Stan Bowman reveals why the Edmonton Oilers released Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway
Photo credit: Edmonton Oilers on YouTube
Shortly after the Edmonton Oiler's Cody Ceci trade, GM Stan Bowman shared why the team opted to part ways with Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.
The Edmonton Oilers have quickly become one of the favorites to win upcoming Stanley Cups, making it all the way to Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals before becoming the last 2024 NHL playoffs casualty to the Florida Panthers. However, though much of the offseason trading slowed or stopped, GM Stan Bowman decided there was still work to be done developing a solid roster. Thus, he and his cohorts decided to make a deal with the San Jose Sharks, sending them Cody Ceci and a 2025 third-round draft pick for Ty Emberson.
Yet, this was not Edmonton's last summer move. The Oilers had the help of defenseman Phillip Broberg and center forward Dylan Holloway over the last couple of seasons, working to make a difference as some of the youngest players on the team. However, both players received offer sheets from the St. Louis Blues: sheets that Stan Bowman was not willing to match, sending them off the team ahead of the upcoming NHL season.
This move seemed a tad unusual for the Edmonton Oilers, letting go of two young former first-round draft picks ahead of a possible Cup-winning season. Thankfully, fans no longer have to question the motivations for this move, or more appropriately, lack thereof. The team released a new edition of RAW, where a staff member discusses some news aspect of their organization. During this GM Stan Bowman explained that the strategists looked at four options regarding these offer sheet. Ultimately, they went with the last option to protect the salary cap and gain potential additional assets, allowing for more flexibility as the Oilers approach another shot at the big win.
"Last week when the offer sheets came in, we got to work as a staff and we met, and our objective was to really focus on where we were at that point in time and look at all the different options that were available to us. You know, we didn't rule anything out right away. We sort of went down the path, and the way we looked at it, we essentially had four options[...]
We spent a lot of time, like multiple days, going through what each of those scenarios would look like, both in the immediate term for this year's team[...] and even longer term, and what we tried to do was come up with how our team would look under each scenario and we play that out, and eventually what we did was decided, you know, which one just made the most sense from where we were today[...]
This came down to a business decision relative to our short-term as well as long-term viability for our roster with the salary cap, so you know in doing that we were able to do some other transactions, because, you know, once we decided that we weren't going to match the offer sheets, obviously we knew that we were going to be getting some assets back."
We spent a lot of time, like multiple days, going through what each of those scenarios would look like, both in the immediate term for this year's team[...] and even longer term, and what we tried to do was come up with how our team would look under each scenario and we play that out, and eventually what we did was decided, you know, which one just made the most sense from where we were today[...]
This came down to a business decision relative to our short-term as well as long-term viability for our roster with the salary cap, so you know in doing that we were able to do some other transactions, because, you know, once we decided that we weren't going to match the offer sheets, obviously we knew that we were going to be getting some assets back."
Both Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway had an average ice time of a little over eleven minutes in the last season. Though they are still young and have from to grow, the Edmonton Oilers will likely get more use out of extra cap space for their upcoming shots at the Stanley Cup. Hopefully, this plan works out as well for the team as Stan Bowman believes. Otherwise, it could be an early stain on his stay in Edmonton.
| POLL | ||
20 AOUT | 113 ANSWERS Stan Bowman reveals why the Edmonton Oilers released Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway Did Stan Bowman make the right choice to let both players leave the Edmonton Oilers? | ||
| Yes, both | 74 | 65.5 % |
| No, just Philip Broberg | 14 | 12.4 % |
| No, just Dylan Holloway | 9 | 8 % |
| No, neither | 16 | 14.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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