On Tuesday, we learned some very interesting news revolving around the St. Louis Blues. For being a team that doesn’t appear to be in Stanley Cup contention right now, this one is a little peculiar.
St. Louis decided to send an offer sheet to the Edmonton Oilers for both Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. Both players are former first-round picks by the Oilers.
The Blues offered Broberg two years at $4.58 million. They offered Holloway two years at $2.29 million. With Edmonton being up against the cap the way that they are, this is a lot more than they wanted to pay these guys. It is fair to assume that they may lose one or both of them.
The Oilers have seven days to decide if they are going to match these offers. If they don’t match Broberg, they’d get a second-round pick. If they don’t match Holloway, they’d get a third.
The St. Louis Blues are acting very strange with these offer sheets
The Blues had to re-acquire their second-round pick from the Pittsburgh Penguins ahead of this offer sheet because offer sheets require you to have your original draft pick. They wouldn’t have been able to do this with Broberg had they not made that trade with the Penguins.
In the salary cap era, there have only been two successful offer sheets. The Edmonton Oilers successfully took Dustin Penner from the Anaheim Ducks back in the day and the Carolina Hurricanes poached Jesperi Katkaniemi from the Montreal Canadiens a few seasons ago.
This isn’t something you see often. For one, you need the money and draft picks necessary to make the move. You also have to be okay with making an enemy. The Oilers and Blues won’t be friendly for a while.
Although the Oilers would love to keep Holloway and Broberg, they are Stanley Cup contenders with or without them. They lost game seven of the Stanley Cup Final by one goal and were added to their roster this summer.
As for the Blues, this isn't very clear from a hockey ops standpoint. They seem to be stuck in the middle now.
After winning the Cup in 2019, they have mostly just been in the middle. It is probably time for them to rebuild. Instead, they want to make enemies by adding players to their mediocre roster.
By this time next week, we will know the outcome of this move by St. Louis. Hopefully, it works out well for everyone.