Confirmed with Link: Oilers sign Connor Brown to 1-year incentive laden deal ($775K caphit, potentially $3.25M in bonuses)

[guymez]

On the whole losing Bjugstad, Kostin. Yama ( i don't care) and gaining one player isn't the slamdunk "improvement" its being made out to be in this thread.

A lot of concern comes from the view that this is pretty much it. that the team is capstrapped desperately and still has to sign Bouch, McLeod etc. Its not a given we're better in anyway and we kind of have to be. Particularly at goaltending position, and its looking like nothing on that front.

Yamamoto is not a top 6 player on a SC contending team. So very fact that the team was able to get Detroit to take him was a net positive because it opened up $3.1M in cap space.

Bjugstad is an easily replaceable player. Slow footed 4th line centre is essentially what he is.
He will be 31 years old this season and now has a $2.1M cap hit. Poor value for a SC contending team like the Oilers. Arizona is the kind of team that can afford to overpay on a player like Bjugstad.
I wasnt even interested in having Holland sign him and I stated as much just after the season ended. Long before we knew what he would sign for.

Lastly...the Connor Brown side of this has been talked about endlessly at this point and is quickly becoming a pointless circular argument.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Draisaitl is gone in two years. He grew up Köln, big city, night life. I wish it wasn’t so…. But he’s out of here.

Yep. He will be. Hopefully we get somewhere before then.

Sorry man, but replacing Yamo and Kostin with Connor Brown is not going all-in. It's a lateral move addressing what is statistically and objectively the least important position in the entire sport.

If this is the move that is us going 'all-in', and it should, as we are severely hampering our cap next year in order to get this guy on the cheap this year, then what a fail it is. Where is our major defensive upgrade? Goalie? The positions of weakness for this club?

Well expressed. For sure I don't see Brown as any kind of all in. doesnt' even address our needs.

 

[BlackDogg]

Oilkers? Is that a combination of Elks and Oilers?

The Edmonton Elks and the Solars

 

[Frank the Tank]

Next year is mainly important to Holland. Because he knows he's not going to be here after that.

It's not that next year is the "only" year to go for it,= it's a selfish move made by a man who doesn't care about the next GM's position here. He knows it's not going to be him (or his son) and so who gives a crap is his reasoning.

Going back to your Draisaitl concern, the Oilers having success this upcoming season is more important so that Holland or his successor can negotiate his contract extension in a more positive environment one year from today.

 

[Soundwave]

Yamamoto is not a top 6 player on a SC contending team. So very fact that the team was able to get Detroit to take him was a net positive because it opened up $3.1M in cap space.

Amazing then as of like 6 weeks ago the Oilers management group apparently thought he was. Were we not trying to win the Cup the last two years?

Going back to your Draisaitl concern, the Oilers having success this upcoming season is more important so that Holland or his successor can negotiate his contract extension in a more positive environment one year from today.

Holland is not going to be here, so he doesn't give a crap.

 

[duul]

This. Basically none of the posters now finding out about the full details are in support of it. None of the posters saying it was slamdunk great deal earlier in day are saying anything now. When its more important to berate anybody with a divergent opinion you know some are getting nervous too, but won't admit it.

The ten games thing is like Monty Python clause to me. A complete joke. As I stated why even have it. We lost Bjugstad as well. We still may not have enough to sign all of Booch, McLeod, Skinner.

You missed it but I said yesterday that most contending teams have to pare roster down AFTER they have had their cup win. We're paring roster without winning jackshit. Holland just painted himself in a foreseeable corner. The price you have to pay to be Oilers fans I guess..


Ummmm. hate to mention it

Yep, I could understand the logic that getting a 60-70 point player who plays all our games this year for 4 million might be worthwhile, and maybe it is. The fact that this is such a risk and the bonus is tossed to him next year when he isn't even here, after ten games played -- nobody should attempt to defend that.

Monty Python, you said it. We also lost Bjugstad, you're right. Bjugstad and Kostin being two of our better forward in the playoffs, the time of the year anyone should care about anymore. We know how Connor Brown has traditionally played in the playoffs.

It's unfortunately evident at this place that the team cannot win a Cup with the defence and goaltending we do. When you have so many misses like Holland has, they add up. The few solid 4th line signings and trades like Ekholm do not remedy this.

Don't like to be the pessimist usually, but it feels like this is an obvious bandaid on a torpedo impact. The damage is done, we are going to be 'retooling' here in a year.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Yamamoto is not a top 6 player on a SC contending team. So very fact that the team was able to get Detroit to take him was a net positive because it opened up $3.1M in cap space.

