Connor Browns 3 mill isn’t why we might not have them. St Louis thinking they are worth a combined 7 mill is. Together they are only worth 3mill MAYBE 4. Which the team literally had 2 different solutions for.
We can keep Broberg by running a slightly smaller roster and movie Ceci.
St Louis has the room to fit both these contracts under the cap this year with no issues. It may be an overpay, but to them it is an overpay (in cash) for 2 assets, and in reality, I am in the camp of they will take both, but really want Broberg. Make it hard for the Oilers to match and if we end up with both we can deal with any cap issues next year with the cap going up.
St Louis is getting to developed or semi developed 1st round picks for a 2nd and 3rd round pick that may or may not ever play. I don't want to say the cap hits are completely irrelevant to them, but for this year it doesn't matter. If Jackson traded Holloway for a 3rd round pick in the summer this board would have exploded, Or even Broberg for a second.
The reason that offer sheets are so rare, is they are almost always matched, or the compensation you have to give is too much. Both of these players got overpay contracts to make it harder for the Oilers to match, but also still keeping them in the lower tier compensation. The Blues know the Oilers are up against the cap and with 3 major extensions due in the next 2 years most of the cap escalation is going to be eaten up with those, making it really hard for the Oilers to match both of these. If one or both of these players were in Superstar status where the compensation would be in the multiple picks including a 1st round or even multiple first rounds I don't think either would have happened. It is possible for Broberg to be a top pairing D man in a few years, The Oilers didn't give him a chance until the playoffs, but he played well so I think there is a possiblity. I think Holloway tops out at a middle 6 winger, most likely 3rd line winger, which is pretty replaceable.
There is 0 point in putting an offer sheet in for a team friendly contract, as there is no chance it doesn't get matched, another reason these are 2-year deals, I think if Broberg was 4.5 x4 it would be a no brainer to match it.