Huge difference between ask and offer sheets for Phillip Broberg, Dylan Holloway

Doug Armstrong, General Manager of the St. Louis Blues, shocked the hockey world this week by having two restricted free agents from the Edmonton Oilers sign two offer sheets. The Oilers have seven days to match the offers to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, or both will be packing their bags for Missouri once NHL training camps get underway in September. But what if Edmonton had accepted the asks made by both Broberg and Dylan as RFAs? We now have some insight.

According to Sportnet's Elliotte Friedman while speaking on his 32 Thoughts podcast, the Oilers could have saved a bundle by accepting the asks from Broberg and Holloway rather than having to match the offer sheets from St. Louis. Broberg's offer sheet was for $4.5 million for two years. He was asking the Oilers for $1.8 million. As for Holloway, he wanted around $1.2 million from Edmonton, while his offer sheet comes in at $2.29 million.

Friedman added that Edmonton attempted to sign both RFAs to extensions during the 2023-24 regular season. He added while he can't speak for Holloway, Broberg wanted negotiations to take place during the offseason. He also noted that both Holloway and Broberg's name came up during discussion around Pavel Buchnevich at the trade deadline in 2023-24.

The only two successful offer sheets (as in ones not matched by the player's current teams) in NHL history were Dustin Penner, who was brought to Edmonton from Anaheim via an offer sheet, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who went from Montreal to Carolina. If these two from Armstrong are successful, and right now it looks like Edmonton would have a tough time matching them, expect more in the future.