Oilers front office fends off pesky Blues with slick moves

EDMONTON — As the moves rolled in on a quiet, somewhat smoky Sunday night in August, what came into view was a master class. That is, if your goal was to see the St. Louis Blues go unrewarded on their offer sheets to both Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.

First, the Edmonton Oilers traded a fourth-round draft pick for Vancouver Canucks first-rounder Vasily Podkolzin. And we figured, “OK, Podkolzin comes in and Holloway goes to St. Louis. Maybe the Oilers can keep Broberg now.”

Then, a couple hours later, the big shoe dropped: Cody Ceci and his $3.25-million cap hit were moved to the San Jose Sharks along with a third-round pick for defenceman Ty Emberson.

Voila!

Put Evander Kane on long-term injured reserve to start the season, send down a veteran with a cap hit greater than $850,000 — likely one of newcomers Emberson or Podkolzin, or Josh Brown — and the Oilers can retain both Broberg and Holloway and be cap compliant.

If Kane comes back mid-season, well, they’ll have to figure things out then.

We’ll find out on Monday afternoon what the Oilers’ final plan looks like, but for now, it appears that Blues GM Doug Armstrong’s offer sheets have elicited some slick managing by new Oilers GM Stan Bowman and CEO Jeff Jackson, who moved Ceci and a third to the Sharks but did not retain any salary.

And most importantly, on top of being able to hang on to two former first-round draft picks who both popped during the Oilers’ lengthy playoff run last season, they added another 23-year-old with promise in Podkolzin. And if one of Emberson or Brown gets picked up on waivers, they still have the other as defensive depth.

This, folks, is both thinking outside the box and getting things done with a Tuesday morning deadline pointing a gun straight at the heads of the Oilers’ brass.

The fact they’ve shuffled the cards well enough and fast enough to be in the driver’s seat this morning is amazing, considering what this scenario felt like last Tuesday, when Armstrong strong-armed the new Oilers GM with a double-barrel offer sheet for Edmonton’s youngest regulars on both defence and forward.

The threat of losing a pair of first-round picks — two players who were drafted and developed by the Oilers, and finally ready to help as full-time regulars in the 2024-25 season — with the return being the Blues’ second-round pick (for Broberg) and a third-rounder for Holloway…?

That was insult to the injury of watching two promising youngsters be stolen, on a capped-out team that doesn’t have a ton in the pipeline.

And at the same time, add a 23-year-old project like Podkolzin, whom the Canucks selected 10th overall — two picks after Edmonton picked Broberg in the 2019 draft?

If Edmonton can find the key to get Podkolzin’s confidence back — the word on what stalled him in Vancouver — Armstrong’s offer sheets could go down in history as the catalyst for the wheeling and dealing that actually made the Oilers better, when all was said and done.

They’ll miss the veteran Ceci more than many fans want to believe, but this trade was simply the cost of doing business. When you’re trying to win a Cup and two offer sheets arrive, you have to make choices like whether to overpay an up-and-coming Broberg or a 30-year-old Ceci.

In the 24-year-old Emberson, the Oilers get a third-pairing, right-shot defenceman. He’s a low-risk guy who isn’t a crusher, but isn’t shy to use his body to separate man from puck. He’s been injured some, which is a concern, but in 30 games with San Jose last season Emberson was only minus-4 — miraculous on a team that had the worst goal differential (minus-150) in the NHL last season.

He’s played only 30 NHL games, so Emberson and Brown will battle for the seventh spot in Edmonton this season.

Podkolzin, we are told, is expected to spend the season with the big club, and be given the opportunity to be the player he looked like when he scored 14 goals as a Canucks rookie in 2021-22. He’s got size, skates above average, and is an elite shooter of the puck.

He’s 23, born exactly one day before Broberg. Holloway turns 23 in a month. The oldest team in the NHL just got younger, which is no small thing.

Yes, Holloway and Broberg have thrown a wrench into the Oilers’ salary structure. But all things considered, Oilers fans looking at the work their management team did this week have to be very impressed.

It looks like a hell of job, wriggling off the hook set by Armstrong and the Blues.

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