Oilers RFAs landed double their asking prices with Blues
The Edmonton Oilers have their backs against the wall with this offer sheet situation delivered to them by the St. Louis Blues.
It’s not going to be an easy decision, as the cap-strapped Oilers will need to do some significant work to open up the space required to match Dylan Holloway’s $2.29 million offer and Philip Broberg’s $4.58 million offer from the Blues.
Those numbers paint a bleak picture for an Oilers club that is currently over the cap by $341,667, but this could have been avoided.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast, the Oilers knew the initial asking prices for both players during contract discussions earlier in the summer, and they were a lot more affordable than what the offer sheets came to be.
Broberg asked for $1.8 million from the Oilers while Holloway was asking for a contract in the $1.2 million range. In Broberg’s case, the Blues gave him more than double what he was asking for while Holloway got an additional $1 million tacked on to his starting ask.
“[Broberg] basically [got] 250% more than he was asking for from the Blues,” Friedman reported. “[Holloway] got almost 100% more than he was expecting.”
If this reporting is true, it means the Oilers made a massive mistake in handling contract negotiations with these two players. Signing Broberg to a $1.8 million cap hit and Holloway to a $1.2 million contract would have combined for a total cap hit of $3 million.
With the offer sheets now in play, bringing both players back to the Oilers will cost more than double that at $6.87 million.
Another report from 630 CHED’s Bob Stauffer on Tuesday night’s edition of OilersNow indicated that former GM Ken Holland was instructed to sign both Broberg and Holloway to extensions back in December and January, which did not end up happening.
If this is also true, the Oilers had multiple months to avoid this offer sheet situation but could not get it done. The one wrinkle in this is that Friedman also reported that Broberg was not interested in talking about an extension until this summer. It’s unknown if Holloway held similar feelings.
How the Oilers are going to proceed is hard to parse out. The team would prefer to keep both players, but the money involved will require some serious cap gymnastics to make that happen.
It’s expected that the Oilers’ decision will take time, as Friedman mentioned that the team will take its time weighing all possible options.
The clock will, however, keep on ticking.