Stan Bowman's Comments on Broberg and Holloway Offer Sheets Look Worse After New Info is Revealed

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Liam McCormick
December 2, 2024 (8:59 PM)

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Edmonton Oilers General Manager recently opened up about being surprised about the offer sheets to Broberg and Holloway, despite new information that multiple teams were interested in doing so.

In a recent interview with Daniel Nugent-Bowman of the Athletic, Bowman admitted he was taken aback by the offer sheets, given the fact that he just joined the Oilers and offer sheets are so rare.

DANIEL NUGENT BOWMAN: Were you surprised when that happened?

STAN BOWMAN: Yeah. Certainly, it's an uncommon situation. There's never been two at the same time. So, I can't say that I was expecting that I didn't have the same emotional connection with them that the players do, or the fans. I get that, and I was probably coming at it more from a pragmatic standpoint not from an emotional one.

Now, new reports from Jeff Marek today confirmed that the Calgary Flames and at least one other team was close to making an offer sheet to both Broberg and Holloway.

Oilers GM Stan Bowman Says He Was Surprised by Offer Sheets to Broberg and Holloway

Stan Bowman should get a bit of slack for the fact that he was hired in late July, and the offer sheets came just less than a month later.

Still, Broberg's agent Darren Ferris was reportedly orchestrating the offer sheets for some time, and even brought in Holloway's agent to the plan on purpose.

If Bowman was totally surprised by the offer sheets, with multiple teams in on them and both agents talking to each other - that's a failure from Bowman and Jeff Jackson to be properly communicating with Broberg and Holloway.

The real failure with the Broberg and Holloway situation came from Ken Holland, who reportedly ignored commands from upper management to sign both RFAs long ago. Still, Bowman and Jackson deserve their share of the fault for not anticipating an offer sheet.

These comments definitely look worse in the wake of the new report of the Flames nearing an offer sheet, too. It's already hard that the Oilers may regret losing Broberg for years to come, but knowing it was entirely preventable makes it sting even more.