Getty The Toronto Maple Leafs are linked to a reunion with Connor Brown.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are linked to a reunion with Edmonton Oilers forward Connor Brown in free agency, Jonas Siegel of The Athletic writes.
Brown completed a one-year $4 million deal with the Oilers, who lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the Florida Panthers in Game 7. With Brown set to be an unrestricted free agent, Siegel believes a reunion with the Maple Leafs makes sense.
“Edmonton will presumably try to bring Brown back next season. If, however, the Oilers can’t find the cap space to make that happen, the Leafs should inquire about a reunion. Brown had a challenging regular season. He finished with only four goals in 71 games. It was his first year back after missing most of the 2022-23 season with a torn ACL,” Siegel wrote in his article on June 25.
“There’s reason to think that year two after the injury will be smoother. His playoff performance has hinted at that possibility. He’s also unlikely to shoot 3.7 percent again. A season of 15-20 goals wouldn’t be the least bit surprising for Brown, especially if he found a role on one of the Leafs’ top two lines… The fact that Brown elevated his game in the postseason should obviously be attractive to the Leafs, too,” Siegel continued.
As Siegel writes, however, the expectation is that Brown will try and re-sign with the Oilers and build off the success he had in the playoffs.
Brown had his struggles during the regular season with the Oilers as he recorded just 4 goals and 8 assists for 12 points in 71 games. However, in the playoffs, Brown had 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points in 19 games.
Brown’s Time With the Maple Leafs
Brown was drafted by the Maple Leafs with the 156th overall pick in the 2012 NHL draft. After being selected he returned to the OHL’s Erie Otters where he was named team captain.
The forward then played parts of two seasons with the AHL Toronto Marlies before making his NHL debut on March 17, 2016, and became a full-time player in the NHL during the 2016-17 season. Brown played three straight seasons playing 82 games, but on July 1, 2019, the forward was traded to the Ottawa Senators.
In total, Brown skated in 253 regular season games with the Maple Leafs from 2016 until 2019 recording 43 goals and 56 assists for 99 points.
Following three years with the Senators, he signed a one-year deal with the Washington Capitals but tore his ACL just four games into the season. He then signed with the Oilers this off-season and helped the team reach the Stanley Cup Final.
Maple Leafs Have Key Free Agents
NHL free agency is set to begin on July 1 and the Maple Leafs have some key pending unrestricted free agents.
Toronto enters the offseason with just over $18.8 million in cap space, according to CapFriendly. However, the Maple Leafs have just 10 forwards, five defensemen, and one goalie under contract.
Toronto enters the offseason with two UFA forwards in Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi, four UFA defensemen in Joel Edmundson, T.J. Brodie, Mark Giordano, and Ilya Lyubshukin, along with two UFA goalies in Ilya Samsonov and Martin Jones.