Connor Brown was brought in by the Capitals last offseason as a way to bolster the team’s top-nine forward group and help replace the loss in production they faced with Tom Wilson recovering from ACL surgery. Brown lasted just four games before he suffered his own ACL injury that ended his season.
The 29-year-old forward is now set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan revealed to Mike Vogel on Monday that Brown and his representatives plan to test the open market.
“We talked to Connor’s representatives last week,” MacLellan said. “We’ve been in communication with them all along. I think he’d like to see what’s out there in free agency.”
After the trade that saw him arrive in DC, it was clear early on that Brown was primed for a big role with the Caps. He played all four of his regular season games on the first line with Alex Ovechkin and saw time on both the team’s first penalty-kill unit and its second power-play unit.
MacLellan admits that he thinks Brown could still be a great piece for the Caps post-ACL rehab but the shallow free agency player pool could make a return a non-option. Washington is projected to have just over $7 million in cap space with 17 players on the NHL roster currently under contract.
“I thought it was a great fit last year,” MacLellan said. “Would probably be a good fit moving forward. We like the person, we like the style of play he does. We’ll see what happens for him in free agency. This is the first time he’s gonna be able to go to free agency so I think he wants to talk to teams and see where he’s at with that. We’ll remain in communication with him and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Brown was a recent guest on former NHLer Luke Gazdic’s Mitts Off podcast and talked about one team that could be a potential suitor for him this summer. That team is the Edmonton Oilers who are led by Brown’s junior teammate, Connor McDavid.
“Of course, it would be awesome to play with McDavid,” Brown said. “He’s going to win a Cup eventually, and as a player that’s what I want to do. I want to win – winning is a big priority in where you’re going to land.”
While Edmonton seems like the early favorites to land Brown, he won’t be short on interest. Hockey insider Elliotte Friedman discussed that on the 32 Thoughts podcast. “I think there is a lot of teams out there curious about what Connor Brown is thinking and where he’s going, and whether or not he’s guaranteed to go to Edmonton.”
One factor that might come into play is that McDavid and Brown are both represented by the same agent, Jeff Jackson.
Even without set plans for next season, Brown remained optimistic for his post-injury future at Breakdown Day in April.
“It’s been an opportunity to get better and to reevaluate a lot of the things that I did,” he said of the injury. “Reevaluating my diet, making sure that’s as good as it possibly can be, reevaluating the way that I train and making sure that’s as efficient as it can be.
“I’m 29 years old, so I feel like I’m entering the second half of my career and it’s important to take care of all those things. I feel like I have a really good base and a really good camp in my corner to kind of help me moving forward. So, I’m looking forward to it.”
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
