Confirmed with Link: Blues sign 2 Oilers to offer sheets!

[Bye Bye Blueston]

A few additional thoughts:

Oilers likely want to match both these guys, but the cost to dump guy like Ceci or even Kulak is gonna be severe. everyone knows they are in sticky wicket and will make them pay. Would they give up 1st to dump one of them to keep Broberg? That doesn't strike me as bright idea, but I wouldn't rule it out.

After this year's draft I felt like we finally have several exciting young d prospects. I don't know that Broberg's upside is any better than Ralph or Fischer (although his floor is much higher at this point), and it's likely not as good as Lindstein or Jiricek. But none of those guys are close to being ready to be impact nhl d. We are looking at a minimum of 3 years, likely more, before any of those guys are ready to be quality top 4 d. Probably 4+ years for Fischer and Ralph, if they hit. A guy like Broberg can potentially play quality top 4 minutes as soon as this year (not saying he will be a stud, but better than the carcass of Suter or peru or POJ). And if we are right about him- and I have been advocating for Broberg since at least last year- he could be nice player for us for a decade. And if not, he at least provides a bridge to our kids.

Holloway is less of a need- unless we think he's a center- but he fits perfectly with identity we are trying to create. He plays Blues hockey. Love to see us adding guys like this as we rebuild our roster. I suspect Oil will match him, regardless of whether they match Broberg, but he would be nice add at reasonable $ and low asset cost. Even if we just inflated his salary to help us get Broberg, this was nice piece of work.

 

[bleedblue1223]

So, actually looking at their roster, I think there's a decent chance we get both. Even if they LTIR Kane, they are going to struggle to round out a full roster and have any sort of wiggle room, and that's assuming Kane misses the entire season and not just a portion of it, but I'll assume he's done for the regular season. Now, they can make it work by matching Holloway and still rounding out the roster, but it's going to be with cheap guys.

And sure, they could just trade Ceci, but that's not going to be cheap and do they really want to further deplete their draft pick capital that will limit what they can do at the deadline?

Will be an interesting week to see what they try to do.

 

[Blueswin]

If you are team that has a player sign an offer sheet to go elsewhere, why would you want that player back? It seems like it could cause some animosity and dissension in the locker room.

remember Backes signed an offer sheet.

 

[BlueSeal]

A few additional thoughts:

Oilers likely want to match both these guys, but the cost to dump guy like Ceci or even Kulak is gonna be severe. everyone knows they are in sticky wicket and will make them pay. Would they give up 1st to dump one of them to keep Broberg? That doesn't strike me as bright idea, but I wouldn't rule it out.

After this year's draft I felt like we finally have several exciting young d prospects. I don't know that Broberg's upside is any better than Ralph or Fischer (although his floor is much higher at this point), and it's likely not as good as Lindstein or Jiricek. But none of those guys are close to being ready to be impact nhl d. We are looking at a minimum of 3 years, likely more, before any of those guys are ready to be quality top 4 d. Probably 4+ years for Fischer and Ralph, if they hit. A guy like Broberg can potentially play quality top 4 minutes as soon as this year (not saying he will be a stud, but better than the carcass of Suter or peru or POJ). And if we are right about him- and I have been advocating for Broberg since at least last year- he could be nice player for us for a decade. And if not, he at least provides a bridge to our kids.

Holloway is less of a need- unless we think he's a center- but he fits perfectly with identity we are trying to create. He plays Blues hockey. Love to see us adding guys like this as we rebuild our roster. I suspect Oil will match him, regardless of whether they match Broberg, but he would be nice add at reasonable $ and low asset cost. Even if we just inflated his salary to help us get Broberg, this was nice piece of work.

I don't get how the Oilers let themselves get so f-ked up on their salary cap. I just looked at it and was blown away. I don't see how they can do anything but drown.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I don't get how the Oilers let themselves get so f-ked up on their salary cap. I just looked at it and was blown away. I don't see how they can do anything but drown.

And they think Broberg and Holloway are pissing away their golden opportunity to win a Cup this coming season.

I think neither of them wants to be part of that organization. They know something that we don't.

 

[Shwabeal]

So, actually looking at their roster, I think there's a decent chance we get both. Even if they LTIR Kane, they are going to struggle to round out a full roster and have any sort of wiggle room, and that's assuming Kane misses the entire season and not just a portion of it, but I'll assume he's done for the regular season. Now, they can make it work by matching Holloway and still rounding out the roster, but it's going to be with cheap guys.

And sure, they could just trade Ceci, but that's not going to be cheap and do they really want to further deplete their draft pick capital that will limit what they can do at the deadline?

Will be an interesting week to see what they try to do.

Not only would trading Ceci not be cheap, but what do you really accomplish by trading him to make the room? You open the same hole that’s there if you just let Broberg go and get a 2nd from it, and a higher cap hit for the spot.

The only way I can see them not matching on Holloway is if they think they can comfortably be in a playoff spot without he and Broberg and the extra third nets them a rental that they think would have a similar rest of season impact.

 

[Spektre]

I love the move by Army, but I think the Oilers match both offers in the end. They won’t like it, and will have to do some cap space juggling, but they can’t let 2 recent 1st round picks who are NHL players walk for a 2nd and 3rd.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Not only would trading Ceci not be cheap, but what do you really accomplish by trading him to make the room? You open the same hole that’s there if you just let Broberg go and get a 2nd from it, and a higher cap hit for the spot.

The only way I can see them not matching on Holloway is if they think they can comfortably be in a playoff spot without he and Broberg and the extra third nets them a rental that they think would have a similar rest of season impact.

