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The offer sheet avenue is not one that is taken often, which is the reason while the double-barreled action taken by the St. Louis Blues on Edmonton Oilers youngsters Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg took the league by surprise earlier this week. The Oilers are in a precarious position, with the combined salary of the two players close to $7 million the next two seasons, which would be the same period when Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard are eligible or are in need of extensions.
The Blues reportedly were asking for Broberg and Holloway in a potential deal for Pavel Buchnevich before they signed him to a long-term extension and the Oilers have until next week to make a decision whether to match on both players, which might entail them putting injured forward Evander Kane on LTIR to open up cap space.
Other clubs like Carolina with Seth Jarvis, Detroit with Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, Buffalo with Peyton Krebs, and Boston with Jeremy Swayman are not in the same dire straits as Edmonton, since they have the cap flexibility to match a potential offer sheet. The Toronto Maple Leafs on the other hand may be in a pickle when it comes to RFA forward Nick Robertson.
The Leafs have $1.28 million in available cap space according to Puckpedia, and unlike Broberg and Holloway, who played less than half the season in the NHL, Robertson scored 14 goals for Toronto in 56 games last season. Now while there may have been some underlying motivation on the part of Blues GM Doug Armstrong to stick it to Edmonton that may not be present with the Leafs, the 22-year-old winger has made it clear publicly that he is looking to play someplace else.
St. Louis went right up to the limit for Broberg to give a second-round pick in compensation, and the same to give a third-round pick for Holloway, so is it impossible that a club interested in acquiring a young goal scorer to do the same for Robertson?
The Leafs are low on draft picks, but the value of Robertson on the open market and as a potential top-nine option under new head coach Craig Berube would make it likely that GM Brad Treliving would match the offer.
Is there is a team out there who will go down the road that St. Louis just did for Robertson?
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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