Behind the Blues' genius plan to sign Oilers RFA's Holloway and Broberg

This just in, the St. Louis Blues have signed Edmonton Oilers restricted free agents (RFA) Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to offer sheets.

This means that the Blues have signed both Holloway and Broberg to contracts and that the Oilers have 7 days to either match the contract(s) or accept compensation from the Blues for both players.

According to Oilers insider Jason Gregor, the Oilers would receive a 2nd round pick for Broberg and a 3rd round pick for Holloway. Incidentally, the Blues have completed a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins in order to acquire the requisite draft picks for RFA compensation.

If Blues GM Doug Armstrong had paid either Broberg or Holloway even a dollar more apiece, the Blues would be on the hook for a lot higher compensation package. $1 more for Broberg and the Blues would have to pony up a 1st round pick and a 3rd round pick, $1 more for Holloway and the Blues would have to pony up another 2nd round pick. Clearly this was a well thought out plan by Armstrong.

If you're asking yourself why the Blues massively overpaid both of these players, well... it's by design. The are currently over the NHL salary cap and would have to make some sort of roster move, trade or otherwise, in order to free up enough salary to retain Holloway and/or Broberg. Blues GM Doug Armstrong knows this and he strategically overpaid these two players in order to put added pressure on the Oilers to walk away from the players. If Armstrong manages to pull this off he'll acquire two talented and promising young players for just a 2nd and a 3rd round pick. Not bad... not bad at all.

Oilers new GM Stan Bowman is about to earn his first pay check, that's for sure. Much of the blame for the Oilers being in this situation though has to lie with longtime GM Ken Holland. Holland handed out some truly awful contracts during his time as Oilers GM and has hamstrung the team's up and coming players with some bad veteran contracts. It'll be interesting to see how Bowman navigates his first big test in Edmonton.

If the Oilers match the offer sheets signed by Broberg and Holloway they will be $7.2 million over the salary cap. If they put Evander Kane on LTIR they would be just $3.675 million over the salary cap. If they could somehow trade Cody Ceci's $3.25 million contract and then demote one player to the AHL, they could make things work. But that's a lot of moving pieces just to keep two guys who are now overpaid for the next two seasons. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Read below for the press release announcement from the Blues:

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today that the Blues have tendered offer sheets to Edmonton Oilers defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway. 

The Oilers have seven days to exercise their right of first refusal on each of the players, per section 10.3 of the NHL collective bargaining agreement. 

The Blues will have no further comment until the Oilers have made their decision as to whether to match the terms of either offer or accept the commensurate compensation.

Broberg, 23, has played 81 games for the Oilers over the last three seasons, registering two goals and 11 assists, after being selected in the first round (No. 8 overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft.  The Orebro, Sweden, native has also played in 20 career playoff games for Edmonton, including 10 games during their run to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final in which he posted two goals and an assist. The offer to Broberg is for a two-year contract at $4,580,917 per year, the maximum offer that would require a second-round draft pick as compensation.

Holloway, 22, has participated in 89 games for the Oilers since entering the league in 2022-23 as a former first-round pick (No. 14 overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft.  He tallied nine goals and nine assists during those two seasons. The Calgary, Alberta, native and University of Wisconsin product has also played 26 career playoff games, including 25 during Edmonton’s journey to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final in which he contributed five goals and two assists. The offer to Holloway is for a two-year contract at $2,290,457 per year, the maximum offer that would require a third-round draft pick as compensation.

To satisfy the required compensation of the offer sheets should Edmonton choose to decline their right of first refusal, the Blues have completed a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins to re-acquire their second-round pick in 2025 (acquired via trade) and acquire Pittsburgh’s fifth-round selection in 2026. The Penguins will receive St. Louis’ second-round pick in 2026 and Ottawa’s 2025 third-round selection (acquired via trade).