Former Oilers winger Connor Brown signs four-year deal with New Jersey Devils

Brown, 31, joined the Oilers ahead of the 2023-24 season on a one-year, $775,000 deal that carried a $3.225-million signing bonus, making a return to the NHL after suffering a torn ACL the year prior. He struggled to get his legs underneath him, scoring just five assists in his first 54 games of the year. He finally got on the board with his first goal of the year in Game 56 and turned a corner. He would score four goals and seven points in the final 17 games of the regular season, going on to add another two goals and six points in 19 playoff games.

Entering this season, Brown was clearly healthy and put together a strong season, scoring 13 goals and 30 points in 82 games, adding five goals and nine points in 20 playoff games. Brown contributed at the rate of a third-to-fourth line tweener, according to HockeyViz, driving offence at a one percent rate above league average, defence at a league average rate, and penalty kill play at a five percent rate above league average.

Salary cap prognosticators Evolving Hockey projected Brown to sign a three-year deal carrying a $2.165-million cap hit if he remained in Edmonton, while AFP Analytics projected him to sign a three-year deal carrying a $2.920-million cap hit.

With the Oilers tight to the salary cap — even after trading Viktor Arvidsson to the Bruins earlier Tuesday — the team didn’t have the ability to meet the contract Brown has signed. Now, the team will look to pivot and see what is out there in the free agent market to help fill out their bottom-six.