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

[CupofOil]

The take would simply be that a zero point grinder is not worth losing all our extra cap space next year. It's really all on Holland for the lazy contract. Could have at least made some conditions that he had to put up points like a 3rd liner minimum to get it all. Or lumps of bonus for 10, 30, 50 games or something. Instead it's just 10 games for him to get the highest one year salary of his career.

So, we have a chance right now to try to salvage next year's cap space, the very last chance we may have to show McDrai there is good reason to stay. Or handicap Holland's replacement next year in hopes Brown is a huge game changer for our cup chances this season. If I had to choose, I'd pick no handicap next year and look for Lavoie or someone else to fill the forwards out. That brown bonus could be the reason extending Ekholm is an automatic no go to even consider. 3M of space is a huge deal next year.

I don't think McDrai give two hoots about next years' cap.
I think they do prefer Brown to be here as opposed to waiving him and saving a minimum amount of cap space THIS season.

I'm not even saying that waiving Brown would be the wrong move even though I like the player but if you think keeping Brown is something that will piss of McDavid and Draisaitl or make them think twice about re-signing, I think you're wrong.

 

[joestevens29]

why not trade Campbell with 4/5 firsts and upgrade the roster? Your window is now. Look at your aging wingers

How do you upgrade the roster by throwing away that many assets that will be needed to upgrade the roster?

 

[Fourier]

why not trade Campbell with 4/5 firsts and upgrade the roster? Your window is now. Look at your aging wingers

4 or 5 firsts gets you an absolute star player. It's not what you use to shed the Campbell contract. If you did this deal after replacing Campbell you have about $.5in cap space to upgrade. That gets you a decent 3rd/2nd line tweener at best.

This would be a horrid move.

 

[oobga]

I don't think McDrai give two hoots about next years' cap.
I think they do prefer Brown to be here as opposed to waiving him and saving a minimum amount of cap space THIS season.

I'm not even saying that waiving Brown would be the wrong move even though I like the player but if you think keeping Brown is something that will piss of McDavid and Draisaitl or make them think twice about re-signing, I think you're wrong.

It's definitely not a good situation. Not only did we do the laziest job possible to ensure we would be getting an actual high impact player to push us to be a contender, but we also brought in a friend of McDavid (at negative discount cost). So, yeah, saving our cap in 24/25, if we decide that this isn't actually a high impact player worth mortgaging the future for, will most definitely piss off McDavid, so likely we can't do it even if we wanted to. Even if Brown had trash analytics and was -15 right now, still couldn't do it.

These are the situations you end up in when you have poor management. And this is all happening to start with because of 4+ years of poor management.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

4 or 5 firsts gets you an absolute star player. It's not what you use to shed the Campbell contract. If you did this deal after replacing Campbell you have about $.5in cap space to upgrade. That gets you a decent 3rd/2nd line tweener at best.

This would be a horrid move.

4/5 firsts plus Jack for a player like Konecny

Obviously not just for moving jack......

How do you upgrade the roster by throwing away that many assets that will be needed to upgrade the roster?

You open up the cap space, bring in Konecny, or a top 4 D and see what happens

After two seasons you guys have no hope, so you might as well go for it now.

Every team has a Window. Now is yours

Hyman 31
Nuge 30
Kane 31

 

[guymez]

The take would simply be that a zero point grinder is not worth losing all our extra cap space next year. It's really all on Holland for the lazy contract. Could have at least made some conditions that he had to put up points like a 3rd liner minimum to get it all. Or lumps of bonus for 10, 30, 50 games or something. Instead it's just 10 games for him to get the highest one year salary of his career.

So, we have a chance right now to try to salvage next year's cap space, the very last chance we may have to show McDrai there is good reason to stay. Or handicap Holland's replacement next year in hopes Brown is a huge game changer for our cup chances this season. If I had to choose, I'd pick no handicap next year and look for Lavoie or someone else to fill the forwards out. That brown bonus could be the reason extending Ekholm is an automatic no go to even consider. 3M of space is a huge deal next year.

After reading this I get the distinct impression that you didnt read (or possibly didnt comprehend) a single word of my post.
How is it that you are convinced that his point production after 8 games (after coming off of a serious injury) is representative of Brown as a player?

