December 5, 2023 by Ryan Lotsberg

Multiple reports surfaced on Tuesday indicating that the Edmonton Oilers have given Philip Broberg and his agent, Darren Ferris, permission to seek a trade to another team. Kevin Weekes suggested that the trade would have to be dollar for dollar given the Oilers’ cap situation, which is only partially accurate. The Oilers can’t take money on, but they could include Broberg in a package for another player. Frank Seravalli suggested that the Oilers aren’t interested in acquiring a draft pick for Broberg and that they would rather have a player back. Daniel Nugent-Bowman published an article on the subject on Tuesday. Ryan Rishaug added this:

Ken Holland says he has NOT granted permission for Darrin Ferris to shop for a Broberg trade.

Holland – "I have not granted permission to Derrin to shop Broberg"

Ferris response

"This matter reflects both my and my client's frustration with the Oilers…. /

— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) December 6, 2023

Mark Spector added this on Tuesday:

Can confirm Ryan’s fine work here, re: Holland.
Sounds very much like Broberg has had it with Oilers usage of him – I can not blame the player for that – and team has shopped him but not found a deal to their liking.
Meanwhile, 1 injury and Broberg is a regular. https://t.co/qSgPYOScOr

— Mark Spector🇨🇦🇺🇦 (@SportsnetSpec) December 6, 2023

Broberg is in his draft plus five season. The 2019 eighth overall pick has scored eleven points in 79 games with the Oilers in the last three seasons. He has yet to cement a place among the Oilers top six defencemen. Injuries have slowed Broberg’s development, but he is certainly not at the level that GM Ken Holland thought he would be at by now.

I don’t blame Broberg for being frustrated with the way that the early part of his career has gone in Edmonton. He’s shown that he can contribute at the NHL, albeit as a low event bottom pairing defenceman at most to this point. The Oilers are in “win now” mode, and the team isn’t giving ice time to young players during this time where the expectations for success are sky high. Broberg is one of the few players that has received measures of accountability in the form of receiving less ice time when he makes a mistake over the course of the last few seasons. Sometimes it has been deserved, and other times it hasn’t been deserved.

I would tend to agree with Seravalli’s notion that the Oilers wouldn’t want a draft pick in this case. A draft pick won’t help them win now, unless they could flip that pick for a roster player.

Nugent-Bowman wrote that the Oilers “…are expected to be seeking a young player in the same price range as Broberg’s $863,334 cap hit in return.” To me, that reads like the Oilers expect to get a prospect of similar draft pedigree who could also benefit from a change of scenery. Nugent-Bowman didn’t specify which position the Oilers hope this young player would play.

The Oilers need more depth scoring, and the right wing lacks depth. Raphael Lavoie got a six game audition with the Oilers recently, but didn’t fare all that well. There’s a young right winger that has a wicked shot that’s in a similar situation to Broberg’s.

Oliver Wahlstrom was drafted eleventh overall by the New York Islanders in the 2018 draft. He played in 74 games in his sophomore season, but a serious knee injury suffered last season has slowed Walhstrom down. Wahlstrom has appeared in seventeen games for the Islanders this season, and he only has five points. He’s been mostly relegated to a checking role when he’s been in the lineup. Adding another right winger coming off a serious knee injury doesn’t sound like the best move the Oilers could make right now, but Wahlstrom is the type of player that makes sense in this situation. Holland has drafted a lot of shooters in his Oilers tenure, and Wahlstrom fits that description as a prospect.

Lassi Thomson of the Ottawa Senators, Ty Smith of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Victor Soderstrom of the Arizona Coyotes are the three defencemen that could be options.

Thomson has some potential, and Senators President of Hockey Operations and acting GM Steve Staios has a relationship with the Oilers, so he likely knows Broberg well. 

Bob Stauffer was a big proponent of Smith’s in the 2018 draft. Smith fell to seventeenth overall and has already been traded once. Smith got nine NHL games with the Penguins last season, but spent most of the season in the AHL. He hasn’t played an NHL game yet this season. I would call Smith a downgrade from Broberg.

Related: Broberg’s Development Versus Swedish Draft Comparables

Soderstrom was taken three spots after Broberg in the 2019 draft. He has only managed to get into 50 NHL games with the Coyotes. Like Broberg, Soderstrom just hasn’t been able to grab onto an NHL roster spot.

Thomson and Soderstrom are both right-handed. The Oilers have more prospect depth on the right side with Beau Akey, Maximus Wanner, and Phil Kemp in the system. However, none of those players are ready to step into NHL roles yet. Thomson or Soderstrom would be more NHL-ready recall options on the right side. The Oilers have Markus Niemelainen and Ben Gleason on the left side, both of which have at least played NHL games. It would at least make a little bit of sense to swap Broberg for a righty like Thomson or Soderstrom.

Although this is less likely, the Oilers could also try to use Broberg as part of a package to unload an expensive contract to create some cap space for themselves. As much as it would suck to trade a top ten draft pick for cap space, it could easily be viewed as a win in this specific scenario because cap space is a more valuable asset in the flat cap era than it ever has been.

The league recently announced that the projected cap for next season will be $87.625 million, which is a $4.175 million increase over this year’s cap. The Oilers will be dinged for Connor Brown’s $3.225 million performance bonus less the amount of cap space the team accrues this season next year. Reducing cap spending this year will make their lives easier next year. Using Broberg to do that would be helpful.

The elephant in the room right now is Jack Campbell. Campbell has struggled this season. He was sent to the AHL to figure his game out. He had three poor games, three good games, and a decent game where he allowed two soft goals in his most recent outing. Those two soft goals are worrisome to everyone involved. Many media members have said that Campbell will get another chance with the Oilers, but we know the Oilers have been scouring the goalie market. They surely have been trying to find a way to move Campbell’s contract. There isn’t much incentive for a team to take on Campbell’s contract, but perhaps a package with a young player like Broberg could be an incentive for a team with cap space to take Campbell off the Oilers’ hands. Broberg alone likely wouldn’t be enough to get a team to take Campbell, but the idea still stands.

Broberg and a first rounder might be enough to get the San Jose Sharks to take Campbell and give Mackenzie Blackwood to the Oilers. There are a lot of rumours around the Oilers and the Columbus Blue Jackets right now, specifically regarding Elvis Merzlikins. I don’t see Broberg being involved in that potential swap because the Blue Jackets are drowning in defencemen already.

The contract that Broberg gets used to move doesn’t have to be Campbell’s. It could be Cody Ceci’s contract. Perhaps Broberg and Ceci could be packaged for an upgrade on the right side of the second pairing. It’s not often the Calgary Flames make trades with the Oilers, but we just saw them trade with the Vancouver Canucks, so anything is possible. Chris Tanev would be a great fit for the Oilers for this season. The Flames would have to retain a small portion of Tanev’s cap hit to make that trade work, but it wouldn’t be a significant number.

Related: Philip Broberg continues to compare favourably to a beloved former Oiler

I still feel that there’s a good player in Broberg, but it’s appearing less and less likely that he will evolve into that player with the Oilers. Spector reported that the Oilers have shopped Broberg, but the return has not been to their liking. This sounds like the Jesse Puljujarvi situation all over again, which is unfortunate. The expectations for a return on Puljujarvi were too high, and the team eventually had to give him up for nothing. It would be a shame to have that happen with another former top ten pick. That’s the one scenario that can’t play out with Broberg right now. This asset needs to turn into something that can help the team win.