Oilers coach flies to Sweden to prepare Broberg for permanent position change
The Oilers are looking to switch Broberg to right side permanently to get their best defence pairings, and the coaches are putting in work to do so.
With the Oilers sitting at 2.5M over the cap right now and Broberg still needing a contract, it's obvious that the Oilers are going to move someone out to save some cap space. The best candidate for this right now is Cody Ceci, even though this would leave a hole open on the right side of the Oilers' defense. The Oilers seemingly have a plan to fix this that they tried last year, which they seemingly will head back to for the preseason.
This is obviously something the Oilers really want to happen, if they're willing to fly their assistant out to Sweden just to try and get this plan to work. It does make a lot of sense too, as Broberg played amazingly in the playoffs. He showed he is definitely ready to be an NHL ready defender, which puts the Oilers in a great position.
Their plan would be to run Nurse and Bouchard on the first pairing, followed by Ekholm and Broberg, with Kulak and one of Brown or Stecher on the last pairing. If Broberg doesn't play on the second line they would have to play one of Brown, Kulak or Stecher on the second line which could end up very poorly.
Broberg coming to the NHL has been great for the Oilers and has freed up a lot of room for Jeff Jackson to make more moves. He is going to outperform whatever contract he ends up signing and make a huge impact on the blue line no matter where he plays. Playing him on his off side makes more sense for the lineup, and hopefully is a task he'd be willing to take on.
| POLL | ||
Who do you want to see Broberg paired with? | ||
| Nurse on the second line | 132 | 35.3 % |
| Ekholm on the second line | 89 | 23.8 % |
| Kulak on the third line | 114 | 30.5 % |
| Stecher on the third line | 39 | 10.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
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