What are the Scenarios in which the Edmonton Oilers Can Keep Both Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg?
TSN: Edmonton Oilers Reporter Ryan Rishaug joined TSN SportsCentre with Sarah Davis to discuss the offer sheets by the St. Louis Blues to Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg and if the Oilers can keep both players.
** NHLRumors.com transcriptions
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Sarah Davis: “We’re joined now by our Oilers reporter Ryan Rishaug, and Ryan, Stan Bowman has been on the job for only a few weeks. Do you have a sense of how he and the Oilers may react here?”
Ryan Rishaug: “Yeah, you know, Sarah, it’s interesting. Sometimes, when we see these offer sheets, you’ll see the team right away come out and say, We’re matching. We’re keeping our players right. They kind of, they’re almost belligerent about it to make the point that you’re not hurting us. I don’t see the Edmonton Oilers doing that. In this case, they have seven days to make a decision. I think they’re going to use a lot of that time.
I think that, to a degree, they were caught off guard here. The fact that it’s both players from one team, both offers sheets happening at the same time probably caught him a little bit off guard. They’ve got some figuring to do here, so I don’t think they’re going to plant any flag here in the next day or two. They’re going to take the time that the CBA allows them.”
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Davis: “Take some time and figure out some potential scenarios or solutions. Is there a way for Edmonton to keep both players?”
Rishaug: “Yes, but it’s not comfortable. As I reported today, the most likely path for Evander Kane here is that he’s headed towards surgery, and it will be months before he would be available to the Oilers so they could start the season with him on LTIR, which gives him just over $5 million in cap space that accounts for a portion of the Holloway and Broberg new contracts, they’re left with about $2.1 million bucks, give or take, that they’re going to have to try and maneuver around to try and create the space that they need.
There’s a few ways to do it. You start the season short-handed, and you take two or three players and start them in the American Hockey League. Basically, they’d be 11 and six. That’s not an ideal pathway. You don’t want to start short-handed like that. I think that’s the less likely option.
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The other is a trade. The Oilers have some depth on defense. They have the ability to make some moves. Cody Ceci and Brett Kulak, I can see the deal potentially involving one of those two. Kulak might make more sense, just given the fact that he shoots left and Philip Broberg is ready to be certainly a third-pairing left-shot defenseman on this team.
I think the trade is the most likely scenario. I think they’re going to explore it. But yes, there is a pathway to keeping both guys.”