Skookum Jim wrote on Wed, 21 August 2024 15:17

Listened to Stauffer phone in yesterday on ON. You can tell he's pissed at management (probably Holland).. he usually tries to put a positive spin on things but having a hard time.. he understands why you'd wouldn't match the offer sheets.. but the missed opportunity was last year.. and obvious. The Broberg loss really stings.. IMO moves the franchise defence back a few steps.. now and future. Stauffer said there would obviously be PTO's for RHD He suggested there was defencemen who might come on a PTO who used to play under Knoblauch.. can't figure out who.. have to be a UFA.. not named Schultz or Barrie.. any guesses? I got the feeling that there is no pending shoe-to-drop regarding defence.. Bowman kind of indicated in his interview that not matching Broberg/Holloway was due to the Oilers valuation of accruing cap space during the year and not have to use LTIR on Kane.. also cap maneuverability when discussing future extensions with Leon, Bouchard, McDavid.. which I kind of get.. I think the failure by management occurred a year ago when the team had more leverage on the RFA's. On a positive note.. it slipped out that Leon signing might be pending.. We used to have a lot of promising drafted Defencemen.. after being being a franchise scarcity.. Kesselring, Samaroukov, Broberg, Desharnais, no one left.. best prospect is Beau Akey and he's 2 years away.. at least.. Wanner is in the system.. I saw him play .. potential.. but he's a long ways off.. Kemp? .. his boots are holding him back.. Next draft should be focused on mobile defencemen.. right or left

Would either of these guys signed early a year ago though? Both probably felt like they didn't get enough opportunity. Broberg was probably already thinking he needs to get out of here. Neither did enough to warrant a spot on the roster too. Both mediocre 1st round picks that were taking a long time to figure out how to be useful in the NHL for more than little spurts at a time. Holloway never actually got to a point of consistent usefulness. Broberg had some good sheltered 3rd pair time with Bouchard doing all the playmaking, and 2 weeks of luck where he could do no wrong because Skinner would do backflips for him and Nurse.

Both guys in weird spots in their early careers. Both hoping for some kind of opportunity and things finally working. I really don't see either signing until the summer anyways. So, the question would be if you abandon what we did July 1st just for more buffer with these guys. We weren't giving Broberg 4.5M, and his agent is a known sneaky bugger, so we likely end up with a trade request and/or the 4.5M offersheet anyways with him. Holloway maybe we are more willing to keep and overpay a bit if we didn't get the guys we did July 1st, but I don't really like that trade-off anyways.

To me, the root of all these issues is more about weak drafting than anything else. If these players were actually good, we would have gone to greater lengths to play them and keep them.

"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013

"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015

5 x $5,000,000