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Oilers Acquire Paul Fischer From Blues

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The Blues announced Tuesday that they’ve sent unsigned 2023 fifth-round pick Paul Fischer and a 2028 third-round pick to the Oilers in exchange for future considerations. The swap immediately follows the Blues’ successful acquisition of Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from Edmonton via offer sheets.

Fischer, 19, is a solid pickup for the Oilers, who presumably acquired him as a sweetener not to match St. Louis’ offer for either player. The left-shot defenseman is decently sized at 6’1″ and 201 lbs and is coming off a promising freshman outing at Notre Dame, where he contributed more offense than expected with 16 points in 34 games.

While he projects as a stay-at-home defender if he ever cracks an NHL lineup, Fischer does have good instincts with the puck. Those were apparent with his 14 assists last year, which tied for third on the Fighting Irish.

Fischer was a solid value for the Blues with the No. 138 pick last year. TSN’s Craig Button had him inside the top 100 of his rankings, and NHL Central Scouting pegged him as the No. 58 North American skater in the class.

The Oilers have until Aug. 15, 2027, to sign Fischer to his entry-level contract before his exclusive signing rights expire. After Broberg’s departure, he immediately becomes one of the better options in a paper-thin pool of left-shot defense prospects in Edmonton.

Oilers Decline To Match Offer Sheets For Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway

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The Oilers have let Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway head to the Blues today by declining to match the offer sheets they signed last week, the team announced.

As such, Broberg and Holloway will enter into valid two-year contracts with the Blues. Broberg’s deal has a total value of $9.16MM and a $4.58MM cap hit, while Holloway’s has a total value of $4.58MM and a $2.29MM cap hit. Upon expiry in 2026, each will become restricted free agents with arbitration rights.

Edmonton will receive the Blues’ 2025 second and third-round picks as compensation for the Broberg and Holloway offers. St. Louis had previously traded away next year’s second-rounder but re-acquired it from the Penguins minutes before announcing the offer sheets last week.

Broberg, 23, was the eighth overall pick in the 2019 draft after dominating that year’s U18 World Championship, being named the tournament’s best defenseman, an All-Star, and a top-three player on the team while winning a gold medal with Sweden. Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet been able to convert that draft pedigree into a full-time NHL role. He’s bounced between the Oilers and their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, limiting Edmonton’s willingness to give him a deal with a seven-figure AAV, let alone one in the $4MM range.

2023-24 marked a regression for Broberg, who got just 12 regular-season appearances after making a career-high 46 the season before. The left-shot averaged 11:37 per game, his shortest leash since making his NHL debut three years ago, and had two assists with a -3 rating. However, he was able to unlock a new gear in the minors. He’d been a two-way force with the Condors since arriving in North America in 2021 but took things to a new level last season with five goals, 33 assists, 38 points, and a +11 rating in 49 games. His 0.78 points per game were fourth in the league among defenders with at least 15 games played.

Broberg entered restricted free agency for the first time on a bit of a high note after re-entering the Oilers lineup during the tail end of their run to the Stanley Cup Final. He got into 10 games in May and June, getting top-four spot duty alongside Darnell Nurse and averaging 15:48 per game. He seemed to respond well, posting three points and a +8 rating, but his shot attempt metrics were quite poor, and his rating has more to do with an artificially high .969 SV% from Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner while Broberg was on the ice. The eye test indicated he was playing with more confidence, though, despite being bumped to his weak side playing with Nurse.

Holloway is a similar story. The 6’1″ forward, who turns 23 next month, was the No. 14 overall pick a year after Broberg and, had he been eight days older, would have been eligible for the 2022 draft instead. In his post-draft season, Holloway enjoyed a standout sophomore campaign at the University of Wisconsin, where he had 35 points in just 23 games and was named to the Big 10 conference’s First All-Star Team and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award for the top collegiate player. However, like his Swedish counterpart, Holloway has failed to avoid AHL assignments through each of his three professional seasons thus far.

