Earlier this week, the St. Louis Blues sent shockwaves through the NHL when they offer-sheeted Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, backing the Oilers into a corner with their salary cap.
Broberg and Holloway got two-year deals, with Broberg's AAV coming in at $4,580,917 and Holloway's at $2,290,457. Both AAV's are just below the threshold of the next level of compensation and were strategically planned by the Blues to extract maximum value for minimum cost. The Oilers have until Tuesday to match the offers, but are already $7.23M over the salary cap, according to PuckPedia.
As the Oilers figure out what to do, they have been actively shopping Cody Ceci and Brett Kulak, but reports indicate teams are holding the Oilers hostage, asking for a first or second-round pick to bail them out of a jam.
Ceci has one year remaining with a cap hit of $3.25M while Kulak carries a $2.75M cap hit for the next two seasons. With just days remaining until the Oilers potentially lose both Broberg and Holloway to St. Louis, new GM Stan Bowman will have to make a handful of difficult decisions in the coming days.
Source: NHL.comCody Ceci player profile
POLL | ||
17 AOUT | 1651 ANSWERS Former Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman lands back on the trade market Which offer will the Oilers match? | ||
Broberg | 318 | 19.3 % |
Holloway | 369 | 22.4 % |
Both | 400 | 24.2 % |
Neither | 564 | 34.2 % |
List of polls |