This was not the way that Edmonton Oilers fans wanted to start the day. The St. Louis Blues submitted two offer sheets today, one for forward Dylan Holloway and another for defenceman Philip Broberg. With the Oilers in a tight cap situation and banking on signing both to team-friendly deals, the news of an offer sheet puts the team in a very precarious situation. They either have to match, and make more moves to get out of cap-hell, or lose one or both players along with significant depth.
What the Oilers do next is going to be very telling. Here is what the next steps look like:
Do the Oilers match the St. Louis Blues’ offer sheets?
The Oilers now have seven days to either match the offer sheet or to let one or both players walk. These are two separate offer sheets, so they can sign neither, one, or both independently. They have until August 20 to make that call.
Holloway’s offer sheet is a two-year deal with an AAV of $2.29 million, while Broberg’s comes in at $4.58 million for the same term.
If the Oilers elect not to sign either player, they do get a compensatory pick from the team. If they do not sign Holloway, the Oilers will get the Blues’ third-round pick, and if they do not keep Broberg, they get the Blues’ second-round pick.
St. Louis reacquired their own second-round pick and a 2026 fifth-rounder from the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier today in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick and a 2025 third-round selection. They had previously traded that pick and Kevin Hayes to Pittsburgh for future considerations.
If the Oilers do elect to keep either player, that player is then locked in with the team for a year from this point. The Oilers cannot sign them and then flip them to other teams to try and free up cap space, which would restrict what the team can do to try and get below the salary cap for opening night.
How do these offer sheets work with the salary cap?
Can the Oilers match both offer sheets technically? Yes, they actually can. The team’s current cap hit, assuming 12 forwards, six defencemen, and two goalies right now is $83.81 million, putting them under by just a couple hundred thousand dollars. This assumes that Josh Brown starts the season in the AHL.
It is worth noting that this cap structure is bare-bones. This assumes non-healthy scratches and not carrying a seventh defenceman, or otherwise.
If they do sign both players, the team will be at just over $94 million dollars (again assuming Brown is sent down), just over $6 million over the salary cap. Teams are allowed to be up to 10% over the cap during the offseason ($8.8 million this year) but need to get back down to the cap prior to opening night.
This is where the math starts to get tough. If the Oilers put Evander Kane on LTIR and bury his entire $5.125 million contract, they would still be over the cap by around a million dollars. They would need to make at least one more move to get under the cap.
The one that makes a lot of sense would be to waive Corey Perry, but given his age and experience, it seems unlikely that the Oilers would make that move. The team clearly liked him enough to want him back for one more season, and the expectation upon signing him was definitely to keep him with the big club. Moving him down to the AHL was definitely not part of the plans.
If this isn’t the move they make, it will likely require the team to make a trade. This is clearly not ideal, as the entire league knows the Oilers are over the cap and the trade terms will likely be far from favourable. However, if the Oilers feel that Broberg is a star blueliner, moving someone like Brett Kulak or Cody Ceci could be an option that makes sense. Ceci in particular would give the team a good amount of flexibility and plays the same side as the Swede. However, his $3.25 million contract is going to prove tough to move.
What will the Oilers do?
The Oilers have a lot of tough decisions to make here. Both Holloway and Broberg showed themselves to be NHLers in last year’s playoffs. Losing Holloway means losing much-needed forward depth in the lineup, while losing Borberg means losing the team’s best defensive prospect in the system. However, are the cap gymnastics needed to keep one or both of them worth it to keep them in Edmonton? This is the question Bowman will need to answer.
No matter what happens, this is the first pivotal decision that the new GM will need to make. How he handles this play will be a defining moment in his term in charge of the Oilers.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
