Edmonton Oilers biggest rival reportedly tried to land Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg this summer

PUBLICATION

Tom Banks
December 2, 2024 (8:57 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

The Edmonton Oilers lost two young players to offer sheets this summer, but according to reports, the Calgary Flames were close to doing so as well.

This past summer was a wild one for the Edmonton Oilers, with the biggest story of all being the shock double offer sheet for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from the St. Louis Blues, which the team decided not to match.

There was reportedly plenty of interest in both players, but in the end, it was Doug Armstrong who took the leap and ultimately landed the two young names, but now an intriguing new report has emerged.

According to a report from Jeff Marek, it was the Oilers' Battle of Alberta rival the Calgary Flames that were eyeing up Holloway and Broberg, but for some reason, GM Craig Conroy didn't end up pulling the trigger.

But the interesting thing in all of this - two other teams were interested in trying to get all the necessary ingredients to offer sheet Broberg and Holloway. It sounds very much like one of the teams was the Calgary Flames I still don't know who the third team was. That may remain a white whale for me, we shall see. It sounds very much like Calgary was one of the other teams in pursuit of the offer sheet for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.

Given the Flames' need for young forwards, especially one's from Alberta, it's shocking that they didn't end up at least extending an offer sheet to Holloway, as the team would love to have his high-end talent in their middle-six right now.

While GM Stan Bowman didn't match the Blues offer, Marek suggests that perhaps if it were the Flames to make the offer sheet, things could have been different with the way it was handled.

Just consider what that would've done to the Battle of Alberta, and if there would've been anymore pressure on Edmonton to try and maneouver their player personnel in order to match the offer, knowing that it was the provincial rival.

Ultimately though, the Oilers lost both to the Blues in a shocking turn of events, which may end up being a huge mistake given the production that both have given St. Louis this season, but had it been the Flames, we could have been seeing a very different summer for Edmonton.