Then you parlay that into claiming that if Holland doesnt make a move before the 10 game mark that McDavid and Draisaitls decision making will be impacted.


There are some contracts that are potentially going to hurt the team and Browns isnt one of them. Lets start with Campbell....another 4 years at a cap hit of $5M. Campbell will be 35 years old when his contract expires.
The Brown contract was a gamble but it could yet pay off this year. Its way too soon to tell.

 

[JustNapalmIt]

The take would simply be that a zero point grinder is not worth losing all our extra cap space next year. It's really all on Holland for the lazy contract. Could have at least made some conditions that he had to put up points like a 3rd liner minimum to get it all. Or lumps of bonus for 10, 30, 50 games or something. Instead it's just 10 games for him to get the highest one year salary of his career.

So, we have a chance right now to try to salvage next year's cap space, the very last chance we may have to show McDrai there is good reason to stay. Or handicap Holland's replacement next year in hopes Brown is a huge game changer for our cup chances this season. If I had to choose, I'd pick no handicap next year and look for Lavoie or someone else to fill the forwards out. That brown bonus could be the reason extending Ekholm is an automatic no go to even consider. 3M of space is a huge deal next year.

Its almost like one doesn't comprehend that a guy coming off a year off a serious injury just might not be the player that is seen in the 1st 20 days of a 210 day long season.
Crazy logic. But maybe.

 

[CupofOil]

It's definitely not a good situation. Not only did we do the laziest job possible to ensure we would be getting an actual high impact player to push us to be a contender, but we also brought in a friend of McDavid (at negative discount cost). So, yeah, saving our cap in 24/25, if we decide that this isn't actually a high impact player worth mortgaging the future for, will most definitely piss off McDavid, so likely we can't do it even if we wanted to. Even if Brown had trash analytics and was -15 right now, still couldn't do it.

These are the situations you end up in when you have poor management. And this is all happening to start with because of 4+ years of poor management.

It was a horrible negotiation by Holland, no doubt about that.

The thing with Holland is that he has serious tunnel vision. Once he locks in on a target, there are no other options, it's a go get that guy at any cost situation with no Plan B or C.
I loved the idea of Connor Brown and still think he'll be a player that moves the needle for the middle 6 but, jeez, Holland couldn't have made a little tougher for him to reach that bonus or at least space it out, something like $1m for playing 10 games, $2m for playing 30 etc. or something like that? I don't think Brown, coming off that injury, was getting $4m from anybody in flat cap NHL so Holland once again was bargaining against himself.

In any event, it is that it is. I have faith that Brown will be a solid player for this team. I think we just need to have patience.

 

[JustNapalmIt]

Im kinda chuckling at the smart guys going on about Brown.
Now.
After 8 games.
Im sure they were raging when he was signed.
Im sure.

 

[oobga]

After reading this I get the distinct impression that you didnt read (or possibly didnt comprehend) a single word of my post.
How is it that you are convinced that his point production after 8 games (after coming off of a serious injury) is representative of Brown as a player?

Then you parlay that into claiming that if Holland doesnt make a move before the 10 game mark that McDavid and Draisaitls decision making will be impacted.
You just followed up a ridiculous post with speculative nonsense.

I mean we are all entitled to an opinion but at the very least you might want to consider thinking things through a bit more before you post.

The McDrai decision making based on team success can certainly be impacted, because we will be in even worse cap hell next year.

I read your post, and everyone is entitled to their view of what Brown could end up being. When you mortgage your future on a player, either with draft picks or in Brown's case cap space the next year because of a bonus (Boston did this last year with Bergeron and Krecji) you better be sure it's a player that is going to have a significant impact. I never saw Brown as that kind of player, definitely not worth 3M of cap space in 24/25 to not even be here. Now he's solidifying that with his performance so far this year. We never needed another forward anyways, we needed to fix the D and goaltending, but decided a McFriend grinder forward would put us over the top. So over the top that 24/25 cap space be damned. Didn't even have to negotiate, just toss his career high 4M at blown knee grinder guy for being alive for 10 games.

3M of space is nothing to sneeze at, especially if a recession bites and the cap barely rises. We gave up a 2nd and 3rd to get 3M off our books with Kassian. This bonus cap hit from Brown will be immovable.

 

[Fourier]

4/5 firsts plus Jack for a player like Konecny

Obviously not just for moving jack......


