Philip Broberg vs Dylan Holloway: Who should Edmonton Oilers choose to keep?

By Nestor Quixtan

Modified Aug 17, 2024 23:31 GMT

The Edmonton Oilers were the target of one of the most aggressive strategies in NHL history as the St. Louis Blues extended offer sheets to two of Edmonton’s RFAs. It sent shockwaves throughout the NHL, prompting a wide range of analysis regarding the Oilers’ potential response to the move.

As it stands, the Oilers are more than $7 million over the cap, according to PuckPedia, meaning the club has no room to sign Philip Broberg or Dylan Holloway without clearing cap space. The team will most likely be unable to match the offer sheet on both players.

In the best of cases, the Edmonton Oilers would be able to keep just one of them. If that’s the case, the club must make a tough choice: Keep Broberg or Holloway.

According to Daily Faceoff, Holloway projects as a third-line winger, with Adam Henrique centering the line.

Meanwhile, Broberg projects as Darnell Nurse’s partner on the Oilers’ second pairing. As such, that comparison alone makes Broberg more valuable to the club than Holloway. While replacing a young forward with a significant upside is not easy, replacing a top-four defenseman can be even more challenging.

On the whole, the Oilers could look to the bottom of the free-agent barrel to find a replacement for Holloway. Similarly, potential replacements from the AHL could fill in the gap, allowing the Oilers to promote someone like Mattias Janmark to the third line.

However, the same can’t be said about promoting Cody Ceci or Brett Kulak to the second pairing with Nurse.

Edmonton Oilers lack depth to replace Philip Broberg

The Edmonton Oilers prospect pipeline contains several prospects looking to make the leap to the NHL. However, the club lacks any real NHL-ready blue liners to make the leap.

Daily Faceoff’s evaluation of Edmonton’s top ten prospects lists seventh-round pick Max Wanner as the organization’s highest-ranked defenseman. The 21-year-old Wanner, while showing promise, is nowhere near ready to be an everyday NHL blue liner, especially for a contending club.

As such, the Oilers cannot hope to replace Broberg internally. Likewise, the club does not have the cap space to go out and sign a replacement, even if it’s for a third-pairing blue liner.

Given the lack of organizational depth on the blue line, the Oilers would be better off matching Broberg’s deal, even if it means losing Holloway. Keeping Holloway and allowing Broberg to leave would mean opening a significant hole on their back end.

While Edmonton would much rather keep both players, if it comes down to choosing one player over another, the Oilers have much more organizational depth at forward than defense.

Therefore, the choice is evident. The Oilers must keep Philip Broberg over Dylan Holloway unless the club is prepared to lose both.