Bjugstad is an easily replaceable player. Slow footed 4th line centre is essentially what he is.
He will be 31 years old this season and now has a $2.1M cap hit. Poor value for a SC contending team like the Oilers. Arizona is the kind of team that can afford to overpay on a player like Bjugstad.
I wasnt even interested in having Holland sign him and I stated as much just after the season ended. Long before we knew what he would sign for.

Lastly...the Connor Brown side of this has been talked about endlessly at this point and is quickly becoming a pointless circular argument with yourself and a few others.

Whatever ones opinion on the respective players we've lost 3 starting players to this point and added one. unless one counts Drake Caggiulia pt 3, good god...lol

Amazing then as of like 6 weeks ago the Oilers management group apparently thought he was. Were we not trying to win the Cup the last two years?



Holland is not going to be here, so he doesn't give a crap.

I liked this because its the kind of doublespeak plays the org makes and for some reason the fans continue to just go "oh yeah"

The whole board mirroring that. people here would fight me they like Yams so much. Everybody liked Kostin, wasn't a poster that didn;t. people here applauded the Bjugstad addition too. Now all gone. But progress pilgrim, the way forward..

 

[guymez]

Whatever ones opinion on the respective players we've lost 3 starting players to this point and added one. unless one counts Drake Caggiulia, good god...lol

Well...good to know that you now consider Yamamoto a net loss.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Well...good to know that you now consider Yamamoto a net loss.

Nah, just including him as a live body. Or size wise half of one.

My written continuity continues notwithstanding some dekes and fakes. hehe

Doege sucks. Whoops!

 

[OilerTyler]

Sorry man, but replacing Yamo and Kostin with Connor Brown is not going all-in. It's a lateral move addressing what is statistically and objectively the least important position in the entire sport.

If this is the move that is us going 'all-in', and it should, as we are severely hampering our cap next year in order to get this guy on the cheap this year, then what a fail it is. Where is our major defensive upgrade? Goalie? The positions of weakness for this club?

It doesn't really make sense to complain about replacing Yamamoto and Kostin with Brown while also complaining about not upgrading our defence in the same post. The ~$4 million in cap savings this year from those moves are the only reason our defence didn't have to get worse. One of Kulak or Ceci were most likely next on the chopping block.

I have yet to see one of these complainers actually provide an alternative to these moves. Who else could we have signed for 775k for the top six this season? How would they have fit Yamo and Kostin under the cap while upgrading our defence? Maybe we should've just given up on trying to improve this year so that we don't have a cap penalty next season when the cap goes up anyway.

 

[Drivesaitl]

It doesn't really make sense to complain about replacing Yamamoto and Kostin with Brown while also complaining about not upgrading our defence in the same post. The ~$4 million in cap savings this year from those moves are the only reason our defence didn't have to get worse. One of Kulak or Ceci were most likely next on the chopping block.

I have yet to see one of these complainers actually provide an alternative to these moves. Who else could we have signed for 775k for the top six this season? How would they have fit Yamo and Kostin under the cap while upgrading our defence? Maybe we should've just given up on trying to improve this year so that we don't have a cap penalty next season when the cap goes up anyway.

The point by point minutiae of what would one do next if one had boobytrapped themselves is another common invective. Many posters here including who you were speaking with were not in favor of the Nurse contract or the Campbell contract etc. Some prudence on the part of a pro sport GM is required. Some forward thinking too. you can't just throw 9.5M at Nurse longterm and not think that will not have any consequence. Nor Campbell at price paid. Other teams found goalies at far less pay, including the SC champs that beat us.

So the question what you would do after the GM f***ed himself over is asking somebody here to perform a Houdini.

Its not a given either that Ceci or Kulak remain.

 

[Kanedogg]

That’s what I thought. I’d actually love to talk about the Oilers but it gets kind of hard with the constant and endless negative harping on about every move they make. He did exactly what everyone always begs for. He used a creative way to upgrade a position on the team while also shedding cap for free, and he’s not “screwing over the next gm” which is hilarious because he’s probably still going to be gm next year, but he’s trying to maximize one of the teams best chances to win a cup.

Which gm put him in such a cap mess where he needs to get hyper creative?

