Yes after several years of having Toronto with the best odds of winning the Vegas bookies have replaced them with Edmonton this year. Vegas odds are about making money not about who is most likely to win.
Confirmed Signing with Link: [STL] F Dylan Holloway (2 years, $2.290457M AAV) and D Philip Broberg (2 years, $4.580917M AAV) sign offer sheets with the Blues (not matched)
- Thread starter Seachd
- Start date
- Status
I wonder if Stan Bowman's presence will make it more difficult for the Oilers to find a trade partner that would offer reasonable prices. I think the Oilers will have some challenges at TDL. There might be the Bowman tax. He's persona non grata amongst GMs.
Reality Czech
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2017
- 5,884
- 9,509
Not really sure of your angle here, but anyone that doesn't consider Edmonton to be a solid Cup contender is clueless. People can argue whether they're a top 3, top 5 team or whatever but they are clearly one of the top contenders with or without these two guys.
Reality Czech
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2017
- 5,884
- 9,509
My bad, I got you mixed up with the Panthers fan that's downplaying them on the last few pages.
At the end of the day, the Oilers added two top 6 forwards and lost two players who played mainly in AHL last season (50 NHL games between the two of them). Yet, somehow, according to neutral (i.e. Flames, Leafs and Nucks) fans, the sky must be falling.
I think the problem is the Oilers are weaker on D than last year. The key hole in their lineup was always D (and potentially goaltending). Neither were addressed and now the Blues threw a spanner in the works.
Almost every Oiler fan had Holloway pencilled into the top 9 this year and Broberg in the top 4 when the playoffs ended.
It’s disingenuous to now say they weren’t important pieces this upcoming year and going forward.
Are they still a strong offensive team with the additions of Skinner and Arvidsson even with Kane, one of their top players, being a big question mark? Absolutely.
Does the D look worse if Broberg goes? For sure.
And goaltending remains a question mark.
Like all of the contenders they have some pretty big holes imo.
Holloway did not improve their D, and Broberg is still a project which maybe in couple more years can become a top 4 D-man. But neither would probably help their D this coming season.
As for trade, to upgrade the D I think that 1st rounders will be the key. Both Broberg and Holloway would had been good trade pieces, but not the central pieces in any trade.
At the end of the day, Broberg played about 100 NHL games, and people suddenly think he will be awesome based on his last few games.... Holloway had a career high 9 points (OK, I'll concede, he was on pace for a whole 19 points over 82 games). Don't get me wrong, I liked both guys, but it seems like the moment they signed the offer sheet they went from Busts/Meh players to guaranteed stars....
If Oiler fans are honest with themselves, they were comfortable with their suspect D-corps because they held hope that Broberg would progress / improve into a bonafide top-4 role at an extremely low caphit. Now that the Blues blew that up and its obvious that the Oilers will not match, Broberg is now a useless bottom pairing Dman who has no impact on the Oiler's D. All of a sudden, Ceci is a bonafide top-4 dman that should net value in a trade....
I love Hfboards! lol
Well the good news is that if the Oilers match either player they will suddenly go from AHL players to key pieces again who will be worth their salaries.
McD, Drai, Hyman, RHN, Kane, Henrique, Skinner and Arviddson are much better than Holloway.
Selling Holloway as a top 9 player in this case is a stretch, especially when Brown can do the same thing Holloway does. Besides the 9th player in top 9 will probably be decided by the opponent.
And yes, I am aware that Kane will probably miss some games (not as many as Holloway usually does), but Holloway is NOT a replacement for him.
As for Broberg, "almost every Oilers fan" probably means 2-3 excided fans, right? Most of us know that 2-3 good games do not make a player a star.
The best case scenario was indeed that Broberg would step up and become the #4 D-man on the team next season, but the realistic expectation was that he would be a #5-#7 D-man next season, and that he maybe still grows. Combine that with that fact that the only oppening in top 4 is on the side he is (much)weaker, and you'll see why not "almost all Oiler fans" had that oppinion, just very few vocal ones.
It is possible that the Oilers indeed lose a top 9 forward and a top 4 D-man for nothing, I'll give you that... But it is also possible (and probably more likely) that they lose 2 players which would had have no true impact this coming season... And I actually expect them to match one of the offers.
Of course they will match one of the offers. It would be beyond embarrassing for a brand new GM to lose their top two prospects for a second and a third round pick. My bet is that they will elect to overpay Holloway and trade more players to fit him.
Management got caught napping on their top two prospects and now they need to salvage what they can. As I said almost every fan and management as well saw these guys as key pieces moving forward. Now in typical HF fashion, a few are trying to argue that they are both AHL players and losing them is not a big deal. There’s no way to try to spin this as a positive or minor thing no matter how much a few fans try to twist themselves into pretzels to do so.
