Replace them with what UFA's that are cheap? There is nobody left
In a cup or bust year we can't afford to lose both.
Confirmed with Link: Oilers Do Not Match Broberg ($4.58M X2) & Holloway ($2.29M x 2) Offer Sheets | Oilers acquire STL 3rd '28 & Paul Fischer for Futures
- Thread starter Myride
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In a cup or bust year we can't afford to lose both.
barry halls
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Bye Broberg. Let St Louis take this risk and watch them end up regretting it. 10 good games doesn’t make a 4mil player, we’ve seen guys like Davidson, Niemo, Bear (and the list goes on) look like studs for 10 games.
I live and grew up in Edmonton. I can understand when pro athletes don't want to live here. Just not many things to do around here. I get bored here and sometimes think I could be living somewhere more exotic.
One of the more interesting aspect of this chart you did not highlight is when playing with a RHD, his numbers look quite good. When playing with a LHD (either him or the other player on their off hand, mostly Broberg from what I remember), the numbers are significantly worse.
This tells me you really need to look at playing him on the left hand side, his natural side. Small sample size though.
Broberg can skate and is much more poised than those guys. I definitely could see us regretting not matching as 4.6M is a fair price for a 2nd pairing D
Mr Positive
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That is a myth. Most young players do not force themselves into a top position. At some point there has to be a little bit of faith by the organization, and they have take a risk and create a spot for a player that is not earned. This is very much what happened with Bouchard. He did not earn anything other than bottom pairing minutes, and made a lot of errors. We liked his skill set though, and traded Barrie for Ekholm, which even put our historic PP at some risk as Barrie was a part of it. (And we know from the past that just because we have McDrai and some good wingers does not guarantee a great PP at all).
But I get it. We were more motivated to give Bouchard a spot because we have been so weak on the right side. Broberg wants out because we have Nurse and Ekholm on the left so there is no path for him to reach his potential. Except, how much longer can Ekholm play at his high level? In a few years, once Ekholm falls off and Broberg is in his prime, there will be no shortage of posters here wondering why we could not have traded off Ceci or whoever to make room for a young promising defenseman.
I agree with Bouchard. I never really felt he earned his spot. We traded Barrie who was excellent on the PP and at times I felt he and McDavid were the 2 main points on our PP. Sometimes we just gotta give the spot for the young kids and see what can do with it.
Broberg is more likely the upgrade on Nurse. With the way Nurse is trending, he's going to be playing bottom pairing or asking for a trade in the future. And this is where I think we will regret not matching Broberg
Broberg Speed
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Absolutely, and I 100% agree with this take. I actually think he would be a decent LHD on the 2nd pairing. We do not have that available to him here however. With Ek and Nurse taking up those two spots, that leaves Kulak. Problem being that he signed off on a contract for 4.6x2. That negates any idea of trading Kulak to have him play 3rd pairing LHD, as it's too much cash and not worth it for the position. 1.8 I would have been very happy with and would have happily moved Kulak out to accommodate Broby.
brentashton
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KeithIsActuallyBad
You thrust your pelvis, huh!
Broberg can complain all he wants. He played horrible last season in the regular season. He played decently in the playoffs.
Should have drafted Zegras. That Tyler Wright is a terrible hockey scout. Woof.
Faelko
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It’s not really great with him either, still have a gaping hole at 2RD.
russ99
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You're assuming things. Broberg was sidetracked, plain and simple. Both by Woodcroft last year and this year, being called up and not playing.
Broberg's agent requested the trade because he was at the NHL level in the pressbox and not playing. There was never any mention of not wanting to play here, he just wanted to play at the NHL level.
Did we hear of any posturing of the like when he was qualified for RFA status, as we got with Puljujarvi's agent?
Plain and simple, he saw the writing on the wall with the lowball offer, and a possible league day one Bakersfield assignment (if on paper only) to get under the cap and signed the offer sheet to:
A) Get the salary he wants, and then some due to St. Louis making the offer painful enough to consider not matching.
B) Ensure he's going to be on an NHL game day roster.
Labeling him as a malcontent and want-away with zero actual evidence is counter-productive.
May rub some traditionalists wrong, but I applaud the kid taking his career in his own hands, and stopping the Edmonton to Bakersfield bus.
brentashton
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Yes. Ekholm, Bouchard, Kulak and Stecher in a 4 pairing are all scrubs.
I feel like we can upgrade the 2RD at the deadline with Kulak going the other way and whatever we get from trading Ceci and the St. Louis pick
KeithIsActuallyBad
You thrust your pelvis, huh!
But it's worse without him.
You can't afford to pay him that. You better be damn sure you get something good with that pick. It going untraded would be an absolute waste.
Stecher does not belong in the same conversation as those others, considering he played all of seven games last year, none in the playoffs. He's a 7th D.
First the Oilers offered him what is commonplace with RFA’s who have no arbitration rights. Had they offered him 1.8M (the apparent Broberg ask) the usual suspects on the forum and on X would be losing their collective minds as they always do.
Second Friedman reported Broberg did not want to re-sign in Edmonton even after the playoffs and once he became an RFA July 1 his agent approached other teams about an offer sheet.
Third I agree the Oilers botched his development and have stated reasons why several times. I am not surprised he was not happy here.
Finally I don’t begrudge him signing an offer sheet 250% more than his ask from the Oilers. He’s young and the money might never be as good. He’s putting tremendous pressure on himself to perform to the contract and thus priced himself out of Edmonton.
I'm failing to see how he was jerked around so much.
This is a team heavily in contention stage and has been for a while, they have had 3 lefties in Ekholm, Nurse and Kulak all of whom were/are properly slotted into those spots the last 2 years so it's either play on his off side (which he was apparently unhappy doing) or develop in the minors until room was created on the left side and the best he could reasonably hope for in the next few years at least was bottom pairing if Kulak was shipped out and would he have been happy playing bottom pairing for a few years? History with this player being unhappy as is indicates that he probably preferred a bigger role.
His main path to the top 4 was 2nd pair right side alongside Nurse and apparently he's unhappy on the right side so this seems like more of a Broberg issue than an Oilers issue.
I actually think they properly developed this Dman, unlike with most in the past, by taking the slow development path allowing his game to blossom in the minors for a few years before being really ready for the show and it looked to start paying dividends in the playoffs even though the analytics weren't favorable. I'm not sure how this is the Oilers fault for "jerking him around".
Funny that so many posters complained in the past about the Oilers rushing Dmen and now when they take a slower development path by not rushing them, the player is being jerked around.
It's too bad that it's come to this because the Oilers upside is really hampered without that Broberg potential on their D core, not to mention that they're losing much needed speed, puck handling ability from the blueline and youth. This will be a loss more in the longer term but also in the short term.
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barry halls
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For sure, not matching could end up being a mistake. But I think the key here is risk management when you're a team that's up against the cap and trying to contend. If the Oilers match there's also a chance that next summer we could be looking at him as a waste of cap that gets in the way of negotiations with Bouch. There is risk involved with either decision but I think making the choice that saves cap space is the wisest choice in a cup contention window.
He's been in development for 5 years and based on traditional Dman. That's exactly how long it takes them before the make an impact. He's been slow cooked the right way with minor bumps here and there.
