Did the Blues specifically target the Oilers with offer sheets after Ken Holland departed as GM, or is it a coincidence? Jim Parsons examines the reports and speculation.
Speaking with Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said there was no way St. Louis would have made offer sheets to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway if Ken Holland was still GM of the Edmonton Oilers.
It's an interesting statement that likely has some merit.
Let's break it down and see if we can or can't make sense of the theory.
Here's what we know...
In January, the Oilers' upper management reportedly told Ken Holland to secure extensions for both players well before their contracts became pressing issues, according to Stauffer on Oilers Now.
Stauffer also reported that a potential trade fit in March 2023 had Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich being discussed in a deal involving Holloway and Broberg.
The contracts were never signed, and the deal was never made. The reasons why aren't clear, but what is obvious is that the Blues had an interest in these two players for some time.
Here's what we've heard...
Holland and Blues' GM Doug Armstrong are close friends.
“If Ken Holland was still the GM of the Edmonton Oilers, there’s no way these offer sheets are getting done,” Friedman said. “I do think that Doug Armstrong’s friendship with Ken Holland absolutely plays a role in how this played out.”
The Blues didn't make these deals until it was made official that Holland wasn't coming back in any capacity and Stan Bowman was hired.
Here's what we think we know...
There is no love lost between Armstrong and Bowman, who were rival GMs in the Central Division for years. Was targeting the Oilers after he was hired coincidental? Years and years of the Blues losing to the Blackhawks, when Bowman was the team's GM, likely meant neither was on the other's Christmas card list.
Here's what else we think we know...
Peter Chiarelli, now vice-president of hockey operations for the Blues, left the Oilers in 2019 under less-than-ideal circumstances. His tenure in Edmonton received mixed reviews, but he likely didn’t anticipate being fired in mid-January during a game.
Just two days before his dismissal, the Oilers announced they signed goaltender Mikko Koskinen to a three-year, $13.5-million contract extension with trade protection. Chiarelli took much of the blame for the Oilers' struggles to return to being competitive.
That said, it was then-CEO Bob Nicholson who fired Chiarelli — not Holland. Further, Holland gave Chiarelli a lot of praise for the work done in Edmonton and the contracts that were signed before he arrived. With Holland gone, whether it's related or not, the gloves came off.
Here's what's been rumored...
The relationship between Broberg and the Oilers has reportedly soured. It's not clear why, but the leading theory is that he didn't like how they handled his development, and his former coach, Jay Woodcroft, potentially made it more difficult than it should have been to secure a spot on the Oilers' roster.
Friedman said that despite Broberg's recent playoff success under new coach Kris Knoblauch, Broberg's earlier request for a trade wasn't a "maybe he'll feel differently later situation."
“I’m just not convinced he ever changed his mind,” Friedman said.
The Oilers might have decided Broberg was a lost cause and gave up trying to get him signed. For that reason, they're more likely to let him walk away than Holloway.
There are several what-ifs when trying to piece all of this together. That said, it seems clear that the Blues don't make these moves on an old friend and that these offers were so precise, so well timed and so calculated that Armstrong might have gotten a little inside information along the way.
Get the latest news and trending stories right to your inbox by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or by visiting our forum.