Do you think more fraudulent offer sheets will become mainstream in the near future? They are interesting and create movement and excitement, but also fear. – @gregmaddensoc
Offer sheets are fun for fans, lucrative for the players they sign, and divide teams and managers. They provide quality offseason entertainment. They won’t go mainstream, but they are a tool that should be used more as the salary cap rises, especially by teams that don’t want to do a complete rebuild but need a larger roster of young, NHL-ready players with potential. The St. Louis Blues are that team.
The Blues were in the perfect position to take advantage of the Edmonton Oilers and their salary cap by signing defenseman Philip Broberg to a two-year, $9.16 million contract ($4.58 million AAV) and forward Dylan Holloway to a two-year, $4.58 million contract ($2.29 million AAV).
The Oilers, who will sign big contracts for forwards Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid in the future, have opted not to compensate and will therefore receive the draft pick compensation stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement: a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft for Broberg and a third-round pick in 2025 for Holloway. Essentially, the Blues traded two draft picks for two players they can add to their roster this season. That’s a win for St. Louis and its hopes of getting back into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The risk is significant. They had to sign Broberg and Holloway to contracts so high that the Oilers couldn’t match them. Broberg, 23, and Holloway, 22, haven’t proven enough to be worth the contracts they got from St. Louis. However, they were both first-round picks (Broberg was No. 8 in the 2019 NHL Draft, Holloway was No. 14 in the 2020 NHL Draft), so the Blues are banking on them reaching their potential this season and making their salaries more acceptable as a result. The Oilers aren’t in a position to take that risk. That’s the key. The Blues targeted a team they knew was in a difficult salary cap situation and signed two restricted free agents they were willing to bet big on. Such situations are rare, but they do exist. More teams should take advantage of the system to improve their playoff chances.
