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

[Stoneman89]

There were 3 good reasons to send him down to the AHL after he played 9 games.

1. He was coming off of an injury. Lots of guys get sent to the AHL after injury, especially ones still trying to work their way into the league after a long period away.

2. After 9 games, he had still shown nothing to suggest he was worth keeping for the rest of this year, let alone, commit to next year.

3. Yes, for the sake of the organization's cap room and our attempts to field the best roster to try to win the cup, send him down for a longer look see and give yourself some time to sit back, analyze and assess, for God's sake. If he can't do it in the AHL, why would anyone think he could suddenly become competent in the NHL?

 

[Drivesaitl]

I must have missed your post where you asked the same thing of the poster who made an equally definitive statement in the posts I quoted. Or do you only object to people expressing opinions you disagree with?


This is a hockey discussion board. I expressed my opinion based on years of following how teams operate under the cap. Neither Vegas or Tampa have ever done anything remotely like this. Nor has any other team. But in the end others disagree. I have seen no evidence to support their side to compel me to change my opinion and I probably did not change theirs. One side is right, the other is wrong. But we will probably never actually know which is which.

You've been regular in this thread claiming everybody else is wrong and only you know the facts. Getting a bit old.

Anybody could consider that the Brown situation is unique. In that no other UFA that I can think of has come onto a team and been essentially negligible value with that new team having produced only 1pt. Clearly the Connor Brown situation is outlier and that as others have mentioned would put this contractual situation in a camp of one. Connor Brown was so not ready to play NHL hockey it was immediately obvious the moment the season began and we were playing against real NHL lineups. He could not perform at this level either due to injury/extended absence from hockey etc. Sending him down was something that the Oilers could've done, and should've done. Even if there are no exact precedents to this does not rule out that its the course of action that ought to have occurred.

Whether precedent had occurred for using the games played clause is immaterial to Oilers being the precedent by sending Brown down. Given that Brown reinjured himself within the 10 game window one would also wonder if expectation of Browns injury recovery and being ready to play were satisfied. In anycase that Brown had a games lost injury within the window, and that had Brown was very disappointing in games played means that the Oilers had ample reasonable reason to send Brown down. Or scratch him repeatedly.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Its always fun to see what other self described experts were saying about Brown before season as well. This article so off the charts wrong its hilarious. Lets just Lowetide didn't nail it with this one..

Lowetide: How the Connor Brown contract could impact Oilers' roster decisions

The Oilers signing Brown over the summer showed high risk along with some real inspiration.

theathletic.com

Also too that this is the kind of expertise contained in the Athletic, which is now free to read articles unless you feel like digging in and throwing them a dollar. Looks like their subscription plan is going out the window.

 

[Fourier]

If they always intended on paying him that bonus, why even have a 10 games played cause instead of say 1 game?

10 games is the minimum allowed.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Curious if the goalie clause is 10 appearances in the game or just 10 games including those in the bench? Massive difference between the two.

Whether the clause is common or not isn’t really the issue. Without a turnaround this is a terrible bet by the Oilers.

Its already a terrible bet, was when it was made. But it nearly sunk the club. Connor Brown contribution was non existent the whole time this team needed to find traction and its continued to be non existent since. Unless one factors pk duty which could easily be had at league minimum contracts. Nor is Brown a prolific playoff performer either. What turnaround at this point could even salvage, and how likely is that to occur?

I go back to this but the Caps didn't even offer a contract. I wonder if they had a bit more information or just let Connor go due to circumstance, nature of injury, etc. If one listens to Browns camp tell the story the Caps didn't offer because they figured Connor would get more than they were prepared to offer.

Still waiting for another poster as well to supply any link to the claim that "more than 10Teams" were prepared to sign Connor Brown. Everything I can find cites only Toronto and Edmonton being in the running.

 

[Davo Ikinzom]

10 games is the minimum allowed.

Thanks, I didn't know and that's why I asked. Looks like they should have made it performance related say so many goals or assists.

That might have saved us. Or else management just looks even worse if that bonus was guaranteed. Because I really do think some of the other more cut throat teams would have tried to find a way out of it.

