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This in from the Edmonton Oilers, news that the team has recalled Philip Broberg, their 2019 first round draft pick, to the NHL from Bakersfield of the AHL.
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More to come…
My take
1. Broberg has been crushing it in the AHL, playing heavy minutes and excelling at them by all accounts. He’s got 35 points in 48 games and is +9. He’s over ripe, as we used to say of Ken Holland’s Detroit Red Wings prospects way back when. He’s more than ready for the NHL, having played almost a full NHL season between three years, and six seasons of pro hockey, three in Sweden, three in North America.
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2. Some folks will never forgive the Oilers for drafting Broberg eighth overall in the 2019 draft. It’s true that some players taken after him, such as Anaheim’s controversial Trevor Zegras, Minnesota’s Matt Boldy, Montreal’s Cole Caufield and Dallas’ Thomas Harley have developed fast than Broberg. Of course, it’s also true that the vast majority of players drafted after him and a few drafted ahead of him, such as Alex Turcotte and Kaapo Kakko, have yet to shine brightly. At this point, none of that matters, at least not nearly so much as whether or not Broberg will ever pan out for the Oilers, and there’s still an excellent chance he will do so.
3. Broberg is big, fast, fundamentally sound on defence and a brilliant skater. He’s already had a solid run of consistently good play at the NHL level during the 2022-23 season when he was on the third-pairing with Evan Bouchard. But at the trade deadline that year, Edmonton moved out a right shot d-man, Tyson Barrie, allowing Bouchard to move up the roster and onto the top power play unit, while it brought in a left shot d-man in Mattias Ekholm, putting Broberg behind one outstanding veteran in Ekholm, and two solid ones in Darnell Nurse and Brett Kulak.
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4. This year there was talk of Broberg switching over to the right side himself and teaming up with Ekholm, but after Edmonton’s rancid start, such experimentation was quickly abandoned, the coaches preferring to go with more veteran d-men like Kulak, Cody Ceci and Vincent Desharnais over Broberg. Fair enough. But this summer Edmonton will face a major cap crunch, meaning either Kulak or Ceci or both will be moved out along with their sizeable contracts. At the trade deadline, Ken Holland made it clear he wasn’t moving out Broberg or Dylan Holloway in order to improve the roster for this spring’s playoffs, but was holding them because they would soon be needed. I’ll be astonished if Broberg isn’t an Oilers regular next season.
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