As we all know, NHL teams have to be cap complaint by the conclusion of training camp. As it sits today,puckpedia lists the Edmonton Oilers as being more than $7.2 M over the salary cap ceiling. This includes the contracts of Evander Kane, Philip Broberg, and Dylan Holloway for the 2024-25 season. Evander Kane is dealing with injury issues and may require surgery. Furthermore, making waves yesterday in the NHL newsreel, was Broberg and Holloway being each given an offer sheet by the St. Louis Blues. This no doubt turns up the heat on Bowman’s decision-making for the remainder of the summer until it is addressed.
The Impact of Each of Holloway and Broberg Being Given an Offer Sheet
The Edmonton Oilers were at a point that they knew money was going to be tight. Since the conclusion of the 2024 Stanley Cup final, the Oilers management, mostly led by CEO Jeff Jackson, had been active signing players. New additions such as Josh Brown, Connor Carrick, Jeff Skinner, and Viktor Arvidsson had all been brought in to round out the roster. Conversely, these moves also maxed out the club’s available cap space. Fast forward to yesterday, and St. Louis Blues general manager, Doug Armstrong, really turned up the proverbial heat on fellow GM Bowman. Armstrong sent offer sheets to both Holloway and Broberg. As a note from above, the amount the Oilers are over the cap now currently includes those deals. The Oilers have seven days from the time the offer sheets were signed in order to match.
Looking at the Significance of Sending Holloway and Broberg an Offer Sheet
Offer sheets have been uncommon, but every couple of years or so, we seem to hear of one. In fact, these two are only the 11th and 12th ever to be tendered. Furthermore, of those ten previously sent, only two of those went unmatched (Dustin Penner and Jesperi Kotkaniemi). This really is the ultimate game of cat and mouse between two rival, Western Conference general managers. It was a shrewd move by Armstrong, who is desperately trying to retool, rather than succumb to rigors of a rebuild. Regardless, the pressure shifts to Oilers GM Bowman as to whether he matches those offer sheets or not. So, just what does that leave for options for the Oilers?
Frank Seravalli was on sportsnet, and he provided the general consensus after chatting with GMs around the league. Seravalli suggests, what may seem obvious, the Oilers would sign one but not both. The main reason is not personnel related, but more so dependent on their salary cap constraints. Therefore, from a monetary standpoint, it seems like Holloway is the obvious choice for the Oilers to match his offer sheet. Holloway’s carries an average annual value of $2,290,457, whereas Broberg’s is $4,580,917. Both offer sheets were for two-year terms.
Who to Match and Who to Unmatch
Another way to look at it is the compensation factor. If the Blues end up with Broberg, the Oilers only receive a second-round pick. Moreover, if the offer had been for a single dollar more, it would have bumped the compensation up a tier. The Oilers would have potentially received a first and third-round selection in that case. Holloway’s compensation would only be a third-rounder. Based on the low compensation, that would not be a deciding factor in Bowman’s decision to match the offer sheets. However, the deciding factor could be in terms of the two players’ output.
Yes, Broberg played terrific when he finally got into the Oilers lineup in the playoffs. Also, the Oilers need top-four defencemen, which Broberg does potentially project to be within a year or two. This was further exacerbated by the Oilers losing Vincent Desharnais in free agency to the Canucks already. In contrast, at the end of the day, does it make sense to pay some $9+ M over the next two seasons with 81 games of NHL regular season experience? A team that is fighting for Stanley Cup contention, needs to be extremely savvy with their money. It just doesn’t seem to be the right economics for the Oilers. After all, the Oilers still have current top-four roster options with the likes of Darnell Nurse, Cody Ceci, and Brett Kulak.
Aside from Broberg, even matching Holloway’s offer sheet will mean the Oilers are tight on funds. However, that was the type of deal that management knew they would need to make still. Therefore, somehow coming up with the $2.3 M seems to be more achievable. And that brings us to how they can get it done and the dependency on the Evander Kane issue.
What Are the Other Factors in Play
Earlier this week, Oilers beat-writer Bob Stauffer was proposing the Oilers options on what to do with Evander Kane. It seems he requires surgery to deal with a nagging hip issue, not to mention the well-documented frustration Kane has expressed over his sports hernia injury. In any sense, Kane needs to be healthy to be an effective performer for the Oilers. As we seen in the 2024 final run, not having him healthy, made him ineffective. The best thing for player and team, is to have him healthy for 2025 playoff run. Whether surgery, although given the nature of hip injuries, it might be getting late in the game for that option, or rehab, whichever is the best shot at him being healthy by next spring, Bowman, Kane, and all the interested parties, need to decide, and now.
Hearing there is a very good chance that the @EdmontonOilers Evander Kane won't be ready for the start of the season…that he may require surgery…and is likely to be on LTIR to start the year
— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) August 12, 2024
What does appear inevitable is Kane won’t be available in October. Therefore, the Oilers will have long-term injury reserve cap relief to spend. Kane currently makes $5.125 M, which potentially could be allocated to Holloway’s portion and still have some breathing room. However, that doesn’t help with the necessary funds required for Broberg’s deal. Even though time is of importance on what to do with each offer sheet that had been sent to Holloway and Broberg, Bowman isn’t really under a huge time crunch. Signing both of them, still gives him a solid month and a half, and more importantly a full training camp, to make hard personnel decisions. If Oilers coaching and management staffs believe in Broberg, perhaps trading a veteran blueliner like Ceci or Kulak needs to be explored.
What Will the Oilers Ultimately Do?
In the end, given the makeup of the Oilers roster, it just doesn’t seem realistic to match the Broberg offer sheet. However, given his size, speed, and potential for scoring touch, Holloway is a great up-and-comer piece for the Oilers roster. Moreover, having Kane as close to 100% health for the 2025 playoffs in of utmost importance to the Oilers roster. These seem to be the decisions that best help the team succeed, without causing too much of a ripple effect throughout the roster.
Main photo: Chris Jones-USA TODAY Sports