 

[Sra1974]

Its already a terrible bet, was when it was made. But it nearly sunk the club. Connor Brown contribution was non existent the whole time this team needed to find traction and its continued to be non existent since. Unless one factors pk duty which could easily be had at league minimum contracts. Nor is Brown a prolific playoff performer either. What turnaround at this point could even salvage, and how likely is that to occur?

I go back to this but the Caps didn't even offer a contract. I wonder if they had a bit more information or just let Connor go due to circumstance, nature of injury, etc. If one listens to Browns camp tell the story the Caps didn't offer because they figured Connor would get more than they were prepared to offer.

Still waiting for another poster as well to supply any link to the claim that "more than 10Teams" were prepared to sign Connor Brown. Everything I can find cites only Toronto and Edmonton being in the running.

Can’t argue any of that, I don’t think it’s likely he will turn it around and pay this off, but all I can hope for is somehow, someway, he does something at least recognizable as a meaningful contribution at some important moment this season.

 

[Fishy McScales]

Thanks, I didn't know and that's why I asked. Looks like they should have made it performance related say so many goals or assists.

That might have saved us. Or else management just looks even worse if that bonus was guaranteed. Because I really do think some of the other more cut throat teams would have tried to find a way out of it.

Then he probably just signs elsewhere.

The Oilers were banking on him hitting those numbers anyway. It's biting them now but that's the risk they took.

 

[McDNicks17]

I like how all that ‘good faith’ onus seems to be placed on the Oilers. When a player signs a deal in ‘good faith’ and then turns in the kind of performance we’ve seen from Brown what are the options available to the team? Usually nothing, as we see with the Campbell situation. Teams have to pay up regardless of how badly a player performs. Brown was in a different situation because for various reasons he was seen as a greater risk than your average free agent signing. Why even bother having this type of performance clause in NHL contracts if they are merely a formality? If there was really ‘good faith’ on the part of the player in this case he would have been more than willing to go down to the AHL, collect the salary due him this season with no deductions, and work his ass of to be worthy of a spot on the big roster and achieve the games played clause (and his bonus) at a later point in the season. By simply sending him down at the nine game mark I don’t see any way that the Oilers could be accused of abusing the spirit of the contract. Player wants his money. Team wants to get value for their precious cap dollars. Going to the AHL and getting his game up to expectations would have been a way for both parties to achieve satisfaction while observing the letter and the spirit of the deal.

It depends on how you look at the contract.

To me, the good faith onus would be on the Oilers because I think this contract was more of a favour to Holland than to Brown. It was reported that he had offers of similar guaranteed money elsewhere. The Oilers wanted him, but the only way to fit him due to Holland's cap bungling was on a contract structured like this.

It would be a pretty big dick move to convince him to sign in Edmonton and then screw him out of money he would have got elsewhere.

 

[Fourier]

Thanks, I didn't know and that's why I asked. Looks like they should have made it performance related say so many goals or assists.

That might have saved us. Or else management just looks even worse if that bonus was guaranteed. Because I really do think some of the other more cut throat teams would have tried to find a way out of it.

The 10 game number has become pretty standard for situations like this and for 35+ deals. This is why I have taken the stand I have. By going with 10 games it pretty much signals that the intention is that the bonus is being paid unless the player suffers a serious injury.

As @McDNicks states this bonus structure is to the advantage of the team not the player. Especially, if reports are true that he had multi-year offers in the $3-4M range.

 

[Drivesaitl]

It depends on how you look at the contract.

To me, the good faith onus would be on the Oilers because I think this contract was more of a favour to Holland than to Brown. It was reported that he had offers of similar guaranteed money elsewhere. The Oilers wanted him, but the only way to fit him due to Holland's cap bungling was on a contract structured like this.

It would be a pretty big dick move to convince him to sign in Edmonton and then screw him out of money he would have got elsewhere.

It isn't a dick move by Brown and his agent to be saying the player has been ready to hit the ice, training hard, raring to go? Brown was tentative on ice from the word go. Scared to make cuts, scared to get hit, avoiding boards, baling on pucks. There is now way this guy was ready to go. The Oilers signed this player thinking that he had completely recovered from injury. Yet 8 games in he injures himself in a no contact play just through a standard skating
movement.

