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

[Drivesaitl]

Browns ACL was a clean tear. No ligament or cartilage damage. He’s been skating already which is a good sign. Especially this far out from camp. He’s also stated he’s used the time to work on his conditioning and diet. Hopefully things to improve his return to hockey. There’s going to be a level of risk in almost any move we make. The facts is for this seasons coming right cap situation we added RW that is a solid 2 way forward. Known as a solid defensive forward. Hardly ever takes penalties. Is good down low on the cycle. Can PK and has enough skill to find himself on the 2nd powerplay unit. All this for 775,000 on the coming seasons cap.

The bonus money is an issue we can address next season. Right now we’ve improved our forward depth. We are going for it and Brown is a player to help do that. I see others talking offensive production vs what a failure this signing could be. We have plenty of offense up front. He doesn’t need to be a line driver. Be a two way responsible winger. That’s what we need.

Kostin>Brown at present. Every stat backing that up.

I don't agree we've improved our forward depth. Again we lost a hard to play against tough gamer that can score goals and has tons of upside for an aging player that is coming off injury that scored less goals than Kostin in last respective complete season played. Not sure how its open shut Brown is improves our club over Kostin. I'm a huge Kostin fan obviously.

 

[Oilhawks]

After seeing some of the absolute turd sandwiches handed out today, naysayers should probably stop while they’re behind. This might be the best contract signed in all of free agency.

 

[McTonyBrar]

Obviously like this years cap hit, but that $3.25 million in bonuses is pretty scary though. If they bridge Bouch for 1 year and Brown gets his bonuses, we're going to be capped out next summer. We've pretty much put all of our eggs in this years basket. Ken needs to be AGGRESSIVE at the deadline.

The cap rises by 5-6 million next season. His bonuses won't be that bad

Looks like a nothing signing. A smallish guy that scores once in awhile who is soft as butter in our topsix and who falls asleep in the playoffs.

We just let go an absolute gamer like Kostin who just scored 3 goals in playoffs for a guy that has one playoff goal in his entire career.

Not exactly thrilling this. We lost more than we gained to this point.

Kostin had upside. Kostin was clearly a playoff player. Unlike Brown.

HAHAHAH HERE WE GO

Kostin>Brown at present. Every stat backing that up.

I don't agree we've improved our forward depth. Again we lost a hard to play against tough gamer that can score goals and has tons of upside for an aging player that is coming off injury that scored less goals than Kostin in last respective complete season played. Not sure how its open shut Brown is improves our club over Kostin. I'm a huge Kostin fan obviously.

Every stat every year of every season?

 

[Drivesaitl]

Oilers have scoring and a great PP. We lacked two way defensive forwards and guys that can improve the PK. Brown is the type that helps address those deficiencies. He’s not a redundant type of player on Edmonton. My comment on negativity is directed at this signing and this signing alone. Not the state of hockey in Canada, Bettman, or any other issue.

Part of the backdrop is I've usually felt the WC is a lot harder game to play, and the heavier hockey division. Mostly with bigger clubs and physical hockey. often the type of game that works in playoffs. To further that teams from EC have had to bulk up to win cups.

Even playing in EC playoffs exclusively Brown has been nothing in playoffs. No results. WE just gave up a gonzo gunslinger that scored 3 EVgoals in playoffs playing bottomsix, a guy that bangs, plays heavy hockey, and fights for a guy that hasn't even played in 15mths and that has never played for a WC team.

Just don't see Brown adding much here or being the kind of player that will succeed greatly in tougher WC play.

 

[Fishy McScales]

Zach Hyman never had a season long injury. Hyman is a tough as nails player who is in the paint banging for position for goals all the time. A player that takes tons of punishment out there to get his results.


If you look at our cap situation and who still has to be signed its pretty clear that there will be no money left.

He literally makes league minimum. If you put another player in his place he will make at least as much.

Unless you are talking about roster size in which case you're still not making any sense.

 

[Broberg Speed]

All lineup projections must include Connor Brown as Connor McDavid's RW. No more of this 3rd line crapola.

Kostin>Brown at present. Every stat backing that up.

I don't agree we've improved our forward depth. Again we lost a hard to play against tough gamer that can score goals and has tons of upside for an aging player that is coming off injury that scored less goals than Kostin in last respective complete season played. Not sure how its open shut Brown is improves our club over Kostin. I'm a huge Kostin fan obviously.

