Bye Philip Broberg, bye Dylan Holloway.
After a week to digest the offer sheets by St. Louis Blues, and with some clever trade wheeling and the dealing, the Edmonton Oilers have decided to walk away from both young players and take a second-round draft pick as compensation for the defenceman Broberg and a third next June for the left-winger Holloway.
The two-year offer sheets a week ago by the Blues on Broberg ($4.58 million AAV) and Holloway ($2.29 million AAV) threw a very large wrench into the Oilers’ salary cap structure if they had matched on the players, especially Broberg, who would have been making $700,000 more than Evan Bouchard this season—an asinine thought. They could have maybe lived with it for one year after Broberg asked for a trade last winter, upset with his usage, but not next when Bouchard’s rich payday comes due and he’s in the $9m to $10m range.
We’re not saying the Oilers are better without Broberg, who played well with Darnell Nurse in the Stanley Cup Final, or Holloway, who had five playoff goals including two in the Game 4 blowout of Florida because both were former first-round picks and were the team’s best young talents.
But, new GM Stan Bowman, who had to manoeuvre the cap in Chicago after the ‘Hawks first Cup in 2012, trading Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg, massaged the Oilers cap squeeze here with trades. He moved defenceman Cody Ceci and his $3.25 million to San Jose for a much younger and cheaper ($950,000) Ty Emberson, also a right-shot who figures to audition in camp for a spot alongside Brett Kulak in the third pair.
He also got Vancouver winger Vasily Podkolzin ($1m AAV for two years) to fill a hole if they decided to move on from Holloway. Holloway, who was a possible third-line LW with Adam Henrique and Connor Brown, will be making twice as much as Podkolzin, the 2019 10thoverall draft pick who needed a change of scenery after a sputtering time with the Canucks.
Holloway did have a good playoff for Oilers, scoring one incredible end-to-end goal against Vancouver which made all the highlight packages, but had just six goals and nine points in 38 league games last season with time in Bakersfield.
With all the manoeuvring, the Oilers now have $946,000 in cap space and if Evander Kane goes on LTIR should he need sports hernia surgery, his $5.125 cap hit will go there until he’s ready to play.
Dealing Ceci, who was highly thought of by the leadership group and had a strong Cup finals against Florida, won’t sit well with them but they had to make some tough fiscal decisions. Ceci, who spent three seasons here and is UFA next summer, will probably stay with Sharks until next trade deadline, then get moved to a contender.
The Oilers blueline is now in in flux, with the team passing on Broberg, 23, and trading Ceci and his 786 NHL games but defence coach Paul Coffey will have the season to see how is shakes out before maybe making a deal at the trade deadline. Without Ceci and Vinny Desharnais, who signed a free-agent deal in Vancouver, they’ve lost two strong PK defencemen too, which will need to be addressed.
If Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm stay as a pair, then Nurse will need a right-shot partner. Emberson, who played for coach Kris Knoblauch in Hartford, Troy Stecher, resigned after they got him at the deadline last year and he subsequently needed surgery on his ankle to repair a cyst, and Josh Brown, signed to a low-money three-year deal as free-agent, are all righties.
Emberson has only played 30 NHL games but that’s only 51 fewer (regular-season) than Broberg in the big picture. The 24-year-old was all-world in his time in San Jose only being -4 on a team that was a collective -150 over the season. He’s a defender, not a point producer, but Knoblauch, after coaching him on the New York Rangers; farm team, will have lots of time for him.
In terms of NHL games, Kulak could move into the top four with Nurse because of his NHL experience but moving to his off side last season wasn’t a rousing success. He’s much comfortable on left side, and on a third pairing.
One other point of news with the Blues and Oilers:
Edmonton got unsigned 2023 left-shot fifth-round defenceman Paul Fischer (Notre Dame) and a third-round pick in 2028 in a separate deal. Fischer, 19, has completed one college season and is a shutdown guy not a point producer.
With the addition of Broberg, the Blues have 10 defenceman on one-way contracts, but the Swede will be given every opportunity to play left side with Justin Faulk in their second pair. St. Louis also has 14 forwards on one-ways, but Holloway will probably find his way into their top 9, somewhere.
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.