The Godfather offer: Why Connor Brown chose the Edmonton Oilers
EDMONTON — Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Ristorante Sotto Sotto one night last summer in downtown Toronto as Connor McDavid made his sales pitch to in-demand free agent and his former junior teammate Connor Brown to join the Edmonton Oilers.
Brown confirmed there wasn’t much salesmanship required, more like a Godfather moment with the don of the hockey world making offer he couldn’t refuse.
“He laid out his plans and how he saw me,” Brown said. “It was right then and there, became pretty clear to me where my future lays.”
For Brown, it was fitting in some ways that his future was decided over a plate of pasta, since food was just about the only thing Brown had control over last season. Four games into his tenure with the Washington Capitals last October, Brown blew out his ACL when his leg twisted under him during an awkward spill into the boards after a mostly routine hit from Vancouver Canucks defenseman Noah Juulsen.
Brown, then 28, underwent surgical repair on Nov. 1 – leaving a player who didn’t miss a single game in his first five full NHL seasons with suddenly a lot of time on his hands.
“To say it wasn’t tough, I’d be lying,” Brown said. “You’re living in a new city, a city you don’t know anything about. Virginia and Washington D.C. are a long way from home for me in terms of what the culture is like. It was a difficult year.”
Unable to play and on the shelf for the remainder of the season, in a contract year no less, Brown needed to fill his days outside of rehab every morning at the Capitals’ suburban Virginia practice facility. His challenge: If I can’t improve on the ice, what is one small way to improve off it? His answer: Diet and nutrition.
“I would watch hockey, crush some Netflix series, take the dog on a ton of walks, and then I meal prepped,” Brown said. “I reinvented my diet, reinvented my training and watched a lot of hockey. I was definitely a solid eater before, but you have a lot of down time. Me and my wife (Madison) were cooking every night, getting inventive with meals. That was kind of our life in Virginia.”
He probably won’t be appearing on an upcoming episode of Top Chef, but he did have a go-to. “A lot of meat and vegetables,” Brown said, laughing.
Brown praised the Capitals’ coaching and training staff for trying to make him feel part of the team. He spent a lot of time with recently retired forward Carl Hagelin, John Carlson and Tom Wilson as they also rehabbed their injuries. But it was entirely new territory for Brown, a year in which you’re paid like an NHL player, but don’t really feel like one.
“There was some dark days,” Brown said. “It’s a mental grind to go through something like that. I knew I was going to do everything I could to get myself back. When I accepted that, it was just a matter of time. But you can’t fight the clock. These things take time.”
And Brown used that time to his advantage, spending more time with Madison as they prepared to welcome their first child, son Nolan, to the world in August.
“The whole family side of it was great,” Brown said. “It was nice to be there for her and be there for the birth of my son. I had a great support system. It was a big piece of adversity in my career. It was definitely a learning curve and I feel like I’m better for it.”
Through all of it, Brown wasn’t quite sure what the future would hold as a free agent. Would teams be lining up? Or would he have to wait and grind for a new deal in a flat-cap world? It was the former, with upwards of 12 to 16 teams expressing interest in his services to agent Jeff Jackson, who since became the Oilers’ CEO of hockey operations. Since Brown missed more than 100 days of the season due to injury, he had a unique contract structure available to him in which he could sign with minimal cap hit and reachable incentives that could apply to the following season’s cap. It’s a structure that is typically only available to NHL players 35 or older.
That type of deal perfectly suited the Oilers, who were tight to this season’s cap and are expecting a league-wide bump in 2024-25. Brown signed a one-year deal in Edmonton on July 1 for the league minimum $775,000 with a $3.25 million payment coming his way once he reaches 10 games played this season.
No surprise, he’s played the preseason on McDavid’s right flank, hoping to recreate the magic they had together as Erie Otters from 2012-14. It was Brown, not the much younger McDavid, who paced the Otters in scoring those two seasons.
In Erie, the deadly duo of McDavid and Brown alone weren’t enough oomph for the Otters to make the playoffs. That doesn’t figure to be a problem in Edmonton this season, where expectations are sky-high for both the Oilers and Brown. Eleven months ago, Brown’s hockey world was thrown upside down. It’s all seemingly come together now with Brown now maybe exactly where he is supposed to be.
“When I exited Ottawa, I wanted to play for a contender. I’m a competitor, that’s something Connor sees in me,” Brown said. “Last season was a learning curve, for sure, and I feel like I’m better for it. I’m happy where it all led me to. I think I’m in the perfect spot.”
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