I haven't seen you this miffed since Tyson Barrie was traded. Cool it.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Lots of reports that he forego guaranteed money elsewhere to get a chance to play on a championship calibre team. If you've followed his career at all, a mail it in player is pretty much the opposite of what he is. And why would a player on a one year deal, looking for next deal to be a lucrative multiyear deal, just mail in the season?

I doubt there was demand for the player, not even the caps extended any offer and I asked for citation on teams that were interested and received none. All I'm seeing today is the usual trumped up "wow its great we got this guy" type posts in july. I suspect when its November people will be wishing we had more.

This is probably Connors last kick at the can after being through 3 teams in 3 seasons as an old player. Thats kind of how it goes.

 

[alphahelix]

He literally makes league minimum. If you put another player in his place he will make at least as much.

Unless you are talking about roster size in which case you're still not making any sense.

He has the unique superpower of costing us 3.25 million next year while not even playing for us. We’re in a 2 year window unless we make some big changes.

 

[WaitingForUser]

That's minimum you aren't understanding.

His Cap hit for THIS Season is $775K with the potential to earn $3.25M in bonus related to various things, likely alot to games played.

If earned they would carry over to NEXT season. It's not Ideal, but you have to be creative, and this is a way to do that.

Like I said in the rumors thread.

HF oil KH can’t get creative with the cap we are doomed.
KH gets creative with cap
hF oil Not like that

 

[Fishy McScales]

He has the unique superpower of costing us 3.25 million next year while not even playing for us. We’re in a 2 year window unless we make some big changes.

I agree that the bonus is a concern but it's a strawman relating to what I said.

The argument was we won't have money to sign more players which is mathematically inane.

 

[alphahelix]

I agree that the bonus is a concern but it's a strawman relating to what I said.

The argument was we won't have money to sign more players which is mathematically inane.

Well, 775k doesnt hurt this year but we may still be done (in terms of meaningful adds) depending on how the Bouchard/McLeod deals look. Sucks that they didnt get ironed out so we could know what we’re dealing with here.

 

[bellagiobob]

I doubt there was demand for the player, not even the caps extended any offer and I asked for citation on teams that were interested and received none. All I'm seeing today is the usual trumped up "wow its great we got this guy" type posts in july. I suspect when its November people will be wishing we had more.

This is probably Connors last kick at the can after being through 3 teams in 3 seasons as an old player. Thats kind of how it goes.

Old Connor Brown was born in 1994. Young Leon was born in 2005. As far as the posts, it's more of the usual 'we suck, our season is over' doom and gloom posts. On July 1st.

 

[Heavy Dee]

The cap rises by 5-6 million next season. His bonuses won't be that bad


HAHAHAH HERE WE GO


Every stat every year of every season?

He doesn't understand that one counts 775 towards the cap while the other two million.

Holland had the best signing of the day easily.

 

[McTonyBrar]

He doesn't understand that one counts 775 towards the cap while the other two million.

Holland had the best signing of the day easily.

And still lots of good names out there

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

775K for a potential 25 goal man is an absolute steal

who cares about what happens next year

 

[JustNapalmIt]

I doubt there was demand for the player, not even the caps extended any offer and I asked for citation on teams that were interested and received none. All I'm seeing today is the usual trumped up "wow its great we got this guy" type posts in july. I suspect when its November people will be wishing we had more.

This is probably Connors last kick at the can after being through 3 teams in 3 seasons as an old player. Thats kind of how it goes.

You have zero idea who offered what. Dont say stupid things. Shockingly, it makes your point even have less merit.

 

[Mr Positive]

I'm not quite over the moon with this one just because Brown is returning from injury.

There is little cap risk but we've invested a roster spot in him. So if he crashes and burns we can salvage the cap space but then we will be down a player, and the spot is hard to fill considering it's the top six

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Looks like a nothing signing. A smallish guy that scores once in awhile who is soft as butter in our topsix and who falls asleep in the playoffs.

We just let go an absolute gamer like Kostin who just scored 3 goals in playoffs for a guy that has one playoff goal in his entire career.

Not exactly thrilling this. We lost more than we gained to this point.

Kostin had upside. Kostin was clearly a playoff player. Unlike Brown.

