Friday Feature: Broberg Restoring Confidence With Condors

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BAKERSFIELD, Ca. - No doubt about it, it's been a tough few months for Philip Broberg.

The eighth pick overall by the Edmonton Oilers in 2019 NHL Entry Draft, the fast-skating, 6-foot-3, 203-pound left-shot defenseman appeared to be on the cusp of breaking into the NHL full time in October when he was on the Oilers’ opening-day roster.

Not so fast.

The 22-year old played 10 games with the Oil, mostly under 11-forward, 7-defensemen configurations with limited ice time under then head coach Jay Woodcroft before being sent to the AHL and the Bakersfield Condors on Nov. 3.

His stint with the Condors was short - just four games over 10 days - before being recalled to Edmonton on Nov. 15.

Back in Edmonton - under new head coach Kris Knoblauch and assistant Paul Coffey after the firing of Woodcroft on assistant Dave Manson on Nov. 12 - Broberg was sitting in the stands on a regular basis.

The resurgent Oilers - 3-9-1 before Woodcoft’s firing - were winning with consistency and the six defenseman ahead of him playing well enough that Broberg played a very limited role in just two of 14 Oilers games before reports surfaced early last week that his agent asked for a trade.

Instead, he was loaned to the Condors on Dec. 7, joining the team in Ontario and immediately raking up 20-plus minutes of ice time. Those two teams played in Bakersfield the next night and on Tuesday morning Broberg played in his third game in five days - by far his busiest workload since last season.

"They talked to me," Broberg said of Oilers management before he was sent down to Bakersfield. " [They] told me to just go and play. I think I've done that in these games. I'm trying to feel confident in my game and play as well as I can and help the team win."

And play he has.

Broberg averaged around seven minutes a game in his last three outings with the Oilers. He is averaging more than 20 minutes over his last three games with the Condors.

"Nobody's ever happy being sent down, or they shouldn't be," said Condors General Manager Keith Gretzky. "But just talking to him he understands he's got to play. He's got to play with confidence. In Edmonton, you make a mistake - you had mostly seven D when he played - so you make a mistake and probably sat.

"Here, you can watch (rookie) Max Wanner go out, he'll make a boo-boo with the puck and K Mac (assistant coach Keith McCambridge) throws him right back out. K Mac's doing the same thing with Broberg: Don't worry about making a mistake, play with confidence."

In addition to regular shifts, Broberg is getting time on the Condors' power play and penalty kill units.

"The first two games I was feeling it for sure," Broberg said of the vastly increased workload. "But it goes pretty quick to get (game shape) back again."

Condors Head Coach Colin Chaulk said he and his staff will do all they can to further Broberg's development.

"He's got to refresh himself to get efficient on playing 20-plus minutes a night, which he's not used to doing in quite some time," Chaulk said. "He knows that, the organization knows that. It’s our job down here to get him back up and running."

Putting Broberg on the ice in all situations is part of that development but Chaulk said he wants that time to be meaningful.

"You want those to be efficient minutes, good minutes, valuable minutes," Chaulk said. "We understand you're not ever going to have a perfect 60 minutes in a team game or an individual match. (But) try to get that as close as you can."

In other words, be consistently good.

"We want him to play and be a factor out there," Gretzky said. "One thing he has is a great attitude. He just wants to play. He played 24 minutes Tuesday. He's going to get his ice time but he also has to take advantage of that. There's a difference of saying I played 24 minutes and saying I played 24 minutes and had a really good game. That's what we want out of him every night."

For his part, Broberg said he wants to work on his game as a whole.

"Playing a lot and getting my confidence back," he said.  Playing big minutes and an important role as well. Being tough down low, follow up a rush and hopefully score some more goals.

"Consistency comes with playing a lot as well. Playing regularly, every game, I want to be even more consistent in my game."

Broberg scored his first goal on Tuesday when, while deep in his own zone, he saw a potential rush develop, skated hard down the left side of the ice to catch up with the play and ended up with a tap-in.

"I was trying to be on the D side and the puck came out and I just went for it," Broberg said. "It was nice to see it go in."

Going forward, Broberg will see plenty of ice time with the Condors.

What he does with it, is up to him.

"We want him to be very dominant every game," Gretzky said. "That is our goal for him. So he can slide right into that top 6 (at the NHL level). How long that takes, that's up to him and up to Edmonton."

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