TSN: Ryan Risaug on why the Edmonton Oilers decided not to match the offer sheets for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, and the challenge ahead.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“No question, this is a tough blow for the Edmonton Oilers organization, as they do not match the offer sheets on Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, making two of the organization’s top young talents now members of the St Louis Blues.
Just to put it into perspective. Broberg stepped in during the Stanley Cup Final and gave the Oilers the best minutes of his NHL career, and looked to be heading heavily on an upward trajectory. He was scheduled to be likely a third-pairing defenseman this season who would push for second-pairing minutes.
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Dylan Holloway bowled his way through the order lineup at playoff time and was one of their more reliable forwards, effort, and intensity-wise, during the playoffs this year, he was a third-line player who was likely pushing for second-line minutes this upcoming season, so two very good young players that the Oilers are now without.
So why did this happen? Why did the Oilers choose not to match? Well in order to match it, would have put them in cap hell basically, and they would have severely limited their flexibility heading into this season.
Would have put them in a position where, when Evander Kane was ready to come back into the lineup, they would have had to move mountains and massive amounts of money and any trades they tried to do at that point in the season, they would have been dealing from a severe position of weakness. This would have really handcuffed them to match on both players. Even matching on one could have put them in a similar situation.
So Stan Bowman electing to bring in a couple of players that can compete for similar minutes in the lineup in the trades that he made. And he also cleared up additional cap space with the move of Cody Ceci, which the Oilers had to do this summer and maintain flexibility heading into this season.
Bottom line, the Oiler blue line is not as good as it was in the postseason. And it’s now up to Stan Bowman to figure out a way to piecemeal it together to allow this team to be one of the better teams in the NHL and certainly one of the best teams in the conference, which is where the bar now sits.
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So can he put a blue line together that can maintain that level to get them through to the trade deadline, where potentially they will have accumulated some cap space, and can make a move to try and put them over the top? It’s a step back on the blue line. No question. That is his challenge heading into the regular season.”