 

[duul]

The point by point minutiae of what would one do next if one had boobytrapped themselves is another common invective. Many posters here including who you were speaking with were not in favor of the Nurse contract or the Campbell contract etc. Some prudence on the part of a pro sport GM is required. Some forward thinking too. you can't just throw 9.5M at Nurse longterm and not think that will not have any consequence. Nor Campbell at price paid. Other teams found goalies at far less pay, including the SC champs that beat us.

So the question what you would do after the GM f***ed himself over is asking somebody here to perform a Houdini.

Its not a given either that Ceci or Kulak remain.

I would also like to draw attention to the fact that Bouchard, a rookie defenceman, outperformed everyone on our roster's defence by a fair margin in the playoffs. Even Ekholm struggled to hang when the going got tough after a strong, adrenaline filled start with our club.

Fact of the matter is that after Bouchard, I would say Kulak was our best D. A guy who was a healthy scratch in Montreal. The year prior Ceci was our clear best defenceman when healthy, a guy who was a third pairing low minute guy the year prior in Pittsburgh.

Our defence group is so f***ing bad on the whole, it is absurd that a concerted effort to make real improvements to it has not taken place this offseason, and apparently will not. When you look at our group and realize Nurse, Desharnais, and Broberg all cost us games in the playoffs and all will be regulars again without remedy, how do you feel?

 

[Jet Walters]

Hopefully Bourgault is ready to step in next year replacing Brown, so that’s an ELC with minimal cap hit. Foegele walks and is replaced by a 1m forward. Ceci or Kulak would also be easily traded and potentially replaced by a cheap Broberg, who’s hopefully earned the opportunity. Plus the cap goes up.

I don’t see this as crippling for the Oilers at all next year. It’s not ideal, but getting a top 6 player with Brown’s intangibles for 750k this year could be a huge difference maker.

 

[belair]

Sure won't agree on any of this.

Kostin scored 14EV goals this season in 69GP. In limited minutes. While having hardly any GA. He's a good player, and he showed that here and I'll Yzerman's opinion over yours if thats alright.

Plus its revisionist after Kostin isn't here. If you had posted the bolded in the playoffs people would still be laughing. but thats how views change around here. Everybody was loving Kostin and everything he was doing here. But now the grapes are sour. I just don't run that way. If I love a player I don't stop on a dime. Loved kostin here.

I don't expect you to concede side of an issue that you obsess over. You've been dragging your Kostin heartache through multiple threads.

For the record I loved Kostin's game. And that game is a mix of an old school pugilist with a niche bottom six winger. A big reason why he's making $2m is because he punches faces. Yzerman didn't sign him for his goalscorer prowess. And it's incredibly unlikely he sees much more ice than he got here. Because his all around game is limited.

He was prone to gaffes, to turnovers, to bad penalties. Coaches have limited his icetime at this level in multiple organizations. That isn't revisionist. It was pointed out multiple times in the playoffs and also in the regular season when his usage was in the single digits. Bottom six players who don't contribute to the special team generally don't play much. Ones that take bad penalties or make plays that cost GAs tend to play even less.

Simply put, Yamamoto had more natural skill. He thinks the game better. And that translates to a player that reads better off of skill. You can trust Yzerman all you want, but Yzerman needed a facepuncher, too. I trust the NHL coaches. They generally have a good idea of where their players need to be to be successful.

 

[bellagiobob]

The punchline is late arriving. Earlier in the day people were shouting from rooftops that the Oilers don't have to pay dick if Connor Brown doesn't perform or doesn't play much. That has been rendered fiction.

Now we know Brown just has to play 10 games and all the loaded bonuses hit. Whether this season or next is irrelevant. Its still eating our cap.

I mean why even put in the clause if its only 10 games? Thats a serious question. Its as if just mentioning theres a game played clause is somehow doing proactive homework. Even though its smoke and mirrors nothing. This contract is written to pretty much guarantee Brown gets his money in any condition, and that it costs us cap.

Why put it in the clause? Gives the team a decent 10 game window to see if the player still has it. If he doesn’t fit, they Bake or LTIR him. Wish every deal we did had a trial period with deferred money like this one.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I would also like to draw attention to the fact that Bouchard, a rookie defenceman, outperformed everyone on our roster's defence by a fair margin in the playoffs. Even Ekholm struggled to hang when the going got tough after a strong, adrenaline filled start with our club.

Fact of the matter is that after Bouchard, I would say Kulak was our best D. A guy who was a healthy scratch in Montreal. The year prior Ceci was our clear best defenceman when healthy, a guy who was a third pairing low minute guy the year prior in Pittsburgh.

