This past summer was a forgettable one for the Oilers, with the loss of Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway on offer sheets to the St. Louis Blues. In this move, the Oilers lost two young players, and particularly two players who would have been major depth pieces and would have fit in well under the tight salary cap.
However, this somehow could have been worse for the Oilers. Reportedly, the Blues were one of three teams interested in making this move, and it has just come out that the Calgary Flames were one of the other teams.
On the debut episode of The Sheet, Jeff Marek broke the news, noting that this would have been a continuation of some of the nastiness that has existed between the two franchises over the last four decades of the two teams’ histories. While it is a different level of battle from the “days of Dave Semenko and Marty McSorely and Don Jackson and Tim Hunter and Jim Peplinski and everybody else going at it on the ice”, it would have put a new twist on one of the best rivalries in the game.
This news does beg the question, would the Oilers have tried harder to match the offer sheet knowing that it was Calgary who was making the deal? And had they matched it, what would the Oilers have done to do so. There was no really easy way to make this happen, and would have required the team to make some hard choices this summer, but given it was the Flames on the other side, they may have done it.
All’s well that ends well
Marek also noted that it was always going to be the two players moving as one unit. They were being offer sheeted together as one. And both have done quite well in St. Louis, with Holloway on a half-point-per-game pace and Broberg starting off hot before going down with a knee injury. He has since returned and is playing well over 20 minutes a night for the Blues.
However in retrospect, the Oilers’ moves are paying dividends this year. Vasily Podkolzin did take a while to get up to speed, but is up to eight points in 24 games and is on a three-game scoring streak. He is also playing really well in the Oiler’s top six right now.
While his numbers are never going to jump off the page, the Oilers have to be impressed with how Ty Emberson is developing. He may just have two points on the year, but is logging 17 minutes a game in a top-four role. The Oilers have had a stronger defensive system than their record has given them credit for, and he has been a big reason as to why.
The Oilers also got a second and a third round pick for this transaction, which we will only see play out this season. This fills in for the second and third the Oilers traded away as part of the Zack Kassian dump and Emberson acquisition.
Honestly, were it the Flames who acquired the two players, it would have hurt a lot more, but given the acquisition of Podkolzin and Emberson, and given how the Oilers are playing of late, it almost feels like the Oilers came out of this far less badly than expected at the time.