However, Holloway has gotten more runway at the NHL level, making 89 appearances combined over the past two campaigns. He’s likely a safer bet to be an impact piece for St. Louis this season despite his contract being worth half as much as Broberg’s. With Edmonton’s world-beating forward depth, there have been limited opportunities for Holloway to land a spot higher up in the lineup, limiting his usage to 10:21 per game. That’s resulted in a relatively meager career offensive output of nine goals and 18 points, 0.20 per game.

Like Broberg, Holloway’s minor-league showings have been strong, most recently scoring 10 goals and six assists in 18 games with the Condors last season. But with the pending move to the Blues, both players’ days of seeing AHL ice are over. The Blues’ entire left defense depth chart becomes a tossup with Broberg, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Scott Perunovich and veterans Nick Leddy and Ryan Suter, neither of whom have any set roles entering the season. There’s also the matter of Torey Krug, who could miss the entire 2024-25 season if he undergoes surgery to correct pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle. If he’s out, there’s a chance for Broberg to earn a top-four job come opening night with a strong training camp.

Likewise, the Blues’ below-average forward depth gives Holloway a fighting chance at claiming a top-nine role when the Blues kick off the NHL’s Opening Night festivities against the Kraken on Oct. 8. There are options galore for the Blues to utilize Holloway, who can play both left-wing and center, in a wide-open competition with depth players like Mathieu Joseph, Kasperi Kapanen and Alexandre Texier.

It’s all part of a clear directive from St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong to get younger and faster this summer, picking up more cost-effective depth pieces like Joseph and Texier to help boost a team with a roster now barely recognizable from its 2019 Stanley Cup win.

The Blues will be down to just $470K in projected cap space after taking on the contracts, but that’s assuming a roster size of two players over the 23-man limit. If they sent a pair of league-minimum contracts down to the minors, they’ll begin the season with just over $2MM in space.

After letting both players walk, the Oilers’ pathway to cap compliance is now clear. It’ll be a tight fit, but they have a few options to submit a cap-compliant opening night roster with at least one healthy extra, as outlined by PuckPedia. On the ice, they went out and acquired cheaper replacements for Broberg and Holloway on the trade market by picking up Ty Emberson from the Sharks and Vasily Podkolzin from the Canucks, but said goodbye to top-four fixture Cody Ceci and his $3.25MM cap hit in the process.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report that the Oilers would not be matching the offer sheets.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Emberson Needs To Play 50 Games For Edmonton To Keep His RFA Rights

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While Ty Emberson’s acquisition was largely viewed as Edmonton merely adding some extra depth on the back end, they have an opportunity to keep him around beyond the upcoming season but will need to play him somewhat regularly to do so.  PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the Oilers will need to play the 24-year-old in at least 50 games in 2024-25 in order to retain his RFA rights (with arbitration eligibility at that time).  Otherwise, Emberson will be eligible to become a Group Six unrestricted free agent.  He was only able to play in 30 games with San Jose last season in his first taste of NHL action, missing 36 games due to injuries along the way.

Oilers Pathway Toward Cap Compliancy

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If their cap struggles weren’t already bad enough this summer, the Edmonton Oilers were struck a significant blow last week when the St. Louis Blues signed defenseman Philip Broberg to a two-year, $9.16MM offer sheet and forward Dylan Holloway to a two-year, $4.58MM offer sheet. Oilers’ general manager Stan Bowman has until tomorrow to match both or either respective offer but could allow both to walk and receive draft compensation in return.

PuckPedia gave a solid breakdown of how Edmonton could find its way back to salary cap compliance after the separate trades that brought Vasily Podkolzin to Alberta and sent Cody Ceci to the San Jose Sharks. The salary cap website asserts that if the Oilers place Evander Kane on long-term injured reserve to start the year, send down Troy Stecher and Derek Ryan, and call up prospect Matt Savoie to the NHL, they will be compliant to start the 2024-25 NHL season if they choose to match both offer sheets.