Brown and his agent had been putting out releases that the player was ready to transform his game, take on bigger roles and get to a next level. They were selling hard that Brown was ready to hit it big. A sales pitch I didn't believe for an instant.

This guy was not ready for NHL play. Was evident from first game.

Oilers could play that to mean they were being sold a false bill of goods and use that as rationale to park Brown and avoid paying bonuses. In anycase its pro hockey at highest level. results based business and Brown knows full well he wasn't coming close to meeting any expectations and couldn't. He'd skate back to the bench after shifts pretending to be upset how bad he's playing or on botching his latest scoring opportunity. The money is good though.

 

[McDNicks17]

It isn't a dick move by Brown and his agent to be saying the player has been ready to hit the ice, training hard, raring to go? Brown was tentative on ice from the word go. Scared to make cuts, scared to get hit, avoiding boards, baling on pucks. There is now way this guy was ready to go. The Oilers signed this player thinking that he had completely recovered from injury. Yet 8 games in he injures himself in a no contact play just through a standard skating
movement.

Brown and his agent had been putting out releases that the player was ready to transform his game, take on bigger roles and get to a next level. They were selling hard that Brown was ready to hit it big.

This guy was not ready for NHL play. Was evident from first game.

Oilers could play that to mean they were being sold a false bill of goods and use that as rationale to park Brown and avoid paying bonuses. In anycase its pro hockey at highest level. results based business and Brown knows full well he wasn't coming close to meeting any expectations and couldn't. He'd skate back to the bench after shifts pretending to be upset how bad he's playing or on botching his latest scoring opportunity. The money is good though.

I feel like it would be fairly common sense to expect signing a guy that missed an entire season to a major injury would be a risk.

There was always a chance that the player we see now is the guy Holland was signing.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I feel like it would be fairly common sense to expect signing a guy that missed an entire season to a major injury would be a risk.

There was always a chance that the player we see now is the guy Holland was signing.

Yep. What I've maintained all along from July 1st on. It was a poor gamble. From start of thread I was saying the Oilers wouldn't be seeing any of Peak Brown.

 

[McDNicks17]

Yep. What I've maintained all along from July 1st on. It was a poor gamble. From start of thread I was saying the Oilers wouldn't be seeing any of Peak Brown.

That's why I have a tough time blaming Brown too much. I think he's trying, but he's just broken.

Holland deserves the blame for handling the cap so poorly and then trying to gamble his way into a fix rather than just trying to fix it.

 

[alphahelix]

As @McDNicks states this bonus structure is to the advantage of the team not the player. Especially, if reports are true that he had multi-year offers in the $3-4M range.

you keep saying this, but I’m pretty sure no one ever said there were multi-year 4M dollar (8M$+) contracts sitting on his desk waiting to be signed. People implied there might have been multi year deals, but I haven’t heard anyone insisting 4M + @ 2yr+ was there.

Friedman was rampantly speculating on the matter but even considering there are outrageously incompetent GMs out there it is beyond the pale to think anyone was that stupid. Brown would have signed it in a heartbeat if they were. Holland was duped with phoney comparables, AGAIN.

 

[Drivesaitl]

you keep saying this, but I’m pretty sure no one ever said there were multi-year 4M dollar (8M$+) contracts sitting on his desk waiting to be signed. People implied there might have been multi year deals, but I haven’t heard anyone insisting 4M + @ 2yr+ was there.

Friedman was rampantly speculating on the matter but even considering there are outrageously incompetent GMs out there it is beyond the pale to think anyone was that stupid. Brown would have signed it in a heartbeat if they were. Holland was duped with phoney comparables, AGAIN.

ftr I've never seen these claims substantiated one time. Every search I get is that the Leafs and the Oilers were involved. In anycase one wonders if there was ever anything other than speculation around prospective deals. Really my first thought is that its manufactured further to elevating contract amounts. Friedman such a poor source. What is he ever right on these days?

