The issue is not losing the players. It's that this was a self-induced situation that led them into inflationary market pricing on two young NHL players than exceeded their spent budget and risk threshold. They allegedly walked from a last deadline deal with these players for a retained Buchnevich.
Getting off the overpay cycle is a critical need for a team that's tendency and reality to buy high. Failing to see danger and lose cheap value young talent is a massive issue that was avoidable.
I don’t disagree but I think it’s hard to make a fair assessment without all the facts, we don’t know how willing either side was to negotiate extensions in season. It takes two to tango and at that point both players performances didn’t give them much to negotiate on and it wasn’t going to get worse waiting until the offseason but it could get better.
Let me ask you a couple questions. If you were the Oilers GM, knowing that their is a ton of uncertainty surrounding your cap situation and not even knowing at that point what the upper limit is going to be, between January and April, would you of signed Broberg to a 1.8M cap hit and Holloway to a 1.2M?
And second question if you were either of these players agent and the playoffs just ended and you are just over a week from free agency and you know Armstrong has alluded to using offer sheets and you look at the Oilers cap situation, would you advise your client to take a 1.2 or 1.8 offer at that point or would you tell them to hold off and see if any gm’s reach out on July 1?
I don’t think Broberg ever had the intention of signing before seeing if he could force his way out via offer sheet. But in hindsight I think management screwed up by not getting Holloway done in season. Maybe 1.2M is more than he’s worth at that point and you’re trying to watch every dollar but if you get him signed then it doesn’t leave you as exposed.
Overall, it sucks losing good prospects that you’ve put time into but it’s not a complete loss. They also managed to pick up a top 10 pick who was drafted a year before Holloway and has actually shown more at the NHL level and also added another recent top 10 pick who looks near ready and still has 3 years of elc.
Also, I really like the addition of Emberson. I put a lot of stock into Bruce Curlocks opinion and while I think overall Brobergs potential upside is more attractive I think Emberson is a better fit, both in position and style, for the teams needs right now.