You open up the cap space, bring in Konecny, or a top 4 D and see what happens

After two seasons you guys have no hope, so you might as well go for it now.

Every team has a Window. Now is yours

Hyman 31
Nuge 30
Kane 31

4 or 5 firsts is a ridiculous overpay for a guy like Konecny just to dump Campbell.

Those first can be used in a much better way to upgrade the team.

 

[CornKicker]

browns forechecking and puck pursuit has been great last couple games, creating turnovers and pinning teams in their zone. 55-71-28 is going to be a great line by late nov for the rest of the season. i wouldnt throw a player whos played <10 games in the last 16 months under the bus, not yet anyway. screw the cap next year thats what the money nerds and holland can worry about during the off season.

the oilers also need to get closer to the top of the div and show serious contender potential then bring in Toews 3-4 weeks before the deadline.

 

[guymez]

The McDrai decision making based on team success can certainly be impacted, because we will be in even worse cap hell next year.

I read your post, and everyone is entitled to their view of what Brown could end up being. When you mortgage your future on a player, either with draft picks or in Brown's case cap space the next year because of a bonus (Boston did this last year with Bergeron and Krecji) you better be sure it's a player that is going to have a significant impact. I never saw Brown as that kind of player, definitely not worth 3M of cap space in 24/25 to not even be here. Now he's solidifying that with his performance so far this year. We never needed another forward anyways, we needed to fix the D and goaltending, but decided a McFriend grinder forward would put us over the top.

I edited my post because it came off a lot harsher than I intended.
Brown is not an example of mortgaging your future because we have no idea how things are going to play out this year. Brown could very well become an important player for this team because there arent many players on the roster with his skillset. Its a gamble but moving forward its not nearly as impactful as some of the long term contracts Holland has dished out to players like Nurse and Campbell.
Also...if you make that call after 8 games what messaging does it send when you sign a player to a 1 year contract and then dump him before that player even plays 10 games?

I would bet that would be sending a more negative message to McDavid and Draisaitl because its a bush League move.

 

[oobga]

I edited my post because it came off a lot harsher than I intended.
Brown is not an example of mortgaging your future because we have no idea how things are going to play out this year. Brown could very well become an important player for this team because there arent many players on the roster with his skillset. Its a gamble but moving forward its not nearly as impactful as some of the long term contracts Holland has dished out to players like Nurse and Campbell.
Also...if you make that call after 8 games what messaging does it send when you sign a player to a 1 year contract and then dump him before that player even plays 10 games?

I would bet that would be sending a more negative message to McDavid and Draisaitl because its a bush League move.

It would be bush league for Holland to do that, but before that the contract itself was bush league as well. 4 years of poor cap management leading to needing to give a middle 6 grinder this kind of deal and end up with a 20/21 man max roster was bush league as well.

I do agree, we're stuck with it now. Hope for the best. If some cold as ice GM took over for Holland, maybe they do it, and could give a nice rant to the hockey world about what a crap job the last guy did managing the cap and he isn't going to let past mistakes damage the future. Follow that up with some shrewd moves that work out and the players can forgive and forget and understand it's for the best, because at the end of the day these guys all want to just win. Then everyone can actually be optimistic this team is being managed well for once. That's not happening though

So, go Brown I guess. Badly need a good playoff run, and hopefully he can be Pisani 2.0.

 

[Soundwave]

I edited my post because it came off a lot harsher than I intended.
Brown is not an example of mortgaging your future because we have no idea how things are going to play out this year. Brown could very well become an important player for this team because there arent many players on the roster with his skillset. Its a gamble but moving forward its not nearly as impactful as some of the long term contracts Holland has dished out to players like Nurse and Campbell.
Also...if you make that call after 8 games what messaging does it send when you sign a player to a 1 year contract and then dump him before that player even plays 10 games?

I would bet that would be sending a more negative message to McDavid and Draisaitl because its a bush League move.

It's an example of taking a stupid risk and it's an example of a poor GM who can't manage a salary cap.

Holland bit this bullet twice already ... he signed Kassian to a bloated contract (which the Oilers got no benefit from), which then caused Nurse to have to be bridged, which then blows up in Holland's face when he has to pay Nurse 9.25 million and then he has to pay a couple of picks to get rid of the Kassian contract which brought us nothing. He probably could have locked in Nurse for long term at 6.5 million, but he chose to spend big on Kassian and now we have Nurse at 9.25 million.