I've had the same feeling all along that Holland was duped. Not hard to do.

Worse, in the Campbell deal its to even find any mentions of competing offers in the ballpark. Its like a blank check negotiation. "How much you want"

 

[brentashton]

The 10 game number has become pretty standard for situations like this and for 35+ deals. This is why I have taken the stand I have. By going with 10 games it pretty much signals that the intention is that the bonus is being paid unless the player suffers a serious injury.

As @McDNicks states this bonus structure is to the advantage of the team not the player. Especially, if reports are true that he had multi-year offers in the $3-4M range.

So he shits the bed and does nothing for 10 games and our GM just rolls over on the escape clause because it’s the new standard of how you handle this type of situation? This becomes the GMKH “you can’t squeeze people” response. No wonder the Oilers are losers at this.

 

[alphahelix]

I’m rooting for him, he’s on day 644 without scoring an NHL goal. Let’s not get to day 645.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Was looking for the bumps here. hehe

Connor Brown gets an assist passing puck back to Bouchard, who passes to Ekholm, who passes back to Booch who rips it home against an AHL goalie.

I could get that assist.

just curious too but in cases of consecutive two player passes like that why is a third player getting the 2nd assist. Scoring play should really be Booch assisted by Ekholm given they were passing the puck back and forth.

But hey, its coming..

 

[Fourier]

you keep saying this, but I’m pretty sure no one ever said there were multi-year 4M dollar (8M$+) contracts sitting on his desk waiting to be signed. People implied there might have been multi year deals, but I haven’t heard anyone insisting 4M + @ 2yr+ was there.

Friedman was rampantly speculating on the matter but even considering there are outrageously incompetent GMs out there it is beyond the pale to think anyone was that stupid. Brown would have signed it in a heartbeat if they were. Holland was duped with phoney comparables, AGAIN.

Seravalli was the guy talking about Brown the earliest. He reported considerable interest in Brown and Pacioretty because of their potential for bonus laden deals. Pacioretty's case is of course different since it is not clear that he will be able to play much if at all this year. As the dealine approached he repeated the claims in this video multiple time including with Stauffer. Freidman also suggested that Brown had multiple teams willing to go with multi-year deals.

Brown's previous deal was three years with a $3.6M cap hit signed during covid. Washington traded for him with a $4M salary in his last year. MacLellan told the Washington beat guy that they wanted him back in an interview in June on X but that Brown had said that he wanted to test the UFA market. Here are some quotes from that interview.

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."....We’ll remain in communication with him and see where it goes from there," he said.

They knew his health status and would have still wanted to resign him. There were also significant reports out here that the Leafs were also interested in Brown. In fact late in the process on one of his 32TP added to this by suggesting that the Leafs and the Oilers were the two favourites to sign Brown.

Did he really have multiple $3-4M offers? No one here can prove he did or did not. But as I said there were credible reports that he did. And I will say once again...I am not saying I was happy with the contract. I wanted it to be less.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

Was looking for the bumps here. hehe

Connor Brown gets an assist passing puck back to Bouchard, who passes to Ekholm, who passes back to Booch who rips it home against an AHL goalie.

I could get that assist.

just curious too but in cases of consecutive two player passes like that why is a third player getting the 2nd assist. Scoring play should really be Booch assisted by Ekholm given they were passing the puck back and forth.

But hey, its coming..

My man literally doubled his production as an Oiler in one night. Beggars can't be choosers

 

[Soundwave]

I said it before, even if he produces the deal is still bad in the long run.

Even if he came in here and was a contributor, then basically you've left a hole on the team next year you can't fill because he would leave and you can't afford to sign him because of a $3.25 million cap penalty.

Like think about it, if Brown scored like 25 goals like the backers of this deal would have hoped, then what? He wants $5+ million on his next extension, so effectively are you willing to pay Brown 8+ million next year? (5 mill for the extension, 3.25 mill for the dead cap overage).

The only way this deal works for the Oilers is if he literally is the difference in the playoffs between winning a round or not winning a round and even then it probably has to be the round that gets you into a Conference Final or Cup Final.

