, cannot right now.
In the end, it would have been great for Edmonton to have one or more two more years of Holloway or Broberg before they moved on to get their true value as players, but not to be. That’s the reality of life under the NHL’s salary cap system.
At the Cult of Hockey
LEAVINS: 9 Things: When is the best time for the Oilers to move on a Top 4 d-man? Now or later?