The Oilers couldn’t make it work with Philip Broberg, so trade him
The Edmonton Oilers may not have much saved up in their finances to afford a big-name player to help them make a deep playoff run, but by adding an enticing prospect, a non-contending team could agree to retain a significant part of a contract.
Philip Broberg is one of those former first-round picks who has yet to play like one, but young players like him often get second and even third chances with NHL organizations. No, he hasn’t shown much so far in his professional career, but he hasn’t even reached his 23rd birthday yet, so Broberg still has time to put his career onto the right path with another organization.
The Oilers could further entice a ‘seller’ this season with a player who could provide veteran leadership in Cody Ceci to trade alongside Broberg, which would give the latter a familiar face in another organization should they look to clear even more cap space.
There are a few ways Edmonton could go about sending Broberg elsewhere, but it has become clear the entire experiment with the organization has fallen short. The 22-year-old has seen just 79 contests starting in the 2021-22 season, and he hasn’t even played regular third-pairing minutes.
Edmonton needs to do whatever it takes to ‘hard sell’ him to a team looking to add talent to its prospects pool, even if that talent has had a hard time finding their trajectory when they should be at least a serviceable contributor.