Broberg wanted out and at 4M+ per its good riddance.
In the long run Broberg is going to be the bigger missed opportunity.
We don't have the long run. Broberg would've been behind Kulak especially with the types of mistakes he makes. Would've been a natural replacement for Ekholm in a couple yrs but we just couldnt keep him at 4.25M per or even at 2.5M per. We were shopping him last deadline but as per reports he wasn't even worth a 2nd rd pick or an equivalent prospect to any team.
The Oilers management had ample time to get ahead of the offer sheet. The player had a standing trade request and they did nothing except bury their heads in the sand hoping everything would work out. Even more reason to be pro-active while they had exclusive rights to smoke out if a deal could be made or not. Concurrently explore trade options that naturally begin with teams they've talked to about these players this season and last. Jackson worked with Broberg's agent so should also have had a better read of his aggressive nature and intent. Clearly they didn't have a read on Holloway.
Problem with this thinking is that it cost us a first rounder to replace Broberg with Walman and we only get him for another season. We would have retained Broberg’s rights even with a bridge contract.
Oh my god stop with this "Broberg would be behind Kulak" cope. He's a vastly superior player to Kulak and showed that when he finally played in the playoffs last year. The only reason he was behind Kulak was because this organization has a crippling, terminal diagnosis bias towards veterans. It's the same reason we were playing useless bums over Holloway and costed ourselves a young, top 6, all situations, two-way forward with speed and physicality.
Or maybe Holloway's parents/siblings wanted him to go to a place that would actually respect his abilities and give him the playtime/linemate opportunities that he deserved? Calgary's greatest player in franchise history is from Edmonton and the best Oiler of the early 2010s is from Edmonton. They would've been perfectly happy to have him play his entire career in Edmonton if we weren't scratching/demoting him for bums like Henrique, Brown, and Ryan, and we didn't give his money to Jeff Skinner.
Stauffer has been pretty clear that Broberg still wanted a fresh start.
I would want a fresh start too if my team kept yoyoing me between the pressbox and the AHL with inferior players playing over me.
With hindsight, the Oilers gave Broberg the correct developmental path whether he thought was yoyo-ed
This is kinda the point with both Holloaway & Broberg. The Oilers handled both these guys perfectly. But the NHL society changed slightly & they were the victims. One can argue that they should have seen it coming, but to some degree its understandable they diidnt as it was pretty much unique that it did..
Did they? Him and Bouchard did quite well together back in 2022-23. Who's to say he doesn't hit his current level on the Blues even earlier with more NHL reps? His playoff performances last year certainly showed a player that belongs in this league, we just needed to have equal standards for all players. Guys like Holloway and Broberg make one mistake and they're benched/scratched/sent down, when guys like Brown, Janmark, Ryan, Kulak, and Ceci make far more egregious mistakes on the regular with zero consequences. Heck Brett Kulak single handedly lost us Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final with his poor gap control and came out of it scot-free.
even if they didn't see it coming, they should have matched
Broberg and Holloway were 21 and 22 when they were with the Oilers in the playoffs. That's part of learning. You gotta outplay the vets. It has always been like this with every team.
Match and we won't have Frederic and Walman. It's also easy to say match when management had no indication of what Kane wanted to do with his injuries.
They were already outplaying the vets. If you had eyes you could tell that Holloway and Broberg were already better than the likes of Connor Brown, Derek Ryan, Cody Ceci, and Brett Kulak last year. The difference is that when Holloway/Broberg blew a coverage or had a giveaway they would get benched while Brown or Ceci single handedly losing us a game would get them a hug and more minutes to help them "break out of their slump". Holloway and Broberg becoming better than Hyman and Nurse was certainly not something most of us saw coming, and maaaaybe the "slow cooking" caused that to happen. I'm of the opinion that we prevented it from happening earlier by not giving them the opportunities. Regardless of how you think the development went, the reality is that their level of play was above that of players who got more ice time and games. The Oilers are not a team that awards playtime and opportunities based on merit, they award it based on the colour of your beard and how old you are. See also: Michael Kesselring.
That very much remains to be seen, but having those two throughout the entire season would be infinitely more preferable to this. We would probably be higher up in the standings.
Holloway and Broberg were fringe NHL players up until the playoffs. You can make a case with those timely goals, Holloway was better than Brown, Ryan. But Brown had his timely shorties too. Broberg was better than Kulak for one series, Kulak was more reliable for most of the playoffs.
Who cares about the standings lol