Our defence group is so f***ing bad on the whole, it is absurd that a concerted effort to make real improvements to it has not taken place this offseason, and apparently will not. When you look at our group and realize Nurse, Desharnais, and Broberg all cost us games in the playoffs and all will be regulars again without remedy, how do you feel?

A lot of how bad our D looked, or at least good part of the disasters was coaching related and which Marchessault was kind enough to remind us. But its all good. Connor McDavid thinks Woodcrap is one of the best coaches in the world and so we're status quo with that and Manson...

These are not the right D to play what is being requested. My bigger concern is the scheme is not even remotely related to the type of D we have. We've gone to a bigger D set and yet we're now using schemes that opponents can play to remove those guys from around the net, where they should be. Conversely vegas with towers on D play a pretty static D game that is throwback, and still effective. Room around the Vegas net was hard to find, not by accident. meanwhile marchessault had a parking pass to our crease and it showed.

I encourage people to note that the longer Ekholm was away from Nashville, and the more he was playing our system, the less effective he became. That should be a sobering point.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Why put it in the clause? Gives the team a decent 10 game window to see if the player still has it. If he doesn’t fit, they Bake or LTIR him. Wish every deal we did had a trial period with deferred money like this one.

Do you think theres any chance the team or Woody would do that with a vet within that 10 game window? I don't. Especially with the "he's only costing us 775k this year teaser. Holland is rarely that fast on the ball in anycase. They'll continue with this guy regardless and pay the piper. The other side is it would look pretty bad around NHLPA circles for the team to cut bait on him. For sure they don't LTIR him. Didn't even do that with Kane.

 

[Davo Ikinzom]

This guy better score at least 20 next year. That's all I'm going to say.

 

[WaitingForUser]

This really reminds me of everyone who panicked over Hyman and that aged so well lol

 

[LeonDraisaitl29]

You're comparing the player we just got to a guy we shipped out Kostin as collateral to get rid of because he wasn't worth the paper his contract was printed on.

Lmao.

And here I was getting banned from posting in the rumours thread for comparing Brown's contract to all the others signed today with an assumption that to get the bonus, it would require him playing a full season.

I spit coke zero all over the place when I read the tweet that said the entire bonus comes in after ten games played. Genuinely, I'm sitting here with coke zero all over my desk, monitor, keyboard, mouse. I am howling like a wolf and each keystroke sends pop in every direction. Laughing so hard man.

Ten games. Omg. This is very clearly a f*** you to the organization knowing this is his last hurrah. No other excuse. Look through every other signing made today, how many are worse? I can hardly think of any besides Holl (and that's to a team with cap to burn who isn't trying to win.)

Just remember if we don't win the Stanley Cup this year, with a team that is essentially unchanged from last year besides losing Kostin and Yamamoto in place of Connor Brown, we will go into next season without any of the players listed and a 3.25 million dead cap space hit for nothing in return. Now that's what we call full Pejorative Slur. You never go full Pejorative Slur.

You're right. I was wrong now that I think about it.

 

[Soundwave]

This really reminds me of everyone who panicked over Hyman and that aged so well lol

Not even a comparable situation. This is more like one of Chiarelli's classic moves.

Even if Connor Brown is good, even that sucks (unless you win the Cup) because you can't keep him and you have to pay him next year to not be here.

This is not some master class innovation, this like robbing ... from yourself. A GM knowing he's probably not coming back next year basically stole cap room from the next GM to make up for the fact that he has no cap space because he grossly overspent on several bad contracts.

 

[AddyTheWrath]

This thread is just being polluted with the same 3 posters whining about the same thing.

It’s why I don’t really post on HF anymore

 

[OilerTyler]

This thread is just being polluted with the same 3 posters whining about the same thing.

It’s why I don’t really post on HF anymore

I took over a month off after the playoffs and now I'm wondering why I'm even back here haha.

 

[bellagiobob]

Do you think theres any chance the team or Woody would do that with a vet within that 10 game window? I don't. Especially with the "he's only costing us 775k this year teaser. Holland is rarely that fast on the ball in anycase. They'll continue with this guy regardless and pay the piper. The other side is it would look pretty bad around NHLPA circles for the team to cut bait on him. For sure they don't LTIR him. Didn't even do that with Kane.

For sure they would if his surgery wasn’t effective and he can’t compete at this level. The player expects it too, as he agreed on the contract parameters. This is a special contract that is rarely signed in the league, union and players both realize that.