Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman has expressed concerns over the offer sheets signed by defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway with the St. Louis Blues, suggesting that the contracts are significantly higher than their current performance warrants.
“The players can probably grow into those deals, but as of today, they’re way above their actual performance,” Bowman told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.
In August, the Oilers lost Broberg and Holloway to offer sheets from the Blues. Broberg, 23, signed a two-year contract with an average annual value of $4.58 million. Holloway, 22, agreed to a two-year deal with a $2.29 million cap hit.
Broberg spent most of last season in the AHL, where he played 49 games for the Bakersfield Condors, accumulating 38 points. He also appeared in 12 regular-season games with the Oilers and made a brief appearance in the postseason, recording two goals and three points in 10 playoff games. The Oilers drafted Broberg eighth overall in 2019.
Holloway registered six goals and nine points in 38 NHL games last season, along with 10 goals and 16 points in 18 AHL games. In the playoffs, he contributed five goals and seven points in all 25 of Edmonton’s postseason games. Holloway was drafted 14th overall by the Oilers in 2020.
Bowman noted that the portrayal of the Oilers’ negotiation process as being in bad faith is inaccurate. “If you look at (Broberg and Holloway), based on their performance, there’s lots of comparable players that have signed this summer and (in) recent years,” Bowman said.
Bowman, who previously matched an offer sheet for Niklas Hjalmarsson while with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, acknowledged that the use of offer sheets could be more common among NHL general managers. “It doesn’t happen more often,” Bowman said. “I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. I guess you could make the argument this should happen more.”
