Oilers Rumored Mistake Allowing Blues to Snag Broberg is Inaccurate

There’s a rumor going around that the Edmonton Oilers made a fatal mistake at the end of last season that allowed the St. Louis Blues to tender an offer sheet to Philip Broberg. The mistake has brought on criticism from fans who said the Oilers should have done a better job understanding the CBA. Admittedly, I thought this was a rule as well until more digging uncovered that it wasn’t.

That rule is that a restricted free agent must have played in three professional seasons and played in 80 games to be eligible for an offer sheet. Broberg has played in 81, (with 20 more playoff games added to that total). As such, talk that the Oilers calling up the defenseman to play in the final two meaningless games of the 2023/24 season ended up costing them the player, and potentially Dylan Holloway too (since the Blues likely don’t make the offer sheet on one person).

The rule as was understood by many is not entirely accurate.

I don't care what it costs, the Oilers, as an organization, desperately need to hire someone who fundamentally understands every word and all 517 pages of the CBA, and what it means (as well as what it doesn't say).

For example, bringing up Broberg to play the last two… https://t.co/aDlgXpGV4A pic.twitter.com/Wh9krrcdl6

— Kevin McCurdy (@McCurdy1987) August 20, 2024

As the dust settles on the successful offer sheet acquisitions of Broberg and Dylan Holloway from the Oilers on Tuesday, it was a blow to the Oilers to lose two of their youngest prospects. To potentially find out that this could have been avoided simply by ensuring Broberg did not play in 80 games makes the news a real gut punch. However, clarification in the CBA suggests that these 80 games don’t apply in the Broberg situation.

As sourced out by Jean-Francois C. on X.com/Twitter:

“You need 3 professional seasons to be eligible for Group 2 RFA. A professional season is 10 pro games when the player is 20 years old or older. Broberg played 59 pro games in 2021-2022, 62 pro games in 2022-2023 and 73 pro games in 2023-2024.”

He is 23 years old now.

Essentially, Broberg would have fit the criteria for an offer sheet whether he’d have played in those last few regular season games or not.

Next: Bowman Says Decision by Oilers to Decline Offer Sheets a Money Move