Shocking. Every signing is bad. The contrarian strikes again.

 

[nabob]

I'm not quite over the moon with this one just because Brown is returning from injury.

There is little cap risk but we've invested a roster spot in him. So if he crashes and burns we can salvage the cap space but then we will be down a player, and the spot is hard to fill considering it's the top six

You’re right, the spot is tough to fill. Not a lot of options this year and Brown. Who is healthy now, was likely the best option considering our cap restraints. Has chemistry with McD and cost next to nothing on the cap this year.

It’s not a home run, but it’s not the end of the world like some are talking.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Looks like a nothing signing. A smallish guy that scores once in awhile who is soft as butter in our topsix and who falls asleep in the playoffs.

We just let go an absolute gamer like Kostin who just scored 3 goals in playoffs for a guy that has one playoff goal in his entire career.

Not exactly thrilling this. We lost more than we gained to this point.

Kostin had upside. Kostin was clearly a playoff player. Unlike Brown.

You’re basing 3 goals over 1, in a ridiculously small sample size. Brown has played a whopping 20 playoff games, last one in 2019, while Kostin was shooting at an unsustainable 30% in 12 games.

Give me a break. Guaranteed if Kostin was signed 2x2 in Edmonton youd be the first one to complain replacement because that’s your gimmick.

This is beyond asinine.

 

[nexttothemoon]

The way I view the deal... is how many pts can Connor Brown score and how good can he be defensively for a $4 million total cap hit if he plays the entire season.

I think if he hits 50+ pts and is a solid 2-way responsible forward... that's worth $4 million.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Shocking. Every signing is bad. The contrarian strikes again.

Thanks leafs fan. Why are you here?

You’re basing 3 goals over 1, in a ridiculously small sample size. Brown has played a whopping 20 playoff games, last one in 2019, while Kostin was shooting at an unsustainable 30% in 12 games.

Give me a break. Guaranteed if Kostin was signed 2x2 in Edmonton youd be the first one to complain replacement because that’s your gimmick.

This is beyond asinine.

If you say so Tad.

I won't lose any sleep that you're the one flaming me.

 

[5 14 6 1]

I think its fair to be a bit critical of it.



$4M when all the bonuses are tied to games played is quite a bit of money for a guy who averages less than 40 points per 82 games played.

I think a lot more Oiler fans would have been more comfortable with something like $1.5M base salary and $1.5M bonuses. More guaranteed money for Brown but less potential risk for eating up a significant chunk up cap the following season. Or at the very least tie some of the bonuses to actual performance. So that if you're getting the full hit the following season at least you knew you got a ~55 point season or something for it.

Now of course the argument is "well he probably wouldn't have signed that deal" which... fair. But maybe thats when you move on and look elsewhere.

That 750k matters a ton to our capsheet

 

[Faelko]

I doubt there was demand for the player, not even the caps extended any offer and I asked for citation on teams that were interested and received none. All I'm seeing today is the usual trumped up "wow its great we got this guy" type posts in july. I suspect when its November people will be wishing we had more.

This is probably Connors last kick at the can after being through 3 teams in 3 seasons as an old player. Thats kind of how it goes.

if you haven’t used up your Twitter views for the day, there’s multiple reports from the MSM that other teams were interested in Brown.

From the Hockey News:

"We talked to Connor’s representatives last week. I think he’d like to see what’s out there in free agency," MacLellan said. "Unfortunately, I thought it was a great fit last year and would probably be a good fit going forward. We like the person, we like the style of play he does. But I think we’ll see what happens for him in free agency. This is the first time he’s going to be able to go to free agency. I think he wants to talk to teams and see where he’s at."

MacLellan mentioned to Vogel that while Brown is likely to move on, the team will keep in touch and see if there is interest to return if nothing's out there.

One of Friedman‘s comments:

"I think all things being equal — unless someone comes out with a great offer — I look at the favorites for Connor Brown as being Edmonton or Toronto," Friedman said on his '32 Thoughts' podcast on Friday. "Someone's going to have to beat that."


Thats 2 examples in about 5 minutes of looking, I’ll let you research the rest.

 

[5 14 6 1]

After seeing some of the absolute turd sandwiches handed out today, naysayers should probably stop while they’re behind. This might be the best contract signed in all of free agency.

Let's face facts. Other than Campbell our last 3 FA periods have been great.