It was a dumb risk to take done basically by a GM who gave no craps about next season because he knew he wasn't going to be here.

Now at game 9, they should have just moved him to like Chicago, the hockey gods even gave them several days to think of something because he got hurt right at game 9, lol. They were too stubborn at that point to give up a pick and admit they had made a mistake just 9 games in. They were never going to terminate the contract, but at least you could have moved it at that point and just said "you know what, this isn't working out and we'll honor your contract by moving you to another team so you can still get paid".

 

[Drivesaitl]

I said it before, even if he produces the deal is still bad in the long run.

Even if he came in here and was a contributor, then basically you've left a hole on the team next year you can't fill because he would leave and you can't afford to sign him because of a $3.25 million cap penalty.

Like think about it, if Brown scored like 25 goals like the backers of this deal would have hoped, then what? He wants $5+ million on his next extension, so effectively are you willing to pay Brown 8+ million next year? (5 mill for the extension, 3.25 mill for the dead cap overage).

The only way this deal works for the Oilers is if he literally is the difference in the playoffs between winning a round or not winning a round and even then it probably has to be the round that gets you into a Conference Final or Cup Final.

It was a dumb risk to take done basically by a GM who gave no craps about next season because he knew he wasn't going to be here.

Now at game 9, they should have just moved him to like Chicago, the hockey gods even gave them several days to think of something because he got hurt right at game 9, lol. They were too stubborn at that point to give up a pick and admit they had made a mistake just 9 games in. They were never going to terminate the contract, but at least you could have moved it at that point and just said "you know what, this isn't working out and we'll honor your contract by moving you to another team so you can still get paid".

You should have read the Lowetide piece I linked earlier for laughs. He literally says brown good for 25Goals, forecast 4.5-5M and that Brown was there to make a SC championship push. Lowetide was framing those as reasonable expectations because you know, Brown is so good and dominant. lol.

People wonder why I don't take any of my opinion on players from scribes. Lowetide is the typical sports beat writer. Just another one of us only that they are self important enough to think their opinion is worthy of a paid gig and earning a living on whatever falls out of their brain. Lowetides predictions were worse, even, then the worst tripe posted up here in the thread in first several pages. Its worth a laugh.

lol at Friedman and Seravelli continuing to be cited in thread as legit credible sources. Just stop. hahaha They both say whatever they feel like. A month ago Friedman is saying Nucks are Canadas team and Petersson is a superstar.

 

[AM]

This is hardly the same as simply sending down a player to save the cap hit something that happens all the time. At least if the point was to send him down so as not to pay the bonus. If you don't see that I am not sure what I can say to convince you. But if you do have an example anywhere close to this case I'd genuinely like to see it and will be happy to acknowledge it.

You may want to read why I quoted you. In the end, we are both expressing an opinion. Neither one of us can actually prove we are right in this case.

They obviously had an agreement and the oilers were good for their part. In the next three months we will see if brown follows through on his end. So for I can’t see a reason to doubt his effort.

 

[La Bamba]

I like how all that ‘good faith’ onus seems to be placed on the Oilers. When a player signs a deal in ‘good faith’ and then turns in the kind of performance we’ve seen from Brown what are the options available to the team? Usually nothing, as we see with the Campbell situation. Teams have to pay up regardless of how badly a player performs. Brown was in a different situation because for various reasons he was seen as a greater risk than your average free agent signing. Why even bother having this type of performance clause in NHL contracts if they are merely a formality? If there was really ‘good faith’ on the part of the player in this case he would have been more than willing to go down to the AHL, collect the salary due him this season with no deductions, and work his ass of to be worthy of a spot on the big roster and achieve the games played clause (and his bonus) at a later point in the season. By simply sending him down at the nine game mark I don’t see any way that the Oilers could be accused of abusing the spirit of the contract. Player wants his money. Team wants to get value for their precious cap dollars. Going to the AHL and getting his game up to expectations would have been a way for both parties to achieve satisfaction while observing the letter and the spirit of the deal.

Jeff Jackson already enabled a culture of mediocrity and entitlement

Decade of darkness 2.0 upcoming