Broberg Appreciation

[sneptsmoustache]

His skating ability and poise ... he is just so much fun to watch. He really does deserve a thread like this. We couldn't have asked for a much better individual start to a Blues career.

His stickwork and positioning in the defensive zone as well. Not flashy in the D-zone but he quietly breaks up so many plays before they have a chance to develop. He saves the flash for the end-to-end wraparounds

[2forDiving]

I thought Broberg was an absolute steal for a 2nd rd pick the day Army signed him but he’s far exceeded the expectations I had for him. An absolute fleecing.

And getting Holloway for a 3rd might be an even bigger heist.*

I still can’t believe Edmonton didn’t match them. I can see why they didn’t match Broberg as they would’ve had to have done some pretty major maneuvering to make it work but they got SJ to take Ceci and they still didn’t match either!

Holloway was an easy match IMO. I recall saying the entire time that I would be surprised if they let Holloway go as his cost wasn’t as high and he was worth way way more than a 3rd. They could’ve matched but for whatever reason, didn’t. Maybe they were convinced Holloway just didn’t want to be there so they just cut their losses and moved on? I would’ve matched and then if the player didn’t seem happy, then look to trade him for fair value, not lose him for a 3rd!

I will continue to say that I bet the Oilers likely win the 2025 Cup over Florida if they didn’t screw ho the 2024 off-season as badly as they did. They let all their cheaper youth just walk out the door! Such a horrible self inflicted wound. Signing pretty obviously bad UFAs and thus not leaving enough money to re-sign Broberg, Holloway and McLeod. We talk about the first 2 here a lot but the McLeod trade was really dumb of them too. They traded McLeod to Buffalo for an undersized prospect that had been struggling to overcome the size disadvantage and McLeod instantly leveled up from a 30 pt player to two seasons of 53 and 54 pts for Buffalo. They traded all 3 right before a lot of players really come into their own and finally reach their potential. Edmonton has completely bungled the primes of two of the game’s best forwards - McDavid and Draisaitl.

*yes, I’m aware the Blues also sent EDM an additional 3rd rounder and prospect Paul Fischer to sweeten the pot for them to not match both offer sheets as well as the cost to get our 2025 2nd back (we send the Pens our 2026 2nd and an additional 2025 3rd we had for them to return our 2025 2nd but we also got a 2026 5th rounder so the cost was basically the difference between a 3rd and 5th rd pick). Still an absolute heist.

This is a great point to add McLeod into this. It was like a weird pre-cap 80s or 90s scenario where Edmonton loaded up on old talent, but forgot it was the 2020s cap era and you gotta have the $$ for the young guys. I don't know how the Blues got away with it. Let's hope that 2025 future Cup win transferers with Holloway and Broberg.

My bad memory forgets the timing of this. Had McDavid extended at that point? Perhaps Oilers were freeing up cap space? If so, when did management know he'd take a discount?

McDavid was already on a deal and so was Draisaitl for one more year. What wrecked Edmonton was going out and needlessly signing Jeff Skinner and Arvidsson. Especially since Holloway likely contributes more than both of them. Holloway had 63 pts here, the aforementioned two combined for 56 in Edmonton.