Having some time to process this, I think JJ/Bowman made the best out of an impossibly bad situation assuming now that they let Holloway go to get the 3rd that they lost in this trade and match Broberg.
They got a halfway decent replacement for Holloway with a similarly young player with some upside for less than half the price over the next 2 seasons.
They trade Ceci only having to give up a 3rd but also get an NHL Dman back in return to soften the blow of losing Ceci on the right side, a right shooting Dman no less and young as well almost as young as Broberg. That's a nice piece of business if you ask me and not what I was expecting.
They will likely match the Broberg offersheet so while that could create some real cap complications, it maintains that critical long term potential and extends their competitive window beyond the next few years. It's a bold move because if Broberg regresses, that's a significant contract taking up space but he seems to be on a nice trajectory to my eye even though the analytics weren't overly kind to him in the finals.
I don't know, I think JJ/Bowman made the best out of a bad situation and deserve credit for getting creative and they actually made the team younger in the process somehow which was important, assuming that they match Broberg.
I think Holland would have just let the two walk, I don't think he had this level of creativity although it can be argued that the offer sheets never would have happened if he was still here.
Regardless, I'm in a much better mood about this now than just this time yesterday. The Oilers are never uninteresting, I'll say that much.
Also, I think Ceci took too much shit around here. He wasn't the ideal top 4 guy but he was a soldier for the Oilers and I thought he performed quite well in the finals in a lesser role.
