Game Day 9: Edmonton Oilers vs Detroit Red Wings
This in from long-time St. Louis hockey commentator Andy Strickland, his great satisfaction about the acquisition of Philip Broberg, stolen away this summer from the Edmonton Oilers with an offer sheet.
Said Strickland on social media: “Not to pile on but I’m shocked Edmonton would allow a 23 year old d-man with the skating ability and overall skillset of Philip Broberg get away. Typically the only way you get your hands on these guys is by drafting them, they got him eighth overall and lost him at 23. How good is this this guy going to be at 27?
Strickland continued: “He wanted out because they weren’t playing him. Tried to negotiate an extension. He’s 23, with his skill set teams don’t typically move on from these players… Nothing against Edmonton at all, just been so impressed with Broberg. These type of players don’t grow on trees, rarely, if ever, will you see them get away at 23 years old.”
Broberg has seven points in nine games for St. Louis, playing 20 minutes per game.
My take
1. Part of me is still shocked as well that the Oilers failed to keep Broberg. Did Oilers hockey boss Jeff Jackson not realize in July that offers sheets for Broberg and Holloway would be a distinct possibility with the team pressed so close to the cap? If not, why not? It was an obvious play for another team.
Bob Stauffer has said repeatedly on Oilers Now that as early last December that he was telling Oilers managers that the time was right to lock in Broberg and Holloway. Stauffer was right. The two players were struggling a bit and might well have been open to two-year deals if the money was right. Ken Holland’s team failed in that moment as well. Of course, Broberg had also asked to be traded at that time, so perhaps the young player was set on a move out of Edmonton. No doubt Broberg’s agent realized the player’s value had changed after the Stanley Cup Final, and determined it was time to push hard for much bigger contract in a new city. The agent, at least, was doing his job well.
But could not Broberg’s mind have been changed after he was promoted onto the second-pairing in the Stanley Cup Final? What kind of an effort was made? Or was Broberg lost in the shuffle of Edmonton locking down so many veteran players in early July, from newcomers Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner to returnees Adam Henrique, Connor Brown, Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry?
Yes, there’s a lot of unanswered questions for both Holland and Jackson here. But this certainly looks like it was a screw-up by Oilers management, and a monumental one at that.
2. How bad did it feel the day that Broberg and Dylan Holloway signed offer sheets in St. Louis? As bad as it felt when young star Adam Graves signed with the New York Rangers in 1991. Franchises have a hard time recovering when they lose strong young players entering the peak years of their careers. Maybe the Oilers have enough star power to weather the blow. This team does have amazing talent. We’ll see.
3. When the offer was made, Edmonton simply lacked the cap space to match the Broberg contract. There would have had to be a major contortion and another contract or two moved out to make space for him. At the time, I thought there was about a 75 per cent chance that Broberg would realize his potential in St. Louis or Edmonton as a Top 4 or Top 2 d-man. I thought he was a good bet. I would have been good with Edmonton moving out others to retain him. But not to be.
4. Bottom line: Broberg wanted out and for a team with ample cap space like St. Louis, the risk of offering a two-year contract at $4.5 million was well worth it. It made sense for their cap situation, not Edmonton’s cap situation.
The other hard truth is that when a team succeeds as the Oilers have done, they lack the cap space to retain all their good players. Even if Broberg had re-signed for a year, it would have been a stretch to retain him after that, not unless Edmonton moved out a $5 million-plus player or two.
In the cap world of the NHL, no team can keep it all and have it all. That’s the ecosystem, that’s the jungle where the Oilers are battling for supremacy. But I would have loved to see Broberg here for even another year.
5. I don’t think that Strickland is rubbing it in or piling on. He’s just marvelling that St. Louis was able to get such a player. In a similar way, I was pleased when the Oilers were able to bring in Dustin Penner from Anaheim. I didn’t have a moment of pity for Anaheim. That’s how the system worked then, and it worked in Edmonton’s favour. The system worked us against us here, most likely abetted by major miscalculations by Oilers management.
If they screwed up, it would be good to hear Holland and/or Jackson simply explain it, but we’ve yet to see that kind of openness and accountability. It’s not too late for that to happen.
Coming clean and admitting errors goes a long way in establishing credibility for franchise leaders. No one expects perfection and it would be good to know what the thinking was last winter and this summer with Broberg and Dylan Holloway.
6. Edmonton is back where they were early last season, needing wins in October games. But Edmonton’s line-up is strong just now. The team has played five games in a row ranging from solid-to-great. The only line-up change from the 4-0 thumping of Pittsburgh is that Calvin Pickard is in net. Pickard may be the least athletic goalie in the NHL. But he also also might be the smartest. His reading of the play is exceptional.
Never count out a smart goalie.
7. Corey Perry and Derek Ryan are playing a lot of games for older players. It might well be time to send down a d-man to the AHL and bring up a forward, so Edmonton can rotate in some fresh legs. That would mean sending out Travis Dermott, I expect.
Would he clear waivers? I suspect so.
Edmonton’s line-up against Detroit
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
Skinner-Henrique-Brown
Janmark-Ryan-Perry
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Stecher
Kulak-Emberson
Pickard
Skinner
Scratched: Dermott
Goalie intererence?
Staples on politics
Danielle Smith going in right direction on free speech, but it will be painful, even for her
At the Cult of Hockey
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