Philip Broberg, an oiler, is reportedly looking for a trade. Reasons for his possible movement
EDMONTON – Philip Broberg has most likely played his final game for the Edmonton Oilers. The 22-year-old defenseman is expected to be traded very soon, according to a source briefed on the matter who spoke to The Athletic under the condition of anonymity. The source also mentioned that other teams are showing a lot of interest in Broberg. The original reports that Broberg’s representation is seeking a trade came from ESPN’s Kevin Weekes and Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. Broberg’s agent is Darren Ferris.
According to Ryan Rishaug of TSN, Oilers general manager Ken Holland denied giving Broberg’s agent the right to negotiate a trade with other teams.
According to Holland, “I have not granted permission,” The Athletic was informed.
It is anticipated that the Oilers will look to acquire a young player in exchange for Broberg’s $863,334 cap hit.
Despite averaging 10:32 of ice time, Broberg has played in 10 games for the Oilers this season without recording any points.
Broberg skated in a six-defenseman lineup in each of the first three games of the season, once on the left and twice on the right. In his last seven games, he has played little and the Oilers have dressed seven blueliners.
Before being called up on November 15th due to Dylan Holloway’s long-term injury, Broberg played in four games for the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL. Since being called up from the minor leagues, he has appeared in two of the eight games.
The Oilers have been fortunate to have a healthy defense both this season and last, in addition to being in what they hope will be their Stanley Cup window.
Since the 2022–23 season started, Cody Ceci is the only defenseman ranked in the top five to have missed time. He missed two games at the end of the previous season in order to give birth to his first child, so his absence wasn’t even caused by illness. All of that has contributed to Broberg’s difficulty getting into the Oilers’ lineup.
According to the source, Edmonton is a difficult place for a young defenseman.
The worst thing that has happened to Broberg this season is that he was injured before training camp by fellow Swede Mattias Ekholm, who suffered a hip flexor/groin injury.
During the summer, assistant coach Mark Stuart visited Broberg in Stockholm. In order to get Broberg ready for his next assignment—which is to be paired with the seasoned Ekholm—Stuart showed him multiple clips of him playing on the right side. Although both players are lefties, Broberg is more at ease playing on the right side due to his wealth of experience there.
Rather, those plans were derailed by Ekholm’s injury, which kept him out of the exhibition schedule and caused an 8-1 loss in the season’s opening game in Vancouver. Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard were meant to play together, but after Ekholm returned for the season’s second game, that partnership was dissolved. Broberg was discarded and Ekholm and Bouchard were reunited.
Broberg is still attempting to establish himself as a regular NHL player as a result. Holland, who was chosen eighth overall by the Oilers in the 2019 draft, is in his fifth season as general manager of the team.
Trevor Zegras, Matthew Boldy, Cole Caufield, and other excellent forwards from the US National Team Development Program were passed over in favor of Broberg by Holland. At the time, the Oilers could have used a cheap, young player to skate beside Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.
When Holland managed the Red Wings, he resided in the Detroit suburb of Northville, Michigan. The home rink of the development team is located in Plymouth, ten minutes’ drive away from Northville. Holland thought Broberg was better than any of them.
The Oilers took their time with Broberg, letting him grow in the Swedish Hockey League with Skellefteå for two seasons following the draft before bringing him to North America and signing him to an entry-level deal. Broberg’s organizational perspective remained extremely lofty.
In February 2022, Holland stated to The Athletic that he anticipated Broberg to move to the left of Nurse on the Edmonton blue line for an extended period of time.
Holland predicted that the young defenseman would rank among the top four in the National Hockey League. “I don’t think that’s a question.”
Defenseman Jakob Chychrun was being linked to Edmonton by last fall and was eager to leave Arizona. But it was considered a non-starter to include Broberg in a trade of that kind because some in the Oilers organization believed Broberg would be as good as Chychrun as soon as that season ended.
Rather, Ekholm was acquired by the Oilers in a trade that most obviously excluded Broberg, and Chychrun was dealt to Ottawa prior to the trade deadline.
However, that trade put a larger bottleneck in front of the youthful rearguard. Holland struggled with whether to trade Broberg or someone else to clear a spot on the roster before the June draft.
“I need to take care of that in the coming weeks,” Holland stated to The Athletic. However, I don’t think that playing five minutes a day in the seven hole is doing anything to further his professional development. He must play for fifteen to twenty minutes.