All things considered — this is a decent scenario for Edmonton. Savoie gives the team a low-cost option to plug into the top six and allows the team some flexibility with newcomers Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson on the wing. By moving either Skinner or Arvidsson down to the third line, Holloway could play the wing on the team’s fourth line while moving Mattias Janmark to fourth-line center in this scenario.

The team would still have seven available defensemen to choose from to start the year and Stecher likely would have been light on playing time regardless. Josh Brown and Ty Emberson could split time based on matchups leaving Edmonton’s only glaring hole at the fourth-line center position.

Edmonton is not necessarily out of the woods just yet as it’s uncertain when Kane will ultimately return from his offseason surgery. It’s expected he will be placed on LTIR to begin the season which will keep him out of the lineup for the first 10 games and 24 days of the 2024-25 NHL season. Once the season begins, however, the Oilers will again be in a situation where tough decisions must be made. The Oilers could still allow both players to walk giving them just over $6MM to start the year after placing Kane on LTIR.

It will be interesting to see how aggressive GM Bowman is in bringing back two pieces that haven’t had much opportunity with the organization up to this point. All in all, even with clearing Ceci’s salary and having a clear pathway toward cap compliance to start the year —  it will take some time for Edmonton to exit this precarious scenario.

Oilers Trade Cody Ceci, Pick for Ty Emberson

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The Edmonton Oilers have traded defenseman Cody Ceci and a 2025 third-round pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defenseman Ty Emberson. The deal was initially reported by Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, who adds that no salary cap was retained. Spector mentions that moving Ceci’s $3.25MM cap hit could give Edmonton enough space to retain defenseman Philip Broberg while forward Dylan Holloway could be headed to the St. Louis Blues. Both players recently signed two-year offer sheets with the Blues  – Broberg’s totaling $9.16MM in salary and Holloway’s totaling $4.58MM.

The two restricted free agents are in similar spots in their careers – yet to vindicate their first-round precedent, though still carving out routine roles in Edmonton’s lineup. They were utilized similarly, averaging roughly 11:30 in ice time this season, though Holloway played 38 games to Broberg’s 12. Retaining both players would cost the Oilers $6.87MM in cap hit – a tough bill to pay for an Oilers team that was already $8.225MM over the cap ceiling. It seems the team is opting to hold onto the defenseman, though it will cost them near-800-game veteran Cody Ceci.

Despite routinely receiving criticism, Ceci was an anchor of Edmonton’s top-four last season, averaging 20 minutes of total ice time and more penalty-kill time than any other Oiler. He ended the year with five goals and 25 points in 79 games this season, adding five points in 24 playoff games – where he notoriously partnered with Darnell Nurse for some of the best and worst moments of the postseason. After three years in Edmonton, Ceci will move to his fifth NHL franchise in this trade. He’ll seemingly – and perhaps surprisingly – become San Jose’s top right defenseman, joining a room occupied by Jan Rutta and Matt Benning. He’ll be the second-most experienced on the blue-line, though leader Marc-Edouard Vlasic – who’s just four games shy of 1,300 career games, though he became a routine healthy scratch last season.

Ceci’s departure opens a big hole in the Oilers’ blue line, which could finally yield the opportunity that Broberg’s been waiting for. He’s only averaged 12:42 in ice time through 81 career games and hasn’t played over 19 minutes in a single game since November of 2021. Broberg has yielded 13 career points in the limited role, though stepping into top-four minutes could be enough to kick the former top-10 pick into high gear.

