The offer sheets worked.
Blues general manager Doug Armstrong successfully acquired a pair of young former first-round picks on Tuesday when the Oilers elected not to match offer sheets to defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway.
In signing Broberg to a contract worth $4,580,917 annually across two years, the Blues will send their 2025 second-round pick to Edmonton. With Holloway (two-year contract worth $2,290,457 annually), the Blues will send a 2025 third-round pick to the Oilers as compensation.
The teams also completed a trade, as the Blues sent a 2028 third-round pick and prospect Paul Fischer to Edmonton for future considerations.
Armstrong is expected to speak to reporters Tuesday afternoon.
Across the last week, there was speculation across the hockey world whether Edmonton would keep their two young players. Then they traded for depth forward Vasily Podkolzin from Vancouver, which could have been a future Holloway replacement. Then they traded away defenseman Cody Ceci (and his $3.25 million cap hit) to San Jose for defenseman Ty Emberson.
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Was that a move to clear cap space and match the offer sheets? Or was it a transaction to pick up another young defenseman to cover for losing Broberg?
Turns out the Oilers chose to maintain salary cap flexibility — they have Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard to re-sign in upcoming years — instead of holding on to their young talent.
The successful offer sheets were just the second and third ones in the last 16 years that resulted in players changing teams. The only other one was Carolina prying Jesperi Kotkaniemi out of Montreal in 2021.
Broberg (23) and Holloway (22) add to the growing number of young up-and-coming players within the Blues organization, and both were highly-touted prospects in their draft years. Broberg was the eighth pick in 2019 while Holloway went 14th in 2020.
Across the last two years, the Blues have added a number of first-round picks, whether by selecting them themselves or acquiring them from other teams: Zach Dean, Dalibor Dvorsky, Otto Stenberg, Theo Lindstein, Adam Jiricek, Broberg and Holloway.
As the Blues transition from one core to the next, this is the type of player Armstrong has targeted. Earlier this summer, he traded for 24-year-old forward Alexandre Texier and signed 25-year-old defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph, and then used the team’s unused cap space to sign Broberg and Holloway to inflated offer sheets.
In the very near term, Broberg and Holloway will add to an already crammed situation both at forward and on defense.
Broberg is now one of 10 defensemen the Blues have signed to one-way contracts, joining Justin Faulk, Torey Krug, Colton Parayko, Nick Leddy, Scott Perunovich, Matthew Kessel, Tyler Tucker, Ryan Suter and Joseph. At most, St. Louis will keep eight defensemen in the NHL, meaning two could be odd men out.
Krug’s status is up in the air after he was diagnosed with pre-arthritic changes in his ankle this summer. He is currently trying to rehabilitate the injury but could need season-ending surgery if that’s not successful.
Holloway, meanwhile, is a speedy left winger who could fit somewhere in the middle-six for St. Louis. His addition gives the Blues about 18 forwards in contention for NHL roster spots during training camp, including prospects Dalibor Dvorsky, Zack Bolduc and Zach Dean.
This story will be updated.