Oilers Choose Not To Match

I don't think anyone was surprised that the Oilers opted not to match the offer sheets tendered by the Blues to former Oilers Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. The fact that St. Louis opted to "overpay" the two young players to force Edmonton's hand played a large role in the Oilers declining to match either offer, so both Holloway and Broberg will skate for the Blues over the next two seasons. With the Oilers in salary cap trouble, though, they decided to make a few different moves to solve that, so let's look at what the Oilers did over the last few days in order to get themselves back into cap compliance while potentially finding replacements.

The Oiler started filling the roster holes left by Holloway and Broberg by acquiring winger Vasily Podkolzin from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Ottawa's 2025 fourth-round pick. Edmonton had acquired that pick on July 15 when they dealt Jake Chiasson and Xavier Bourgault to Ottawa for Roby Jarventie and the pick.

The Oilers are getting a player who likely will start the season in Bakersfield, but can play an NHL role if needed. Podkolzin has scored 18 goals and 17 assists in 135 NHL games thus far so he's not going to be asked to play on the top line, but he can play a middle-six winger role if the Oilers need someone there. Yes, this deal cost the Oilers $1 million in cap space, but Podkolzin is a less expensive option than Holloway. Will their production be the same? I lean towards Holloway being more productive, but cap space is needed by the Oilers.

The Oilers followed that trade by making another deal as they sent defenceman Cody Ceci and a 2025 third-round pick to the San Jose Sharks for defenceman Ty Emberson. This was a move that made stricly for salary cap purposes as the swap from Ceci and Emberson saves Edmonton $2.3 million this season. The sweetener on this deal for San Jose was the third-round pick, so Edmonton seems to be burning through picks pretty quickly to fill holes.

Emberson isn't going to wow anyone just yet, but he was serviceable with the Sharks as he scored one goal and nine assist in 30 NHL games with the Sharks after being claimed off waivers from the Rangers. Ceci certainly has more NHL experience than Emberson, but cap space was the purpose of this trade, and there's a good chance that Emberson is skating with the Bakersfield Condors this season.

The Oilers would recover a 2025 third-round pick from St. Louis as the Blues sent the Oilers that pick in order to sign Dylan Holloway. There's no salary cap savings here as Holloway was a restricted free agent, but the Oilers avoid adding the $2.3 million they just opened up with the Cody Ceci trade by not matching the deal that St. Louis gave to Holloway. Because Edmonton is expected to finish above St. Louis in the standings, the pick sent to Edmonton by St. Louis should be better than the pick Edmonton dealt to San Jose.

The Oilers also opted not to match the offer sheet given to Philip Broberg which mean they picked St. Louis' 2025 second-round pick while saving $4.5 million in cap space. Again, they don't gain any space overall, but that second-round pick is better than any of the picks traded by Edmonton yesterday and it puts them back into the draft in the second round after not having any 2025 pick prior to the sixth round before the two picks from St. Louis were transferred.

In one final transaction, the Oilers acquired Paul Fischer and a 2028 third-round pick from the St. Louis Blues for future considerations. Fischer is a unsigned 2023 defenceman whose rights were owned by the Blues while he skated for the University of Notre Dame. In 34 games in the Big 10 Conference with the Fighting Irish last season, he had two goals and 14 assists. Whether or not he signs with the Oilers will have to be seen, but that extra draft pick they got back can be currency down the road.

So where does that leave the Oilers? Here's what they added.

Name	Pos.	Effect
Vasily Podkolzin	RW	Potential middle-six role. May start in AHL.
Ty Emberton	RD	Currently slotted in bottom pairings.
Paul Fischer	D	Unsigned. Currently in NCAA.
2025 pick	2nd	Acquired from St. Louis for Holloway.
2025 pick	3rd	Acquired from St. Louis for Broberg.
2028 pick	3rd	Acquired from St. Louis for futures.
$1.3 million	--	Net cap space after all these moves.

The Oilers did lose Cody Ceci, Dylan Holloway, Philip Broberg, their own 2025 third-round pick, and Ottawa's fourth-round pick in these moves, but they improved their 2025 draft position and they gained cap space. They did sacrifice a pile of NHL experience in the three players they lost, but that's the cost of trying to acquire cap space.

With Leon Draisaitl's contract extension still be discussed, Connor McDavid's coming up next season, and Evander Kane's injury situation to be resolved, there's still a ton of work that GM Stan Bowman has to do. He can, however, cross the offer sheets off his to-do list as he opted for cap flexibility over keeping Holloway and Broberg. Whether that was the right move will be determined over the next couple of seasons, but these are clearly Stan Bowman's Oilers now.

Aren't offer sheets fun?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!