On Tuesday, Kevin Weekes broke the news that the Edmonton Oilers had given permission to Philip Broberg and his camp to speak with other teams in the hopes that a trade could be facilitated.

Broberg, a left shot defenseman that was drafted 8th overall in 2019, is a big and fast defender from Sweden. This was Ken Holland's first draft with the Edmonton Oilers and at the time the pick was seen by many (myself included) as a reach.

Players like Cole Caufield, Matt Boldy, and most notably Trevor Zegras were all on the board at this time. In terms of Best Player Available... Broberg was not it.

Flash forward to today where five years later, Broberg is still not playing regular games in the NHL. Broberg has played a total of 79 games in three different seasons but hasn't shown enough to garner a long term look as a regular top six defender. For a team like Edmonton that has never been overly deep on the blueline; not being able to crack that lineup is a notch against Broberg.

The issue now is while the blueline is still not deep, the left side for the Oilers consists of Ekholm, Nurse, and Kulak and Broberg has not given reason to suggest he should replace anyone on that list.

Broberg has gone from "an untouchable piece" to a player that will likely be sold at his lowest possible value. This is another mark against Holland and the scouting and development departments. As I have written before, the Oilers simply have not done a good job in the last decade at developing NHL talent.

The best the Oilers can likely hope for is to acquire a player in a similar situation as Broberg, a higher draft pick that hasn't panned out and hope the change of scenery sparks something in their play. Perhaps that is another blueliner or maybe a bottom six role forward.

The timing of this is interesting and one can't help but think that with Jeff Jackson now likely calling the shots, his allegiance to Broberg is far lesser than the lame-duck GM that is waiting for his contract to finish.

Thanks for reading

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