Congrats to St. Louis if one of those two contracts works out but I would rather the Oilers have options at the deadline then risk paying unproven Broberg and Holloway 6.7 million a season based on what they have done.
To be fair maybe Broberg could have been given more opportunity on the Oilers but whenever he did play previously he never really added anything to the lineup. He was not showing much ability to excel in any particular area, he appeared very average in most aspects of the game. Even the brilliant minds on here claimed for years that it was a bad draft pick and he was a bust, likely the same people now claiming St. Louis is brilliant. He finally showed a spark and some energy in his game during the playoffs, that was actually the first time he made a push and earned more ice time based on his performance. By that point unfortunately for the Oilers it was too late and Broberg and his agent had no incentive to sign a contract extension without waiting first to see what opportunities existed and luckily for him there was a team willing to make a risky contract offer. If it works out it is good for St. Louis but no Cup contender is handing out 6.7 million to guys who played a combined 50 games and had 11 points, that would be moronic. It is also too early to come to any conclusions. Hollloway only has 1 point in 5 games so far, so is that now considered an awful contract? No, It's way to early to judge.
The Oilers in a perfect world need a right shot d-man that is better defensively and maybe a little more physical then what Broberg offers so we will see what they end up acquiring this season. If Broberg had showed a bit more earlier on in the opportunities he did get, the Oilers would have been more aggressive in resigning him in the first place and maybe the Oilers could have handled him differently, same with Holloway. No grudge against those players for taking the offers, but I also don't blame the Oilers for not matching.