Then the Duncan Keith situation, Holland got very fortunate that Keith agreed to retire that last year of his contract, if he did not do that, we'd have been screwed cap wise that season.

And now the Connor Brown situation is like the third strike and you're out. Kulak or Foegele likely have to be dumped, that's the only way to handle this situation is to get under the cap and pay more of his salary this year so the new GM next year isn't hamstrung by a stupid cap penalty right from day 1.

That's not fair to the future GM.

 

[Oilers]

I know everyone wants these massive trades and changes but realistically, none of that is happening, especially in the cap era.

For the bulk of our guys, we're stuck with them. I'm sure we make a move or two in and around the deadline, but doubt we're trading away all of our dead weight players.

 

[AM]

I know everyone wants these massive trades and changes but realistically, none of that is happening, especially in the cap era.

For the bulk of our guys, we're stuck with them. I'm sure we make a move or two in and around the deadline, but doubt we're trading away all of our dead weight players.

The solution is in the room.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I don't think McDrai give two hoots about next years' cap.
I think they do prefer Brown to be here as opposed to waiving him and saving a minimum amount of cap space THIS season.

I'm not even saying that waiving Brown would be the wrong move even though I like the player but if you think keeping Brown is something that will piss of McDavid and Draisaitl or make them think twice about re-signing, I think you're wrong.

I think its worth noting you've been wrong about the impact Brown would have here all along. You were the biggest supporter of obtaining this do nothing player.

Gregor trying to dunk on Oilers fans by saying Connor Brown has analytics similar to Pupjujarvi and he doesn't remember people saying Jesse should be waived. He's just ignoring the actual issue of the bonus. Classic Gregor.

Oh well. There is no way we waive and demote him. Enjoy Jesse 2.0 and his ghost using up all our cap increase in 24/25.

Yep. At least Jesse was a pointless bowling ball that could at least knock over players, play with his size, and be physical out there. We needed to improve on players like Yams and Pulju that really wouldn't produce a drop even in topsix. Then we got Brown. lol

 

[Drivesaitl]

It's definitely not a good situation. Not only did we do the laziest job possible to ensure we would be getting an actual high impact player to push us to be a contender, but we also brought in a friend of McDavid (at negative discount cost). So, yeah, saving our cap in 24/25, if we decide that this isn't actually a high impact player worth mortgaging the future for, will most definitely piss off McDavid, so likely we can't do it even if we wanted to. Even if Brown had trash analytics and was -15 right now, still couldn't do it.

These are the situations you end up in when you have poor management. And this is all happening to start with because of 4+ years of poor management.

Bang. Holland is backed into the corner on this desperation deal for Brown mortgaging future cap because he left himself with zero cap room to improve a club that has mutliple holes, of which none are addressed by acquiring Brown. We lost players like Bjugstad, Kostin that were confirmed useful here and that had good playoffs and we got Brown who is not delivering

 

[Drivesaitl]

browns forechecking and puck pursuit has been great last couple games, creating turnovers and pinning teams in their zone. 55-71-28 is going to be a great line by late nov for the rest of the season. i wouldnt throw a player whos played <10 games in the last 16 months under the bus, not yet anyway. screw the cap next year thats what the money nerds and holland can worry about during the off season.

the oilers also need to get closer to the top of the div and show serious contender potential then bring in Toews 3-4 weeks before the deadline.

A lot of praise for a line that hasn't scored a goal with 10% of the season now elapsed. Right now its the all dud line. With respect to Holloway who I like. Worth noting as well that McLeods game and cotnribution has plummetted instead of showing signs of developing. At this point one wonders if he's just another player rushed in too fast that stagnates.

Yeah lets screw the cap next year when we're 30th place so far this year. Lets mortgage future for these results we're getting. Nor does the Flames game change my view. The Oilers through 8 games haven't been competitive and have only played 2 good teams. We've had the weakest schedule possible and also a lot of prep time between games.

But now we're gonna retain Brown because "hes' coming" and he's gonna be great or something.

If there was a poll about Browns first 10 games here and he had zilch boxcars I wonder what the suggestions would be on what to do with him. Theres a lot of brown polishing still going on.

