The Edmonton Oilers are taking another round of public floggings over their mishandling of the Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg offer sheets last summer. this time from Holloway himself and Broberg’s agent Darren Ferris.
On the Cam & Strick podcast out of St. Louis, Holloway described the negotiation as follows: “It was just a weird situation. But as soon as I found out that Edmonton didn’t match and I was going to St. Louis, immediately I was like, all right, I’m going to St. Louis… I’m not going to sulk or whatever. You know, it rubbed me the wrong way how little Edmonton thought of me and our contract negotiations and whatnot.”
Holloway continued: “After you go to Game 7 (of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final), with a group of guys, I felt fine, like you’re pretty tight with everybody. I wanted to go back. I was an Alberta boy. I wanted to go back to Edmonton, the team that we went so far with. And then, but then as soon as Edmonton didn’t kind of reciprocate that feeling, and I was going to St. Louis, I was all in on St. Louis.”
Holloway said he and the Oilers weren’t on the same page with his new contract. “I didn’t feel like I was asking for anything unfair at all, but I think just being an Restricted Free Aent and with their limited cash space, they just figured they could sign it to whatever they wanted, and then when I had the offer sheet, I was just like, I can’t pass this up.”
On the 100% Hockey podcast, Ferris described how he called around the league trying to drum up interest for an offer sheet for his client Broberg.
“Your negotiation may not be going where you want, you then explore when the option is there. We have all these tools such as the offer sheet. I called around and had a few teams that were interested in the offer sheet, and from there, you’re trying to convince the teams to do the offer sheet,” Ferris said.
St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong and his assistant Pete Chiarelli are astute hockey men and saw the opportunity, Ferris said. At the same time, Ferris said he talked to Holloway and his agent about joining in by signing a St. Louis offer sheet as well. “The night before, he (Holloway) actually wasn’t going to sign (the offer sheet). He was going to stay in Edmonton but I got on the phone with him and we had a conversation and educated him on the business side of it. He understood, and now he’s set up to make a lot of money that he would have probably left on the table.”
Teams will only make an offer sheet in particular cases, if they know they can successfully grab the player from a team that is pressed up against the cap, like Edmonton was last summer. “It’s when a team puts themselves vulnerable like that… Guys aren’t going to do an offer sheet unless they know they’re getting the player… They want to know they’re getting the player. If there’s an opportunity that a team puts themselves in that position where they’re vulnerable to offer sheets, that’s what will happen.
John Shannon, 100% Hockey’s host, summed up the situation: “You know, the Broberg situation was a perfect storm. I think we got an indication that Holloway, I think if you look back, I think (Oilers GM) Stan Bowman probably, if you got a couple of nice cold beer into Stan, he might admit that he should have matched the Holloway contract. But again, it goes back to how close to the cap are you and what are you able to do? And Dylan Holloway had a hell of a season in St. Louis, and so did Philip Broberg.”
My take
1. Imagine being Stan Bowman, a few weeks into your new job and having to clean up a colossal stinking mess left behind by your two previous predecessors, Ken Holland, who evidently shrugged off the offer sheet threat and failed to get Broberg and Holloway signed, and interim GM Jeff Jackson, who acted as if he were oblivious to the salary cap threat in going over the cap in July 2024 to lavish new contracts on Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson and Adam Henrique before Holloway and Broberg were locked down.
Shannon calls it a perfect storm. I call it a monumental screw-up of FUBAR proportions. I call it the perfect heist.
2. When the offer sheet was made, Broberg and Holloway were decent bets to evolve into a Top 4 d-man and Top 6 winger respectively, but not sure things to do so. Either one of them or both could have gone in the other direction and struggled as playeer, and Holloway’s proclivity to get injured came into play in St. Louis, as he was knocked out of the season with hip surgery.
At the same time, the cap crunch on the Oilers was pressing. It would have been an iffy risk to match Broberg’s offer sheet, but Holloway’s was more do-able.
If the Oilers had had Holloway last year, it might well been a difference maker for the team.
3. Broberg was eventually replaced by arguably a superior player in Jake Walman, but that came at the high cost of a first round pick. Holloway was replaced to some extent by Vassily Podkolzin, who did amazing work on the forecheck and backcheck, becoming the glue player on Leon Draisaitl’s line. If Viktor Arvidsson had got more done as a shooter, the loss of Holloway would not have stung so much, but that was not to be. The loss of Holloway does indeed sting and will continue to do so, given Holloway’s combination of speed, power and skill.
4. Maybe the Oilers will get super lucky and some player like Matt Savoie, Andrew Mangiapane, David Tomasek, Trent Frederic or Ike Howard will step up and play a huge role in the Top 6. Maybe one of them will score and/or hit enough to make us forget what might have been with Holloway.
Bowman has scrambled hard and done a great job bringing in candidates to replace Holloway and Broberg. He gets an A+ for that. But overall the Oilers organization gets an “F” for what went down with Holloway and Broberg last August.
Roster
At the Cult of Hockey
Cult of Hockey prospect series 2025
Forwards: Maxim Berezkin (3rd), William Nicholl (9th), Roby Jarventie (11th), Viljami Marjala (12th), Connor Clattenburg (13th), Tommy Lafreniere (14th). David Lewandowski (15th)
Dmen: Beau Akey (6th) Atro Leppanen (10th) Paul Fischer (16th), Nikita Yevseyev (18th), Asher Barnett (19th)
Goalies: Nathaniel Day (17th), Eemil Vinni (20th)