Edmonton Oilers and St. Louis Blues make a trade minutes after offer sheet decision

With official word that the Edmonton Oilers will not match offer sheets for players Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from the St. Louis Blues, the two teams have pulled off a quick but somewhat puzzling trade.

Edmonton is getting a third-round pick from the Blues, over and above the picks the team gets as compensation for the successful offer sheets, as well as unsigned 19-year-old defenceman Paul Fischer. In return, the Blues get future considerations.

Fischer was drafted in the fifth round, 138th overall, in the latest NHL Entry Draft. He has yet to sign an entry-level contract. The successful offer sheets for Broberg and Holloway are the first since the Jesperi Kotkaniemi offer sheet by the Carolina Hurricanes in 2021. They are also just the third and fourth successful offer sheets in NHL history.

This may have been an agreement between the Blues and Oilers to convince Edmonton to let go of Broberg and Holloway, but there's no way of knowing that for sure. In the meantime, new Oilers General Manager Stan Bowman has had to deal with a heap of issues in his short time in his new position. He now has to replace two players who were part of the team's future plans.