 

[guymez]

It would be bush league for Holland to do that, but before that the contract itself was bush league as well. 4 years of poor cap management leading to needing to give a middle 6 grinder this kind of deal and end up with a 20/21 man max roster was bush league as well.

I do agree, we're stuck with it now. Hope for the best. If some cold as ice GM took over for Holland, maybe they do it, and could give a nice rant to the hockey world about what a crap job the last guy did managing the cap and he isn't going to let past mistakes damage the future. Follow that up with some shrewd moves that work out and the players can forgive and forget and understand it's for the best, because at the end of the day these guys all want to just win. Then everyone can actually be optimistic this team is being managed well for once. That's not happening though

So, go Brown I guess. Badly need a good playoff run, and hopefully he can be Pisani 2.0.

I think that your focus may have more to do with your dislike of the player instead of the reality of his impact (on the ice and cap related).
Its not at all uncommon on here as many (who also dislike the player) will agree with you.

Brown isnt even in the top 5 of issues for this team IMO and at least he is showing signs of being a player that impacts games. Still 74 games left to be played as well.

As far as I can see this team isnt going to be properly managed until Holland leaves. Then Jackson will have to clean up some of the mess Holland left. To be fair he did do some good things but unfortunately that has been diminished by truly bad contracts like Campbell and Nurse.
Amusingly enough there are some on hear quick to bash Brown and at the same time just as quick to defend Campbell whose contract really is a problem.


All that being said perhaps we can agree to wait until 15-20 games have passed before judging Brown on his contributions so far.

 

[GOilers88]

The solution is in the room.

The solution is the same every year here.

Fire the coach and half the roster into the sun in the first month because they aren't steamrolling the league and just hope things work out.

 

[Soundwave]

The solution is the same every year here.

Fire the coach and half the roster into the sun in the first month because they aren't steamrolling the league and just hope things work out.

I mean the solution is basically just Connor and Leon score at an all-world pace and hopefully the PP is clicking to outscore whatever amount of stupid you're going to get from the D and goaltending.

Lets be honest.

This year we've gotten a extra large serving of stupid from our D and goalies and Connor/Leon have had just "good" numbers to start with not "OMG! 1985 Wayne Gretzky" tier numbers. And it shows in the 2-5-1 record.

 

[oobga]

I think that your focus may have more to do with your dislike of the player instead of the reality of his impact (on the ice and cap related).
Its not at all uncommon on here as many (who also dislike the player) will agree with you.

Brown isnt even in the top 5 of issues for this team IMO and at least he is showing signs of being a player that impacts games. Still 74 games left to be played as well.

As far as I can see this team isnt going to be properly managed until Holland leaves. Then Jackson will have to clean up some of the mess Holland left. To be fair he did do some good things but unfortunately that has been diminished by truly bad contracts like Campbell and Nurse.
Amusingly enough there are some on hear quick to bash Brown and at the same time just as quick to defend Campbell whose contract really is a problem.


All that being said perhaps we can agree to wait until 15-20 games have passed before judging Brown on his contributions so far.

My attitude about Brown will probably flip as soon as it's impossible to save his ~3M cap hit next year I actually like him, and I figured for a long time he was going to be an Oiler because of his friendship with McDavid. How we got him though, and how his game diminished before his injury, them plus that brutal injury ... I'll just saw Holland really made him coming here difficult to like.

Once we pass 10 games though, zero can be done, the cap penalty is set. Will always be another black mark on Holland's record, but for Brown himself, all that's left is to hope he's our next Pisani.

I don't think he's a problem either, this season. His ghost in 24/25 can be raged about when the time comes, lol. He's playing like I expected, with bad luck. Probably bounces around the middle 6 all year, hopefully can manage 10-15 goals. Maybe his leadership in the room helps. My main concerns are definitely goaltending and defensive play in our end, exact same stuff that ended our playoffs last season, with all the exact same players we just hope all got better back there.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Im kinda chuckling at the smart guys going on about Brown.
Now.
After 8 games.
Im sure they were raging when he was signed.
Im sure.

Was opposed to the signing and contract all along. Your strawman attempt not withstanding. It is of course possible not to have liked this deal and addition all along. Its even plausible and likely that views on Brown have just continued given the evidence we now have.