Offer sheets: Oilers can keep players “with a little creativity”

In the last few days, I’ve written a piece saying that the NHL was taking it easy and reminding us that, at least at this time in 2023, we could surf on the Jeff Petry deal in Montreal.

And now, at least, the Blues have decided to make it interesting.

Yesterday, the Missouri outfit took advantage of the Oilers’ financial problems to announce that Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg had both accepted two-season offer sheets.

The Oilers now have one week to match both contracts. Or one of them. Or neither.

This adds a little spice to the off-season, since there haven’t been any hostile offer sheets since Marc Bergevin danced with Sebastian Aho and got his comeuppance via Jesperi Kotkaniemi a few years later.

But in the end, in KK’s case, it’s all in the balance.

All this to say that the Oilers have decisions to make. They can go 10% over the salary cap in the summer, and they can place Evander Kane on the long-term injured list, but these are the beginnings of solutions: they’re not complete solutions for a club that’s already over the cap.

The #Oilers now have one week to match St Louis’ offers of 2 x $4.58M for Broberg and 2 x $2.29M for Holloway.

Placing Evander Kane on LTIR would clear $5.125M of the required $6.87M to retain these two.

Edmonton needs to find a way to keep these players, because they can ‘t… https://t.co/ZPF4TWJkZS

– Brenden Escott (@BrendenEscott) August 13, 2024

The first step for Stan Bowman is to determine whether Holloway ($2.29 M per year) and Broberg ($4.58 M per season) have received a contract worth saying no to compensation (a third pick for Holloway and a second pick for Broberg) to keep them.

And if the answer is to keep them, that’s a good place to start.

It won’t be easy because the Blues knew what they were doing when they targeted a club under the cap (both this year and with Leon Draisaitl’s contract set to expire in a year) like the Oilers.

But some believe that if the Oilers really want to, they can keep both players.

Obviously, no one is going to do Stan Bowman any favours, but if a club like the Habs ever wanted to stick their nose into the matter, they could make a killing.

I have a feeling that the Oilers will definitely keep one of the two, and that it’s conceivable that both will stay. That said, the bigger of the two contracts is weighing heavily at the moment…