That could cost them winger Holloway, who’s scored 18 career points – and added seven in 25 games this postseason. Holloway was drafted 14th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, selected after a strong freshman year at the University of Wisconsin, where he totaled 52 points in 58 games over two years in Wisconsin before turning pro in 2021. He has since bounced between the NHL and AHL lineups, showing flashes of promise as a hefty play-driver but never finding his spark. His 6-foot-1, 206-pound frame is just 10 pounds heavier than winger Vasily Podkolzin, who Edmonton acquired for a 2025 third-round pick earlier today. Podkolzin fits into the same conversation as Holloway and Broberg – a former top draft pick struggling to show what he can do at the top level. The size similarities and Podkolzin’s cheap $1MM cap hit seem to back the idea that Holloway could be headed to St. Louis – though nothing is official yet.

Regardless of their decision with Broberg and Holloway, Edmonton emerges from this swap with young defender Ty Emberson, who played through his first 30 NHL games last season, scoring 10 points and showing value as a shutdown defender on a struggling San Jose roster. But a lower-body laceration suffered in February cut Emberson’s rookie year short, leaving Sharks fans guessing where his upside might fall.

Multiple teams have shown interest in Emberson at one point. He was initially drafted by the Arizona Coyotes ahead of a three-year tenure at the University of Wisconsin, where he managed 34 points in 101 games. Emberson turned pro with the Tuscon Roadrunners in 2020, getting a taste of tougher competition before a 2022 trade to the New York Rangers in exchange for Patrick Nemeth and draft picks in 2025 and 2026. New York signed Emberson to a one-year, league-minimum contract but placed him on waivers two months later. San Jose placed a claim as the fourth team on the priority list, ultimately pushing Emberson into his first NHL role. He’ll now move to Edmonton with the chance for even more growth as he battles Broberg and Nurse for ice time on the right-hand side.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Oilers Acquire Vasily Podkolzin From Canucks

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The Edmonton Oilers have acquired forward Vasily Podkolzin from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for the Ottawa Senators’ 2025 fourth-round pick. Edmonton acquired the pick alongside Roby Jarventie earlier this summer, in exchange for sending Ottawa forwrards Xavier Bourgault and Jake Chiasson.

The timing of this deal can’t be ignored. Edmonton recently received two offer sheets from the St. Louis Blues, who are looking to steal away forward Dylan Holloway and defender Philip Broberg. The pair of offer sheets totals $6.87MM – a very difficult pill to swallow for an Oilers team already $8.225MM over the cap ceiling, not including potential long-term injured reserve. While an Oilers trade seemed imminent, this swap is far from what many were expecting – as Edmonton reels in a former top prospect and potential Holloway replacement.

If Podkolzin truly donns that title is yet to be seen. He proved a controversial pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, rounding out what was a loaded Top 10 after fighting his way into KHL ice time. Podkolzin stayed in Russia for two seasons after his draft selection, continuing to grow in a KHL role before moving directly into a middle-six role with the Canucks in 2021. He was productive as a rookie, appearing in 79 games and managing 14 goals and 26 points. But he’s struggled to hold onto that scoring in the years since, totaling just nine points across his last 58 NHL games. That belabored production has earned Podkolzin the first AHL games of his career, to some success. He’s scored 46 points in 72 minor-league games over the last two seasons – enough to earn routine call-ups back to the NHL, but not enough to inspire much excitement.

But that could be set to change in Edmonton. Podkozlin flaunted plenty of skill during his brief KHL career, but struggled to instill much tempo into the offense. That’s perhaps the thing the Oilers do best, largely thanks to just how talented Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins bring to the table. Holloway wasn’t getting much ice time with those superstars as he looked to establish his footing in the NHL, but Edmonton has shown a preference for icing shoot-first bruisers, like Connor Brown or Klim Kostin, with McDavid. Podkolzin stands at a similar frame to Holloway, but has built a bit more of knack for physicality as he’s cut his teeth in the minor leagues. A move to the Oilers offense will represent a chance to start over – potentially filling a recently departed role as the lineup’s young, high-upside winger.

Could Acquiring Poolman's Contract Help Edmonton's Cap Situation?