With Holloway, the tough part is, how do they handle losing Broberg? I think they can cheap out on forwards and be fine, but for defense, do they just go with what they have internally, or do they need to sign a free agent to fill what Broberg was going to bring? If so, how much will that cost?

I think it's still way more likely that they match Holloway, but it'll still be tight.

 

[Bobby Orrtuzzo]

I don't get how the Oilers let themselves get so f-ked up on their salary cap. I just looked at it and was blown away. I don't see how they can do anything but drown.

Darnell Nurse having blackmail on Ken Holland is what happened.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I love the move by Army, but I think the Oilers match both offers in the end. They won’t like it, and will have to do some cap space juggling, but they can’t let 2 recent 1st round picks who are NHL players walk for a 2nd and 3rd.

Even with putting Kane on LTIR, to match both they'd still have to trade Ceci and most likely not run a full 23 man roster. The real issue in this scenario is the following season when Draisaitl and Bouchard will go from a combined 12.4M to easily 20M+.

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

I don't get how the Oilers let themselves get so f-ked up on their salary cap. I just looked at it and was blown away. I don't see how they can do anything but drown.

They can't draft/develop players, if they let both guys walk, they'll be down to 6 players on their roster that were drafted by them.

They're also on the hook for $3.55mil in bonus overage this season, largely due to paying a $3.25mil performance bonus to Connor Brown only to get 12 points in 71 games.

Darnell Nurse having blackmail on Ken Holland is what happened.

Considering Cody Ceci was their #2 D in TOI the season prior to him signing that deal, so some of it had to be hazard pay.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Looking up the lines from when Holloway was in the minors this past season, he was playing C. If he's someone that just needed a bigger role and to play his natural position, it could be a massive get for the middle 6.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I'm wondering how Sunny's knee is healing.

 

[izzy]

holy hell lmao

 

[Reality Czech]

I gotta wonder if Steen was a factor in targeting Broberg considering the Swedish connection. Or at the very least St. Louis is a more attractive option for Swedes when they have a respected vet like Steener in the front office. You'd think he would be pretty familiar with Broberg or at least knows people who are.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

We probably prioritized Broberg. But we could not go one penny higher on Holloway, unless we wanted to give him $5M and pay a first. We only have one 2nd round pick to give up. Any salary between $2,290,457 - $4,580,917 would trigger a 2nd round piick which was committed to Broberg. I don't think Holloway is as much of a ploy to get Broberg as people make him out to be. If Broberg said F you, I'm not signing an offer sheet, we still make that deal with Holloway.

That’s kind of what I as getting at. I think Broberg has the higher cap hit of the two because that’s the one we wanted to make sure we got. But I think it’s absolutely reasonable to think we really do want both.

 

[Mike Liut]

Even with putting Kane on LTIR, to match both they'd still have to trade Ceci and most likely not run a full 23 man roster. The real issue in this scenario is the following season when Draisaitl and Bouchard will go from a combined 12.4M to easily 20M+.

And McDavid the following year. Good luck

 

[Eldon Reid]

Also another thing people aren't looking at is that this is the Oilers last year to compete (UNLESS they decide to pay all of their stars again) so they will be looking at trade picks again for players. This is great move by Army.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1823527804098773453

 

[Bluesguru]

So if we get both, roster looks like this?

Neighbours-Thomas-Schenn/Buch
Bolduc-Buch/Schenn-Kyrou
Saad-Holloway-Joseph/Texier
Texier/Joseph-Faksa-Toropchenko
Kapanen, Walker

Leddy-Parayko
Broberg/Suter-Faulk
Suter/Broberg-Kessel
Joseph


Krug to LTIR, Sunny to IR, and Dvorsky to Springfield..unless he outplays Bolduc in camp.

Not an All Star lineup but it's 4 lines deep and they're all quality players.
Defense looks much better with Krug out of the mix. I still think Sylvegard is going to make some noise and Dvorsky is going to make a push for this roster as well. Blues are deep!!

 

[ArenaRat]

Regardless of how this turns out for us, these offer sheets are basically a disaster for the Oil. These are their pretty much their only young skaters, and after developing them for years, they either lose one or both for minimal return right as they are on verge of becoming regulars, or they match and their cap gets even more messed up. Couldn't happen to a more deserving team.

And once the Oil complete their analysis of contracts, cap space, etc. they also have to consider the team chemistry ramifications of what it might take to keep one or both (the other players they have to deal or can't retain down the road, can't trade either of these guys for 2 years and clearly they both are ready to go elsewhere, what kind of ice time are they getting for the $ being invested).. I think in the end it becomes a higher cost to match than some may think.

 

[Reality Czech]

Also another thing people aren't looking at is that this is the Oilers last year to compete (UNLESS they decide to pay all of their stars again) so they will be looking at trade picks again for players. This is great move by Army.

I don't know that it's their last year to compete but it's certainly their best chance until they have to make some big decisions. As long as McD is on their team, they will be in the mix.

I see a lot of people trashing STL and attacking these players for leaving a contender for a rebuilding team, but Edmonton has historically been one of the least desirable places for players to play over the years. Being a contender probably takes some of that away, but it's generally not a place that players are thrilled to be due to weather, media/fan scrutiny, travel time, Canadian taxes, etc.

 

[bleedblue1223]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1823527804098773453

Broberg requested a trade around that time, so he wasn't going to sign anyway.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Friedman had a 32 Thoughts podcast with background on the offer sheets. It's worth a listen, safe to say Blues did their homework and were calculated on everything.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Oilers fans are some Bitter Folks