Can the Edmonton Oilers Survive Losing Both Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg?

Who is the Bigger Loss: Dylan Holloway or Philip Broberg?

The Edmonton Oilers were one win away from historically winning the Stanley Cup. However, Edmonton fell to the Florida Panthers in Game 7, and the real work began only a few days later.

With Ken Holland no longer the general manager, CEO Jeff Jackson brought back Adam Henrique, Corey Perry, and Mattias Janmark and added Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson.

NHL News: The St. Louis Blues Sign Two Edmonton Oilers To Offer Sheets

The Oilers were already up against the salary cap, but teams can exceed it by 10 percent in the offseason. The two main priorities were finding a GM and extending Leon Draisaitl.

Jackson hired Stan Bowman, who has made it a priority to sign Draisaitl to an extension. However, that left players like Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg exposed to the offer sheet as restricted free agents.

There were reports that these deals needed to be completed in January but were not. Now, the Oilers find themselves in a bind as they look to return to the Stanley Cup Final and finish their story.

Edmonton Oilers Reporter Ryan Rishaug joined Sarah Davis on TSN SportsCentre to discuss the St. Louis Blues’ offer sheets to Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg and who could be the bigger loss for the Oilers.

** NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

NHL Rumors: Connor McDavid’s Contract Situation With the Edmonton Oilers Next Offseason

Sarah Davis: “And you also got to wonder, if the Oilers were to lose one or both of these players, how much is that going to hurt this current group, Ryan?”

Ryan Rishaug: “It’s a great question. It hurts. I mean, to put it into perspective, Dylan Holloway was penciled in for me as a third-line left winger on this team who had the opportunity to challenge her top six minutes upfront. Phillip Broberg would have been penciled in as a third-pairing defenseman who had the opportunity to challenge for second-pairing minutes.

They’re the top two young players in the organization, both were ready to push for more time at a bigger bite, at a reasonable salary, and that is what really hurts them, losing good players who are going to be at reasonable dollar figures this year. So I think no disrespect to Dylan Holloway, he was excellent in the playoffs. I think Philip Broberg probably would be the bigger loss of the two.

To me, this player stepped in on the biggest stage in the Stanley Cup Final and showed he is ready. So it would be a loss if either one of these two players were gone. But Sarah, I do have to say, I mean, the Oilers put themselves in this situation in a lot of ways. I don’t think either of these players have been handled particularly well over the past couple of seasons under Ken Holland and Jay Woodcroft.

Which Central Division Team Improved the Most This Offseason?

I think with good young players, they either need to understand why they’re not in the NHL and have a very clear development plan in place where they’re getting lots of minutes, or they need to be in the NHL with a very clear development plan.

And I think at times, these two players were left hanging and floating with an unclear plan, and I think that caused problems, and the Oilers are where they are right now in a real tough cap crunch.”

Davis: “Yeah, it will be interesting to see what the Oilers do over the next few days. But prior to Tuesday, only 10 offer sheets had ever been signed in the salary cap era, only two of those were not matched, so we’ll see Ryan, thanks for this.”

It will be interesting to see how Bowman and the Oilers handle this situation moving forward.