Last edited:
So you think that somehow the Oilers fans were confortable with expecting that Broberg progresses from an AHL player one season to solid top 4 player the next.
Most of us know that neither Broberg nor Ceci are top 4 players. And just because we have Ceci on our team does not make Broberg a top 4 player... He could become one, but it is very rare to go from ending the season in AHL to starting the next season in top 4.
The reason the Blues made this offer is not because the penciled Broberg in top 4. It is because this offer gives them 2 years to see how he develops, and they know that the Oilers cannot do the same at that salary.
Just becasue couple of Oilers fans may have said something stupid does not mean that "almost all fans thought" the same (or the even more stupid exageration you posted).
Yes, that was the prevailing opinion / hope of Oiler fans. An opinion that suddenly changed after the Blues pissed in their cornflakes.
Moving forward they would had been good cheap pieces in long run, when we need to re-sign the big three. But saying that most fans saw them as critical pieces next season is a bit stupid.
sting101
Registered User
- Feb 8, 2012
- 16,838
- 16,164
I don't think player evaluations of what they are changed that much it's more of if STL thinks they are worth the deals some are questioning the upside.
The biggest change is both players should have been cheap depth with youth/health/speed and upside and now they essentially have to be looked at as UFAs.
If you aren't willing to add Broberg at 4.5m with Ekholm Kulak and Nurse on the left side which forces him to the right side and huge raises for Draisaitl and Bouchard next off season then you have to move on.
Holloway should be an easy re sign and more important than some of the fossils they signed this off season. They are perilously close to putting everything onto McDavid and Draisaitl (yes even more so) with players who are getting too old to do much heavy lifting.
Not that Holloway has proven much from a production and consistency standpoint at the NHL level but he has looked like he's ready to and they just walked away from and traded Foegele and McLoed who are fantastic skaters. I would think this has to be a big consideration for retaining Holloway
I fixed that for you.... And you also have to realize that hoping something is very very different than saying it will happen.
Before the Blues made the offers I was hoping that Broberg would become a top 4 player next season, but I was expecting that to be unlikely and him to be the #6 or #7 D-man. Same with Holloway, I was hoping that he will crack the top 9 but expecting that he will be in the bottom 3.
Exactly how every season I am hoping that our best 2-4 prospects step up and crack the team, but know that likely will be one or even none.
Same way as the fans of every team hope that their team wins the cup this season, but most fans are reasonable and know that the chances are not great, even for very good teams.
None of the hopes above have anything to do with oppinions.
All Oiler fans lamented the Nurse-Ceci pairing and expressed hope to Broberg occupying the role based on his recent performance in the playoffs.
As such, most Oiler fans hoped this outcome would continue given the cheap cost of Broberg. And if it didn't work out, then upgrading at TDL was the fallback plan.
Now that the Blues changed all of this, Broberg has become public enemy#1. Many Oiler fans no longer see the potential in Broberg and claim he's always been a crap bottom pairing dman who's also ugly and smells.
The bolded is exactly why the offer sheets really hurt the Oilers, especially in long run.
As for the rest, I was answering to a post that this hurt the Oilers saying that almost every Oiler fan penciled Broberg in top 4 and Holloway in top 9 next season... And I doubt that next season Holloway will be better than the 32 years old fosil Skinner. In long run, we will miss him, indeed, if we let him go.
Reality Czech
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2017
- 5,884
- 9,509
The problem with pencil is that it can be erased! If Oilers management truly saw them as key pieces this year, then it's a massive failure not to resolve the situation with both players sooner. Sounds like people behind the scenes aren't surprised by the offer sheets at all and if the Blues hadn't done it, some other team would have. Oilers management sure did drop the ball and now let's see how they can salvage the situation. It's certainly one of the more intruiging NHL storylines in quite some time.
To be fair though this isn’t just an Oiler fan thing, it’s a HF thing. After the playoffs these guys were seen as key cheap players this year with Holloway slotting into the third line and Broberg into the top 4. If the Oilers match either or both they will go back to being key players again.
Last edited:
PocketNines
Cutter's Way
just like Lauren Pronger after the last game 7 loss. she wanted out too
Kevin Hayes had a 7.1 million dollar caphit for a other 2 years. How do you figure Ceci is the same price?
If I had a nickel for everytime someone on HF has said this about a player and then been wrong, I'd have more money than Broberg and Holloway.
- Status
Ad
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
HOH Top 60 Goaltenders of All Time (2024 Edition) - Round 2, Vote 6- Latest: Dr John Carlson
-
