Oilers were more than $3 million short in failed offer to Broberg
Philip Broberg is now a member of the St. Louis Blues after the Edmonton Oilers declined to match his offer sheet this morning.
The young defenceman was expected to play a major role on an Oilers team with Stanley Cup aspirations, but he will now get an elevated role on a Blues team in transition.
This wasn’t always the plan for Edmonton. The team was trying to re-sign Broberg before the offer sheets came into play. With the team tight against the cap and the Swedish defender being rather unproven, the Oilers weren’t offering the level of money the Blues were.
It turns out that Edmonton wasn’t even close. The 23-year-old defenceman secured a two-year deal with the Blues worth a cap hit of $4.58 million, totalling up to a combined $9.16 million.
In a post sent out on social media shortly after the Oilers opted not to match the offer sheet, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug revealed that Broberg’s agent, Darren Ferris, had confirmed that Edmonton’s failed contract offer to the former 2019 first-round pick was a two-year deal with a cap hit of $1.1 million, which would have totalled up to $2.2 million overall.
That offer was over $3 million short per year of what Broberg eventually landed with St. Louis.
According to Darren Ferris, Brobergs agent, there were multiple other teams prepared to move on offer sheets, and 2 x 1.1m was the Oilers offer in to Broberg.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) August 20, 2024
There is no doubt that the Blues overpaid Broberg by a significant degree to land a successful offer sheet. He has not yet proven to be a reliable and consistent NHL defenceman and has just 81 NHL games under his belt.
That being said, the young defender did have quite an impressive run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. Despite only appearing in 12 regular season games with the Oilers, Broberg was called upon in the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Stars and the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final.
It’s a short sample size, but one the Blues thought was worth the gamble while the Oilers didn’t. Given that Edmonton needs to re-sign Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, and Evan Bouchard in the next little while, the extra cap space must have been deemed more valuable.
The differences in the contract offers are stark and it shows just how up against the cap the Oilers were before they traded out veteran defender Cody Ceci over the weekend. Edmonton should have even more space once Evander Kane is officially placed on LTIR to start the season.
Losing Broberg will be a tough pill to swallow for the Oilers, but it looks like the team was in a position where they would have had to greatly exceed what they were willing to spend to retain him.