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With the Oilers needing to clear up some cap space to accommodate the offer sheets tendered to Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway this week, Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Province wonders if the Canucks might be able to help in that regard.  Vancouver blueliner Tucker Poolman has played just three games over the last two seasons combined due to concussion issues and was on LTIR for all of 2023-24.  He has one year left on his contract but isn’t expected to play, meaning he’ll remain LTIR-eligible for the upcoming season.

The Canucks aren’t believed to want to incentivize a team to take that contract off their books but with his $2.5MM AAV coming close to Brett Kulak’s $2.75MM, perhaps there’s a basis for a swap.  Vancouver would likely have to add in that package, allowing Edmonton to get an asset in return instead of potentially having to part with one to clear a blueliner.  The Oilers would then be able to utilize Poolman and Evander Kane on LTIR, reducing the imminent need to free up any more cap room while Vancouver would get an NHL roster player in return for someone whose playing days are over.  It’s an odd idea on the surface but perhaps it becomes a palatable one before Edmonton has to decide on matching the offer sheets by Tuesday’s deadline.

Oilers Have Received Some Interest In Cody Ceci And Brett Kulak

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With the Blues tendering offer sheets to defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway, the Oilers now have to decide if they’re going to match those offers, even though it would put them more than $7MM over the salary cap.  While Evander Kane’s expected presence on LTIR would mitigate that in the short term, it’s fair to say that Edmonton will need to create some cap space at some point.  With several veterans on pricey long-term agreements who are unlikely to be moved, free agents who just signed, or players on low-cost contracts, there aren’t many viable candidates to make that happen.

Of the ones who potentially could be moved, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the Oilers are trying to get the contracts of blueliners Cody Ceci and Brett Kulak off their books.  Combined, the two carry a $6MM cap charge which still wouldn’t be enough to get cap-compliant when Kane is able to play but moving those two would at least get them compliant to start the season in conjunction with Kane’s $5.25MM AAV landing on LTIR.

Ceci has one year left on his contract with a $3.25MM price tag.  The 30-year-old has spent the last three seasons in Edmonton, playing in their top four with an ATOI of more than 20 minutes each year.  Last season, Ceci had five goals and 20 assists in 79 games while chipping in with five points in 22 playoff contests as the Oilers made it to the Stanley Cup Final.  As an expiring deal and being a right-shot defender, he might be the easier of the two to move even with the slightly higher cap hit and he does not have any trade protection on his deal.

Kulak, meanwhile, checks in at a $2.75MM AAV for the next two seasons.  Acquired at the 2022 trade deadline from Montreal, the 30-year-old has settled in nicely on Edmonton’s third pairing.  Last season, Kulak had three goals and 13 assists in 82 games while averaging 15:23 per night.  His playing time went up a bit in the postseason to 16:30 per contest while adding eight points in 25 appearances.  However, that price point for a third-pairing defender is on the high side which isn’t ideal in terms of trying to get top value for his services.  Kulak also does not have any trade protection in his contract.

To that end, while Garrioch relays that teams have shown interest in both players, it comes at a cost.  Not to the potential acquiring team, however.  Instead, he notes that with teams knowing that the Oilers are in a bind as a result of these offer sheets, they’re going to want compensation to be sent with the player to incentivize them to bail Edmonton out.  Garrioch suggests that the price tag to take a player on in both scenarios could be a first-round pick or a second-round selection.  Worth noting is that the Oilers don’t have either of those for the 2025 draft but do for 2026 and if they match the offer sheets, they won’t be getting any compensation from St. Louis.

Edmonton has seven days to make a decision on matching the offers to Broberg ($4.58MM) and Holloway ($2.29MM).  There’s a good chance that their ability (or lack thereof) to find a satisfactory trade for one or both of Ceci or Kulak will play a big role in the decisions on their two youngsters.

Gilles Léger Passes Away At Age 83

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The NHL is mourning the passing of Gilles Léger, a long-time executive who spent time with three organizations in a career spanning from 1979-2020. Outside of his work in the NHL, Léger spent time as a coach and a general manager in the CIAU and WHA.

After the World Hockey Association ceased operations at the end of the 1978-79 season, Léger made his way to the Quebec Nordiques as a director of player development in their first year of operations. Advancing to the role of assistant general manager for the team in 1984-85, Léger helped acquire the likes of Peter Forsberg, Guy Lafleur, Joe Sakic, Peter Stastny, and Mats Sundin to the expansion franchise. Unfortunately, with financial hardships leading to a sale of the Nordiques to COMSAT Entertainment Group after the 1994-95 season, Léger was not brought along with the team in their relocation to Denver, CO.

It would take three years for Léger to pick up another opportunity at the NHL level, this time with the Edmonton Oilers as a pro scout. When legendary general manager Glen Sather left the Oilers to take on the GM vacancy with the New York Rangers, Léger came along as a pro scout. The move to New York ended up being Léger’s last stop along his NHL journey. After two decades serving as a pro scout in the Rangers’ organization, Léger retired at the end of the 2019-20 season at 79 years old.

Léger’s story is of tremendous success as he parlayed a head coaching role with St. Francis Xavier University into four decades of work in the NHL. PHR sends our condolences to the Léger family.

West Notes: Mercer, Rantanen, Oilers

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The Wild have invited undrafted free agent goalie Riley Mercer to next month’s rookie camp, reports Mike Morreale of NHL.com. Mercer, the younger brother of Devils RFA forward Dawson Mercer, was passed over in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 drafts but came into his own in his final season of junior hockey last year with the QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs.

The 20-year-old Newfoundland native took over as the Voltigeurs’ starter for the first time in 2023-24, posting a 2.83 GAA and .905 SV% with two shutouts and a 31-13-4 record in 49 appearances. But he erupted in the playoffs, taking over with a shining 1.89 GAA and .934 SV% in 19 games as Drummondville won the QMJHL championship.

Mercer, who stands at 6’2″ and 205 lbs, hasn’t inked a professional contract for this season. He’s technically eligible to return to the Voltigeurs for an overage season, but CHL clubs are limited to three overagers on their roster at any given time and tend not to use those slots on goaltenders.

An entry-level contract with the Wild out of rookie camp is impossible but unlikely. However, a decent showing could earn him a deal with their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild, or their ECHL affiliate, the Iowa Heartlanders. It would be a tough numbers game, though, as the organization has seven goalies under contract across the three leagues already (five NHL deals, one AHL deal, and one ECHL deal).

More out of the Western Conference today:

  • Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman chimed into the summer discourse today with a quick-hit edition of his “32 Thoughts” podcast, mentioning, among other topics, that there’s a strong sense around the league that the Avalanche and Mikko Rantanen won’t have any issues coming to terms on an extension. “You start to do your planning a year out,” Friedman said. “They’re starting to take Draisaitl off their boards because they think that’s going to get done in Edmonton, and I had some teams tell me they don’t have any reason to believe, right now, that Rantanen is going to be a hard one to get done either. We’ll see where that goes” (hat tip to Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now). As things stand, Rantanen would be the consensus No. 2 player on the 2025 UFA market behind Draisaitl. The 27-year-old winger remained over the 100-point threshold in 2023-24, posting 42 goals and 62 assists in 80 games. An eight-year extension would feasibly eclipse the $11MM mark per year, a decent raise on his current $9.25MM AAV.
  • The Oilers should match the Blues’ two-year, $4.58MM offer sheet for Dylan Holloway but let Philip Broberg walk for his two-year, $9.16MM offer, argues Shayna Goldman of The Athletic (subscription required). Among other reasons, the likelihood of Holloway being worth his $2.29MM cap hit this season is much higher than Broberg providing fair value for his $4.58MM price tag, especially for a pair of former first-rounders at similar spots in their development.

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